[clug] Ubuntu 8.1 on Toshiba Tecra black screen problem

[Hal Ashburner]

doris ann wrote:
> Hi. I'm new to this list.
> Can anyone offer some suggestions on this problem with my laptop, please?
>
> Problem summary:
> no backlight on laptop, black screen, no response to live cd, no 
> change to new inverter, it is running an external monitor ok
<snip details>
>
>
> Any thoughts about what the problem might be and how to fix it?
>

This happened to me on FC10 with an IBM T42 equipped with an ATI Radeon 
7500 mobility video card just recently.
I thought maybe the backlight was fritzed but it seems fine again now. 
It did this accross reboots and the bios screen was also unlight. I 
unjammed it with IBM magic firmware keys to turn the backlight off then 
on. I don't know if you can do the same with your laptop.
I don't know what caused it, I don't think I was doing anything too 
funky with it before the reboot.
You would expect the intel graphics drivers you have to be pretty well 
supported given Kieth Packard is amongst the authors....
I'm not sure if that's any help or not.
Best of luck.
Hal