HP Laptop G56 screen going (very) dark

[jjanderson52]

I have not started the laptop in question for a while, maybe 6 months to a year, but it had been working previously. I tried to started the laptop (an HP G56) today. At first, I hitting the power button, the system would begin, the screen would flash and then the system would go dead.

After several tries, a message would come up where I had to push "Enter" to continue, then "Escape". I did this a number of times and the screen would flash off. After a number of tries, I finally got a screen which gave a number of options. The first was "F1", which I think was "System Information", "F2" for System Diagnostics, and other choices which I could not read because the screen went dark too quickly. After a number of tries, I was able to press "F2". The screen then went dark.

BUT ...

the next screen did come up, but was VERY dark, barely visible. But, I could see that something came up. My guess is that the new screen was in the order of 1% of the normal screen lightness. In other words, I could barely see there was a new screen that came up, but it was totally unreadable and barely visible to the naked eye.

The bottom line is that I think the laptop is work, but apparently there is a problem with the laptop screen.

My next step was to hook up an external monitor, but this did not help. Nothing came up on the external screen during several attempts.

I also tried hitting "F-11", System Recovery, but the system went dark after these attempts also.

I am tempted to toss the laptop, but I thought I seek advise here first to see if anyone has seen a similar problem. The laptop screen, appears to be defective, but I don't think this is really the case. My best guess is that the system is going into an energy saving state and reducing the screen intensity.

Before putting the laptop in the trash heap, I figured I would seek suggestions/comments on what, if anything, can be done to get this laptop working. All comments are welcome!

Jim A.