laptop monitor

[Modelguyicmt]

My semi-old laptop (about 5yrs.) has a serious ailment. The monitor- it hasn't crashed but it is really really dark. I took it into a room with no windows and it emitted no visible light whatsoever. interestingly, when I took it outside- the direct sunlight allowed me to see well enough to read icons and see the mouse, ect, but it was still very dark. It hasn't had any problems at all even though I bought it second hand. It is a Dell and has XP home. I tried to fix and it by holding it up to a flourescent light I could see enough to adjust the various monitor settings, tried to troubleshoot, but everytime I change the resolution or colour settings it goes back to normal for a few seconds as it resets. I'm using my parent's desktop right now. Please help! I grew up with computers, I used to know some command prompt even, but I've never had anything like this happen before. If all else fails I'll just pick up a cheap CTR and plug it in the back, but I'd rather have it back to normal.

[Rork]

I'd guess that the backlight has gone - the display itself sounds fine but the light that allows you to see it has stopped working. Changing the software settings will have no effect at all on a failed component.

This will be a hardware fault, so unless you can get Dell (or a repair business) to fix it for you - which could be very expensive - a new laptop may be in order.

[Modelguyicmt]

I don't think so, because when it boots up, for about a half second it is fine, and when I reset the visual properties such as resolution it goes back to normal for a half second.