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Help me get access to my broken laptop!

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by TX297, 10 Jul 2008.

  1. TX297

    TX297 Hey guys have you heard of seenly?

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    I have an older Toshiba laptop with a broken screen. It has an onboard intel video card and ultravnc installed. I have an external notebook drive enclosure to gain direct access to the hard drive. I would like to run this machine as a webserver or something sitting in the corner and thus need access to windows.

    For some reason, using the fn+f5 hotkey to switch displays doesn't work. The external display will come on during bootup and show the windows loading screen, but the second it hits the desktop the screen goes into power saving mode. Scenario 1 (most likely): I find a way to switch the display running blind using keystrokes, the run menu, or something different. If there is a way to edit the registry while accessing the hard drive entirely (if this setting is in there), or if there is a config file somewhere that tells the video card which display to use, I would like to find out what to edit in order to get it to display to the other screen.

    Before the display went out, I installed UltraVNC but installed the service without setting a password. Thus I get the "no password is set. Can't connect" error and before I couldn't be bothered troubleshooting. Scenario two is being able to set a password by accessing the drive correctly in order to get ultravnc to work properly. I found a few promising posts that seemed to be able to do this from the registry (here), but it also required running some batch files, which I am obviously unable to do right now.

    If anyone has run into similar problems or knows the workings of the intel card and how to configure it from outside the windows environment, I'd love to know. If there are any other suggestions, I'm all-ears.
     
    Last edited: 10 Jul 2008
  2. RickDawson

    RickDawson Minimodder

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    cant you do a new install of XP?

    It would then probably get it working using generic drivers, or use a proper one if it has it.

    Have you tried XP safe mode?
     
  3. TX297

    TX297 Hey guys have you heard of seenly?

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    I have backed up the data, but it's not XP that's the issue. If I had a working screen on the machine I could just re-install the intel drivers and get the hotkey working again, but the point is that the screen is broken and I have no access to the desktop environment.

    Sorry, I should have clarified, but the actual LCD is busted. I can source a new one from ebay for around $170 shipped but I don't have that kind of cash right now.
     
  4. RickDawson

    RickDawson Minimodder

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    you may be able to run the windows installer on the external monitor, which is what I was getting at.
    You say you can get the splash screen...
     
  5. Nuffenburger

    Nuffenburger The Burgerman Can

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    does it have tv detection? or is that the same mumbo jumbo as plugging a normal computer monitor in seeings as its intel graphics?.
     
  6. lcdguy

    lcdguy Minimodder

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    hmmm, i know with realvnc you can set a password through a registry key. You could try connecting using remote registry and updating the key. Though not sure if that will work or not.
     
  7. Vap0K177@r-22.C

    Vap0K177@r-22.C What's a Dremel?

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    you should be able to get it to work with the external monitor so you can set it up by hitting f8 on boot up and selecting vga mode as i'd say the only reason your external monitor goes off when windows loads up is it does not like the resolution the lappy is trying to use
     
  8. TX297

    TX297 Hey guys have you heard of seenly?

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    Thanks for all the replies! I'm going to try getting into the BIOS first to see if I can force it to use the external monitor. If not, then I'll throw in the XP CD and see what happens. I still need to get some data off there though (just firefox bookmarks and stuff). There's no TV detection; it's just the intel mumbo jumbo.

    Unfortunately it's an XP Home machine so remote registry is out. Also this is going to have to go on hold for another 2 weeks since I'm going on holiday (to England, no less). A new screen would be $170 or thereabouts from ebay, and I don't mind if it's a used/refurb'd unit or if it has dead pixels. I may even stuff a touchscreen kit in there when I have it apart (it was originally going to be a photo frame / x10 control / alarm clock anyway before I decided to drop the thing). I don't have the funds right now though...
     
  9. Matticus

    Matticus ...

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    can you not use the external enclosure to boot from the laptop disk on another machine, set up everything you need to in VNC, and then just pop it back in the laptop and away you go?
     

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