Broken laptop screen boot straight to external monitor windows 7

I have this thing about collecting damaged items. I need to get better about not doing it because I usually just end up with a load of junk that I’ll always just have good intentions for, but never the time to do anything with it.

Click here to just skip all this and go straight to the solution

This time my habit is paying off for a friend. I picked up a nice Toshiba laptop that had been stepped on by a family’s giant St. Bernard and crushed the LCD screen. Reason #321 to not have a dog. The laptop works fine if you plug in an external monitor and basically use the laptop as a desktop machine.

A friend of mine’s computer went out and now they need a replacement, but just don’t have the money to buy a replacement at this point. They have the monitor, keyboard and mouse from their desktop computer that they can plug into this laptop and have everything they need.

So, I’ve been doing a clean install and update of everything for them, but ran into issues on some reboots where the laptop just would not boot-up and push the default display to the external monitor so I could see what was going on.

The Solution

I finally found the solution online at this website.

With the external monitor connected, boot into safe mode, then disable the display adapter [in device manager]. Reboot [with the external monitor STILL connected], and allow Windows to boot normally. Hopefully, you should now have a display on the external monitor.

You see the other tips just had you use the default function keys to cycle through the display options and push the display to the external monitor. Since I was in the middle of loading drivers and other OS updates, the function keys or other methods of using the keyboard to change the settings blindly were of no use.

The solution above worked like a charm and now I’m back in and downloading the second round of over 100+ updates to the operating system.

Wish me luck.

A broken laptop screen can be a nightmare unless you’ve got an external monitor that you can connect to keep going on with your work and entertainment. Now, while most of the newer laptop models detect an external display automatically when you connect it via the HDMI or VGA cable, if you’re running an older machine, chances are that the external monitor wasn’t detected.

While it’s pretty easy to detect an external monitor manually via Windows settings, you’ll need your laptop’s screen to work for that; which isn’t in this case. Don’t you worry, as we’ve got an easy and quick fix to your issue here.

Now, this might be stating the obvious for most of you, but for the uninitiated, this method will only work if everything else [mostly] on your laptop is working fine, sans the screen.

Also read: How to unlock your Android smartphone with a broken screen?

Firstly, go ahead and connect the external monitor to your laptop using either a VGA, HDMI or DVI cable — whichever port is supported by your laptop and monitor.

As mentioned above, generally newer models running Windows 10 detect the external monitor as soon as your plug it in, but if that’s not happening, you’ll need to make use of your keyboard to get things going for you.

Depending on the make and model of your laptop, you’ll need to press the FN [Function] key alongwith one of these: F2, F3, F4, F5, F7, F8, F9 or F10.

To give you an example, you can press FN+F4 on HP laptops to detect and switch to an external monitor even when your laptop’s screen is broken. In the same manner, you can use FN+F2 on MSI, FN+F8 on Asus and Dell, and FN+F5 on Acer machines.

In most of the cases, you’ll find a screen or a laptop icon on the function key from F2 through F10, which is dedicated to toggling external display on your laptop.

You can choose to extend the display, duplicate them or simply make the external monitor your primary display until you get your laptop’s screen fixed.

While one of the function keys mentioned above should work in most of the cases, if it doesn’t, you should consider checking the laptop manufacturer’s website for a user manual or support related to the keyboard layout of your laptop.

Also read: How to fix the HDMI port on PS4?

If you’ve followed the guide mentioned above correctly but still aren’t able to project your laptop’s broken screen to an external monitor, chances are that either your HDMI/VGA cable is faulty or the HDMI/VGA port on your laptop has malfunctioned.

You can try reseating the cable in the port until it’s flush in the port’s case; sometimes a loose connection makes all the fuss.

You can also check for damage to the connector pins on your VGA or HDMI cable because if they’re bent, you might want to get a replacement.

If your laptop’s HDMI or VGA port have malfunctioned too, then your last resort to get your laptop repaired immediately just became your go-to plan.

Also read: How much data do you need to stream movies and TV shows?

Yatharth believes social media is the coolest thing to have happened to humankind — connecting across borders. He writes about Apple, gaming and social platforms and also indulges in offbeat tech stuff from time to time.

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