Mass Media & Technology

Linking up a black screen of death to TV

(October 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
BR
Brekkie
If anyone can offer advice it would be appreciated. Would rather ask people I trust here before asking elsewhere.

I've a Packard Bell All in One from about 8-10 years ago whose screen gave out last week, but the PC part still works. This happened earlier in the year as a one off solved with a reboot so I have backed up most things, and have an adaptor for the hard drive once I take it apart.

I've tried most common suggestions to see if the screen can be revived and whether it's a driver issue or backlight issue with no success, but before I take the hard drive out I do want to see if I can link it to my TV to view the screen that way and sort out what I want to retrieve. There is no VGA output or HDMI though so I tried to get a USB to HDMI adaptor to try that but ended up with a USB 3.0 adaptor rather than the classic USB so need to look again. Just wondering if it is even worth pursuing that or if I'm better off just biting the bullet and going ahead and trying to retrieve the hard drive and get the remaining files that way.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
USB 3 devices work in USB 2 ports, they are backwards compatible.

If this unit doesn't have VGA or HDMI, it may have DVI (the white connector, three rows of 8 and usually a single long one on its own on the same line as the middle row. However this may also be a single longer connection with four other connectors round it. in a square). You can obtain adaptors for these to convert them to HDMI or VGA.

The various DVI connector types are here:
https://www.the-home-cinema-guide.com/images/dvi-connection-types.png
BA
bilky asko
The USB to HDMI adaptors will apparently run in 800 x 600 if used via a USB 2.0 port, though I believe it requires a driver to be installed to work.
BR
Brekkie
Thanks. Will look again later.
NG
noggin Founding member
Yes - USB 2.0 has such a low bandwidth that low resolutions and/or image compression will be required to get PC video output via a USB 2.0 bus. They will be using DisplayLink or similar protocols which will require a display driver to be installed in many cases (though it's conceivable that Windows Update may install one automatically). Doing this headless could be tricky.

For info - USB 2.0 has a max bandwidth of ~400Mbs, 1366x768 at 60Hz would require ~1500Mbs (i.e. 1.5Gbs) if it were uncompressed and only carried active video. DisplayLink uses some compression.
IN
Interceptor
USB 3 devices work in USB 2 ports, they are backwards compatible.

If this unit doesn't have VGA or HDMI, it may have DVI (the white connector, three rows of 8 and usually a single long one on its own on the same line as the middle row. However this may also be a single longer connection with four other connectors round it. in a square). You can obtain adaptors for these to convert them to HDMI or VGA.

The various DVI connector types are here:
https://www.the-home-cinema-guide.com/images/dvi-connection-types.png

Could also be DisplayPort.

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