Help fix this notebook! Plz!

[JHawkFanMan]

I just bought a broken Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop from my friend for $100. He told me he didn't want it because he didn't want the hassle of trying to fix it. He promptly bought a Dell desktop and that was the end of that I guess. Anyway, I figured I could see this thing on ebay for x2,3,4 what it is worth if I can't fix it.. which is why I'm here. Either way I come out way ahead I'd guess. Anyway.. I guess the computer store he brought it to said that it was a broken motherboard. I'm not sure.. but all I can say is that it is totally screwed up. They formatted the HD to see if they could fix it so I can't show you what it looks like in WinXP but take my word for it.. it's quite messed up. Anyway.. here are some pics;

http://img190.exs.cx/img190/5421/lap8ir.jpg
http://img190.exs.cx/img190/2858/lap24eo.jpg

The top pic is a lot worse in real life.. I unfortunately can't hold a camera still apparently. Also, sorry for the swearing if anyone takes offense. I didn't want to have to re-edit it.. because I already posted on another forum before this one. Anyway.. anyone have any ideas?

Cliffs:
Got this laptop for $100
It is quite messed up.
Any idea why?

 

[meltdown75]

Hey welcome to the forums!

Hmm... What do those error messages say? Can't quite read them. You say they formatted the HD... do you think they ran any scans or diagnostics on the drive or just formatted it? I'd try to run chkdsk from DOS to see if any errors were found - try to rule out the possibility of a bad HD. I have definitely worked on more desktops than lappys, but just trying to get some discussion going.

 

[Doomer]

It's a video problem. Looks like the connector from the MB to the LCD is fubar. Very difficult, if not impossible, to fix.

 

[montag451]

i go with the video problem. depending on the problem =- may be lucky

if you take out the screws holding the screen part of the laptop to loosen the position it is in,
wiggle the screen around to see if you get a picture that changess.

see if you can get a position that will give a good picture [doubtful, but, what the hell?]
I think it would be a vga problem though.
good luck
let us know what happens

 

[JHawkFanMan]

My one concern that I realized last night.. if it was an LCD or a video card problem.. those letters wouldn't appear in the second pic, right? I mean a LCD or video card problem wouldn't make a bunch of letters all across the screen would it? If you hit the keyboard while those letters are there it shifts them around.. kind of like the matrix when the letters are falling. I haven't been able to take it apart yet as I don't have a small enough screwdriver =\ But I'm going to take it apart later today.

 

[montag451]

i thought it might be the vid prob, cos the screen was blurred.
but then looking at it again, the whole picture is...... silly me.

check the ram, if there are two sticks, try them one at a time

 

[boshuter]

Try clearing the cmos then booting to dos with a boot floppy. You might even try unhooking the hdd when you do this. Then let us know what happens.