what to do when video stops working?

[William Park]

On Mon, Mar 08, 2010 at 03:44:29PM -0500, matt.price-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org wrote:
> my aging laptop has stopped producing a video signal; even on POST,  
> the screen remains blank, and an external monitor plugged into the VGA  
> port also gives nothing -- though the monitor power light glows green,  
> suggesting the monitor sees that it's connected to something.
> 
> as far as i can tell this problem started when i had the laptop up &  
> running unattended; the screen was blank, the fan was running like a  
> jet engine, and i ssh'ed in to shutdown remotely.  the shutdown failed  
> but sshd was stopped, and i did a hard reset; now when i turn it on,  
> it seems like GRUB is probably loading, but that boot is maybe  
> interrupted by a filesystem error or something, because the network  
> never comes up.
> 
> anyway i'm wondering if there's a way to get data out of the machine  
> to help with diagnosing the problem, even in the absence of a video  
> cable.  I've heard you can do this with a "serial console" -- can  
> anyone tell me more?  there's a serial port on the back of the  
> machine, but i've never used it & don't really know how to begin with  
> it.
> 
> appreciate any help y'all can give!  best,
> matt

If it doesn't post, then "serial" is of no use.  Remove the harddisk,
and use SATA-to-USB connector.

-- 
William

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