Kodi Community Forum

I just did an install of XBMC on an old laptop with a broken lcd screen (Backlight is dead, but one can sorta see the screen by angling a flashlight just so.)

The screen will display on my TV via VGA during the startup, and "XBMC media center ......" screen, but when fully loaded the output turns off.
I've tried the function-f8-f9 which used to control the vga output when it was a windows machine to no avail.
Any thoughts?

I have heard some laptop bios having a setting to disable the laptop screen in there. It might be worth taking a look there.

If not, what is the model of the laptop and video card it has in it?

I took a look through the bios and couldn't find any settings or options related to the video card/output.

Its an asus v6j with an nvidia geforce go 7400

Sounds like it could be an out of res thing for the tv

ssh in and xrandr -s <x_res>*<y_res> to something safe like 800x600 just to test

Just a suggestion, I use the script at the following link for selecting either LCD Panel or External Output. This might help.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=797650&postcount=5

I've got a similar setup. Laptop with the LCD panel not working (Figure it's the backlight inverter, but wanted to use for XBMC Live).

Hope this if of help.