laptop display blacks out

[jgargac]

Hi everyone,

I've been fighting with this off and on for a couple of days. A friend dropped off her laptop with me and said that it was having problems. So I booted it up and everything seems okay, except that it is very slow. Anyway, while working on the laptop the display blacks out. I booted to a command prompt and the same thing happens after a period of time. I finally found a tip to press fn + f5 and it brings the display back. This is the key combination to switch to an external monitor or projector. However, the laptop keeps switching back spontaneously every couple of minutes. Any clue as to what to check next?

Acer TravelMate 507DX
Win98
I can't get any more specs as the BIOS is password protected.

Thanks for all the help,

Jeff

[jgargac]

Nevermind.. I think that I may have found the keystroke to remedy the problem. I hit fn f6 which turned off the backlight and then cycled the power and it appears to be working okay now. Sorry about that.

Jeff

[jgargac]

I spoke too soon.. Right as I clicked submit, the screen went blank. Any clues? Thanks,

Jeff