Can a Damaged USB cord kill the monitor on a laptop?

Q: My Mother-in-laws dog chewed on her USB mouse & cable. Now the screen on the laptop is just black. The computer is still getting power, and can shut down and boot up, but nothing comes on the screen. No logo, no bios booting message, nothing. Anybody have a clue on what to try next? I figure that the dog shorted out the USB cable, which could damage the motherboard. But I don't understand how that could kill the monitor, although I am not supprised that it did. If it is a trash motherboard on a laptop, is there any way to replace it, like you can in a desktop? Or is the laptop just trash now? Thanks, Drew

A: I highly doubt that shorting out a USB cord could kill a monitor on a laptop. All of the laptop monitor deaths I've witnessed in my lifetime have been due to dropping or high impacts from foreign objects striking it. You can plug the laptop into a monitor and see if you can see anything. If not then you are probably correct that the motherboard is shot. Otherwise you can buy replacement LCD screens. However, today it is a lot easier to buy a new laptop instead of repair laptops. You can buy a 2.5 inch external Hard Drive enclosure so you can use your old laptop drive as an external USB drive if you have any data that needed to be saved.

Related items