My laptop power light is on but the screen is completely black. I can hear the fan running. What happened?
A powered laptop with a black screen usually means either the display connection is loose, the GPU has failed, or Windows is not loading properly. First, try an external display: connect an HDMI cable from your laptop to a TV or monitor. If you see your desktop on the external display, the issue is your laptop screen or the cable connecting it to the motherboard. Next, try a hard reset: shut down completely (hold power 10 seconds), unplug the charger, remove the battery if removable, then hold the power button for 30 seconds to drain residual power. Reconnect power and try again. Also try brightness keys — it sounds obvious but sometimes the brightness gets set to zero, especially after updates. Press Fn+F5 or Fn+F6 (varies by brand) to increase brightness. If none of that works and you only see a black screen with a blinking cursor, Windows boot files may be corrupted. Boot from a Windows USB recovery drive and select Startup Repair. If you do not have a recovery drive, you can create one on another computer using Microsoft's Media Creation Tool for free.
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