For all I know, it was a miracle, brought about by the power of internet community. I could barely sleep last night, and at 6 AM I popped out of bed to check and see if anyone had sent suggestions. And you had! I took krasota‘s suggestion and hooked up an external monitor and powered the laptop on. Well, somehow I not only got a display on the external monitor but also a display on the laptop screen. It appears to have healed itself overnight!
Of course, I quickly backed up everything I’d been lazy about backing up recently just in case it was all a fluke, but everything still appears to be working normally.
And now that I’ve gone through the trouble of disconnecting the monitor from my Dell desktop, I have a second monitor to use with my laptop when I’m at my desk (until I need to use my Dell for something, which is increasingly rare anymore). Bonus!
Thanks to everyone who commented with suggestions and sympathy. Your support healed my laptop!
Yay!
There might be a loose cable connection at play. Or a ribbon cable being pinchy.
I sacrificed a pumpkin on your behalf. My voodoo worked.
Yay! That’s excellent news.
-J
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
Glad it’s working now.
I’m glad to hear everything is working right now. Dropping my laptop is my nightmare scenario. So far I have managed only to snag the cord and pull it off the coffee table. Twice. In one week. But the coffee table is at least close to the ground!