Hello, I'm having pretty much the same problem. The laptop is a e machine and windows went insane so my friend gave it to me to give it a look over, the start up would go to the windows loading screen then flip back and restart as if you were turning it on and off. So I formatted and installed Ubuntu I thought the computer was crashing because I could go into bios and change the boot settings to usb blah blah then all the stuff that happens when u power up, motherboard manufacturer logo, ram numbers then it goes to the loading screen and completely goes black. So I started watching some twilight zone eps and left the laptop on the couch thinking it was just fried. But I glanced over and could see a window. At first I thought it was a image that was burned from it being on to long at some point. So I got a crazy powerful led flash light and could see everything was normal. I finished the Linux installation and messed with some screen settings. But the back light is only off when in the OS. In bios or any os install screens its on. Happened both with android netbook, puppy linux, and Ubuntu. Really bizarre. I am 70% sure its not hardware related but is really giving my brain an itch.

Moved this to its own thread, theres similarities but its not the same problem by sound of it,

if you can get at the bios battery or jumpers try reseting the bios, or try loading default settings, if it was backlight it would be a problem all the time not just in windows, what was the original operating system?

windows 7 was the original he only had it for a little over a year but he is not careful with his belongings. ive installed puppy Linux and Ubuntu, can see everything until os loading screen. finally stuck with Ubuntu and got it connected to the net and getting drivers and updating ect. it runs great just sucks i need a flashlight. the bios is very limited only gives be time and booting options. the other interesting thing is if i hold down the power button to unsafely turn off the computer it will cause the screen to flash like it is normally lighted for only a split second as it powers off. idk. Ive only reset bios on desktop motherboards. have stayed away from laptops cuz the intimidate me.

well its time to get over your fears, if you cant find an option in bios to load safe or default settings your going to have to look inside, theres no reason baclight should be off if it works when in bios, and its not drivers because it will load with default video drivers that will work fine, its not the os because you replaced that, so it has to be the bios itself corrupted or altered

whats the make/model and i will try and find a video to help

e machine E527-2537. windows 7, 900 Intel celeron, 15.6" HD LCD screen, 160gig HDD, 6-cell li-ion batt. CAME WITH 2 GIGS RAM. But owner took out to put in his other computer. Now it only caries 1gig. Thats the only thing that was done outside of my control. Except some friend of his took out the HDD and ran some weird diagnostic on it. And deduced it was a unfixable drive. It was given to me with the drive in a ziplock bag. I put everything where it belongs and it works fine. The only hardware difference is the 1gig change in ram, and the only issue is the screen I can surf the web, update, listen to music, on it and everything. Now to the bios. InsydeH20 Setup Utility Rev. 3.5 System Bios version: V1.02 VGA BIOS Version: Intel V1800. Whats your opinion on flashing the bios to a more updated version? And also coreboot, witch I don't think supports this board. I have flashed several desktop bios but assume its no different on a laptop? I just know one wrong move messing with it and im screwed lol.

BTW thank you a lot for listening. This is all very helpful!

I would hold off flashing the bios especially when your having problems with it, if it messes up during a flash of the bios you could end up with a fancy paperweight, if hard drive is suspect download hirens or ubcd and and test the hard drive

what are the main option tabs in the bios theres normally an option to reset it

I didn't know hard drive issues could manifest a problem in screen lighting. So my best course of action is bios reset with the battery?

i would think a messed up bios is favourite but theres a chance its been cauded by the os getting messed up due to hdd starting to fail, running hirens or ubcd or possibly chkdsk if it will run wont take long but its still going to need bios resetting or as a final option flashing the bios but i would make sure the hdd is sound before flashing the bios, and go for the newer bios version not the newest if you can, just incase its a bad bios version (it does happen)

Thanks again for the help! Ill do as you suggested, and research some more and report back!