Quote: Dolly Dagger @ September 6 2009, 9:07 PM BSTCan you claim on your home content's insurance? It sounds like she dropped it to me and is trying the old "I don't know how it happened but...."
Sounds like that to me as well. 
Bloody Daughter's Computer Page 3
It might be once I've finished with it!
As an IT bloke, my money's on a dead screen. Probably the backlight. Try connecting a desktop computer display to the laptop and see if you can get a picture. (You might have to try a keyboard combination to activate the second display.)
If you get a picture and it looks okay, check to see how many displays the laptop can 'see'. (Windows has a Control Panel called "Display" which you can use to check this.) If it's only seeing one display, and it's the one you've just plugged in, the problem might just be a loose connection between the motherboard and the LCD panel and should be trivial to repair.
If, on the other hand, the computer sees both displays and thinks they're both fine, your panel most likely needs replacing. The LCD is unlikely to have an LED backlight given its age, so the fact that *all* the lights have failed—there are usually multiple CF tubes in these older displays—suggests Dolly Dagger's suspicion may be accurate. HP have a pretty good rep for build quality. Acer and Dell also do quite well in surveys if you really don't want to go with HP again. (Customer support is another matter; Dell's consumer support has a poor reputation.)
An 18-month-old £600 laptop will be on a par with a £300-400 laptop today, so replacement makes sense in this case. A new LCD display would cost about the same money, so you're not losing out there.
I think Dolly Dagger and Marc P have the right of it: tell your daughter you're happy to pay, say, £350 or so for a new, basic, laptop, but if she wants a fancier, more expensive model, she'll have to put in the difference herself. Either way, she gets a laptop.
(I use Apple gear these days, but your posts suggest they're outside your budget.)
What they all said. And shop around for computer repairs in future. Ask places if they'll do obligation-free quotes on how much to fix things - and if no one can repair it for under £200, get a new one. You'll probably be told: "I can't tell you what's wrong with it until I look at it and that alone will cost X-amount." If the inspection/labour charge is reasonable - say about £35 - ask what's the most that it could cost to repair. If it seems too much, get a new one.
When I was a kid, I had to work throughout an entire school holiday - picking fruit - to be able to buy an Amiga 500 (inluding joysticks, TV monitor, printer, external drive, modem, mouse). Two years later I rather unscrupulously sold it all - for a small profit - to a middle-aged woman who knew nothing about computers.
Quote: Kenneth @ September 6 2009, 11:49 PM BSTTwo years later I rather unscrupulously sold it all - for a small profit - to a middle-aged woman who knew nothing about computers.
By the way..
Anyone with an expensive laptop (or desktop) computer and would like it recovered if stolen, might be interested in buying this software subscription:
http://www.absolute.com/products/lojack/features
It's the computer equivalent of those car trackers that you hear about.
That's actually really interesting, Bill. Something I might look into as my business grows.
BigFella,
Agree with what's been said, sounds like backlight.
And the warranty, sounds like you won't have much luck mate, the manufacturers warranty is the only warranty you get, you could investigate this legal warranty but I have a feeling it will take too much time and money in the long run.
And from what I have read PC world will not help you now, they're not very helpful in the first place to be honest.
I would strongly advise buying a new computer - why does your daughter need an expensive one anyway? Does she play games? I have a feeling like most teenage girls, it's probably being used for MSN and facebook, you can still get something funky for a cheap price - Dell do coloured laptops from £30 I believe.