What to do about a laptop whose screen won't come on.

Connect an external monitor to the VGA port. That should work if the laptop is still functional.

@Dr_Lawrence‘s advice should work.

On the other hand, the repair for the screen may not be as expensive or difficult as you imagine, either, though I wouldn’t recommend trying it yourself. Take it to a computer repair shop (look for some place that sells used PCs – if they don’t repair the machines themselves, then they’ll have a relationship with someone who does it cheaply) and ask them for an evaluation.

If nothing else, you should at least be able to pick up an external monitor there cheaply.

Check your RAM. I had the problem with a friends laptop . One of his RAM slots went bad and it stopped his display from working. This comp wouldnt even display on an external monitor due to this issue.

Im assuming since you have an Alienware you have have multiple RAM slots. Try booting your comp with only 1 RAM stick in and test each slot. It may work.

Also, when you turn your comp on do you notice any sort of pattern of the lights flashing or beeping sounds. Your comp may be trying to talk to you and tell you whats wrong. If so look up the beep/flash patterns online for your comp.

That’s good advice from @uberbatman, too. Listen to the boops and beeps your computer may be making. That’s part of the POST: Power-On Self Test. If it can’t display to the monitor (and it may have a way to “know” that it can’t), then it sends a series of short-and-long tones that can be decoded by someone who knows (or can look up in a reference table) what the POST codes are for that machine.

I had this happen to a laptop of mine several years ago, it was actually the wires between the screen and base that were damaged, I had them replaced and it lasted another couple of years, maybe not quite that long. I put it down to, wear and tear, all the opening and closing so because I was mostly using it at home I did not close the screen when I had switched it off for the day

I wonder about both the ribbon cable and the lid switch. After a few years, those parts will definitely get worn, possibly to the point of failure.

Of course, it’s also possible that the graphics chip/card went tits-up. Depending on whether it’s a mini-card or soldered onto the motherboard, you may or may not be able to repair it, and if it isn’t at least a Core i3, it may not be worth repairing anyways.

FYI, closing it without a shutdown or putting it to sleep won’t hurt it. Some will sleep/shutdown automatically when you close the lid, and you can configure how it behaves upon lid closure.

You could always dump it and buy a new one

Thank you so much, everybody! I don’t have much knowledge of computers, so I really appreciate the range of possible issues you all have brought to my awareness.