computer starts, moments after normal, safe or bios start up screen goes off

[mobius71]

hi guys
my girlfriend has a dell laptop from the stone ages...has an Intel M processor to give yall an estimated time range.
but as the title suggest...screen goes off
on a normal start up it goes to the profile selection screen then shuts off a couple seconds later
the screen shuts off when I try to go into safe mode
and screen shuts off moments after getting into bios.
now i can troubleshoot most software issues with computers but I can't do squat if I can't see what I'm doin.

the only thing i have yet to try as an idea is hook up a monitor to it and see if anything happens differently

my guess is a corrupt bios file (had one myself a few weeks ago on my IBM/Lenovo T-60)
maybe a video driver...but why would it work for a few moments then crash........?!?!?!

I want to avoid getting her a new computer so if yall can think of anything worth trying go right ahead.

(i'll put in more computer information but I don't have any)

[Karnac]

Might be heat related....give it  a good cleaning .

[techblue]

Do you know if she recently installed or deleted anything? Also like Karnac said it might just need cleaning. But also if the screen shuts off when trying to go into safe mode then it seems as if a file is corrupted. Best case fix that you can do is attempt to repair or salvage any data she might want or b. like you said get her a new laptop which most likely would do her best in this situation

[Quantos]

hook up a monitor

Give that a try.  The laptop DOES stay running when the screen shuts off right?