Laptop screen turns Really Dark when power supply is plugged in...

Ok.. I have a Dell XPS M140 laptop from around 2005.

It works good and i really dont want to buy a new laptop nor upgrade to win 7 or vista..

Well if i plug it in it boots up with the back light fine.. and it'll stay at the desktop screen fine for a few too.. but then it just turns dark! and i cannot see anything unless a good amount of light is on the screen.

Also it only does this when the power supply is plugged in. if i charge the battery up and turn it on without the power supply plugged in.. it'll stay backlit untill the battery dies.

Im not sure what this has to do with it.. but i think its something.. My laptop gets REALLY hot in the lower left hand corner of the screen!.. which is very close to wear the power suppy plugs in. Its hot when its just running of the battery but its VERY HOT when its plugged in to power.. ALSO, it seems to be damaging my screen because it turns black there! PITCH BLACK in the little area thats hot. its also permanently damaged it because when its not plugged in i can still see the outline of the area that turned black..


Oh yeah, i cannot plug in a VGA cable(think thats what its called) and see the screen on my tv.. my other two comuters do it fine. but not this one. even the computer thats older than this one displays it.. but not this one.

so is this computer done? can it be repaired?

thanks!!

Sounds to me like the computer is fried, or frying itself. If it's getting hot enough to ruin your screen, I'd say it's a safety issue that it might start a fire. If it's getting that hot, it might be frying the integrated video. That would also explain why you can't use your VGA. Fixing it might cost as much as purchasing a new laptop. If you can do the work yourself, I would look into laptop Power Supply Units or PSU's and laptop motherboards (just make sure your current ram and processor are compatible with the new board.) Both would prob need to be replaced to fix your problem.

If you do get a new one, my vote is with Windows 7. Having used both Vista and Windows 7, I can honestly say that 7 makes life a little easier. If you want to, pull your hard drive from your old laptop. You can purchase a hard drive enclosure that would allow you to plug you old hard drive into your new computer and pull off all the files you want. Just make sure you know what the connection type is. Being around 5 years old, I would guess SATA interface, but I would check to make sure.