Since I'm blind and use screen reading software I don't need to use my laptop's monitor and it's nothing but a battery drain. Is there a way to turn off the monitor on a del Vostro 1500 laptop while I'm using it? The only option I've found is to have it power off while the laptop is idle.
Turn off monitor on del Vostro 1500 while laptop in use
battery-lifedisplaylaptop
Best Answer
Fn-DownArrow (type several times) will lower the backlight. That's a major source of power drain.
Other Dells I've had have supported turning off the LCD with a different Fn key, but I don't have a Vostro 1500 in front of me to see if that works.
Fn-F8 (blue label is CRT/LCD) should switch to external display, but I'm not sure it'll stick with that if there is no actual external display. It might be that an enterprising friend with a VGA connector and a soldering iron could make a stub that looks enough like an external monitor to encourage your LCD to stay off.