Toshiba Tecra R940 unable to view on external display

I was given a friend's Toshiba Tecra R940 (i5-3320M, 8GB, 32GB HDD) laptop (what was left of it at least) to try and fix, as they had "got mad and threw it down a flight of stairs." Yeah. Here's what's immediately wrong with it;

- Screen is so badly smashed that it quite literally displays nothing, and the backlight won't come on. The cables are all firmly seated.
- Left hinge has ripped the plastic lid cover apart, so only one of the hinges is actually holding the screen on.
- 6 or 7 of the keyboard keys are missing, but I can still press the rubber domes under them to type the characters.
- Both latches to hold the battery in are sheared off

It's pretty badly screwed up, but the computer does still work. if I plug it into power, it turns on, and boots into windows 7 64-bit.

But I can't get an external monitor to work. I've tried pressing Fn + F5 to get it to display on a VGA monitor, no dice. I know the keyboard works, because if I hold down a key at post, it'll give a keyboard error, and unless I press F1 to continue, it beeps at me when I press a key.

I've opened the laptop and reseated everything, but I can't get it to show on an external monitor, and I don't have any displayport monitors. He only wants his files off of it, and doesn't care about the computer itself. I tried pulling the drive, and hooked it up to a USB caddy, but it refused to let me access it because it is BitLocked.

Is it a lost cause?

 

I think you need to find a DisplayPort monitor. Someone you know must have one ...worst case, go to an electronics store and ask to demo a monitor.

Another option is to get a USB monitor.

Charles