laptop screen

On my dad's Acer laptop, the screen just went black. He said right in the middle of using that 3D cad program for Google. The power light is one but no hard drive activity and the fan doesn't come on. Any suggestions as to what the problem might be. He tried removing the battery and just using the AC plug but no go there. I'm not to familiar with laptops.

It is possible that he changed the projection mode and turned the display off on the laptop. There is a monitor looking emblem on the number keys the same color as the FN (function key). If these two keys are pressed at the same time, the projection modes are changed. This is used for when you connect a monitor or projector to the graphics port on the laptop.

Try pressing the FN(Function Key) and the monitor emblem again and see if the screen comes back.

Did you do a hard shutdown of the laptop and then restart it?

After restart are there still issues with the hard drive and fan?

If so, it may be a bad motherboard.

Along the same lines, have you tried plugging a standard/separate monitor in the laptop to see if anything shows up.