Here are some tips and tricks for troubleshooting and fixing laptop video problems. Video issues are very common within portable computers and with the following tips you should be able to detect and eliminate basic laptop video problems.
Laptop LCD screen has a faint image.
Look at the LCD screen very closely and check if you can see a faint image on the screen. It’s possible that the LCD lid close switch stuck in the “closed” position and the backlight stays off even when you open the LCD screen or turn on the laptop. The switch turns off the backlight when you close the LCD display to save the laptop battery power. Check the LCD lid close switch. Usually it is a small plastic pin located close to the LCD hinges. Try to tap on the switch a few times to turn on the backlight. If after tapping on the LCD lid close switch the backlight stays on, you fixed the problem.
It is also possible that after tapping on the LCD lid close switch the backlight works fine, you see a normal video on the screen for some time and then the backlight turns itself off again. In this case I would blame the FL inverter board. Try to reseat cables on both end of the FL inverter to make a better contact between the cables and the FL inverter board. If it doesn’t help I would try to replace the FL inverter board.
Laptop LCD screen is solid white color.
Most likely it is just a bad connection between the LCD display and the system board. I would try reseating the video cable connector on the back of the LCD screen first and check if it fixes the problem. After that I would try reseating the video cable connector on the system board. I would also try reseating cables if there is no video on the LCD screen at all.
The video on the LCD screen is garbled.
Try to connect the LCD screen to an external monitor. If the external video is fine, you have a problem with the LCD screen or the LCD video cable. You can try to fix the problem by reseating the video cable on the back of the LCD and on the system board.
If you see the same garbled video output on the external monitor most likely it is not the LCD screen problem. In this case the system board (with onboard video) is bad or the video card is bad.
I understand that these tips will not cover all video problems with portable computers. If you have a different problem, you are welcome to leave a comment and I will try to help you if I can. 
Are you looking for a new LCD screen for you laptop? Try searching here.
Here’s a notebook display assembly diagram and tips for finding spare notebook parts.
Related articles:
Fixing notebook LCD screen with water damage.
Screen inverter replacement. Fixing laptop backlight problem
Laptop has bad video on the LCD screen. What is wrong?
Laptop screen shows strange colors. What could be wrong?
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April 1st, 2012 at 10:25 pm
When I turn on my laptop,the power is on and I can hear the fan too.But the screen is black.That’s all.What’s happening?
March 20th, 2012 at 7:34 am
Hi,
I have been working on a Toshiba Satellite A505 that has symptoms like the 2nd and 3rd examples. I checked all the connections and they were ok. I purchased a new screen because it seemed as though something was wrong with the screen. The new screen did the same thing! I replaced the video cable and I got the same results. I had another replacement screen shipped and now I am getting the same results!
The output to an external monitor are fine…. What else could it be? Could it be a voltage issue from the video card? I am at a total loss at this point!
Thanks for any help you could provide.
Dave
March 18th, 2012 at 4:01 am
Hi,
I have an Acer Aspire 9300. It has suddenly developed a strange ghosting or shadow on the screen – see here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/e.....hotostream
The problem occurs on the BIOS screen as well as when Windows is running (which appears to be much worse because of the finer resolution), so I assume that this is not a software problem.
I have tested this on an external monitor, and there is no problem, which presumably means that the GPU is OK?
Any ideas where to go from here?
Any suggestions much appreciated.
March 15th, 2012 at 11:39 am
@ Sharon,
Sounds like this is LCD screen related problem. You’ll have to replace the screen.
If you decide to do it yourself, make sure to buy a compatible screen. It must be compatible with your Sony laptop. I’ve seen incompatible screens burning the motherboard in Sony laptops.
You can find some LCD screen replacement guides for Sony laptops here: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/.....y-laptops/
March 4th, 2012 at 8:52 am
Before I attempt to pop open my Sony Vaio Notebook (or take it for repairs), would you suggest the same steps given to others for this situation? I ignored a thin pink vertical stripe on the screen for a month. Then came 3 more very thin vertical stripes – different colors. Too busy to take it to be fixed, I could easily work around the stripes which were extremely thin. Yesterday, I lost half my screen. First, half the screen was a fat red vertical bar and a fat black one. Now, it’s a fat black one and a fat white one. It’s exactly half the screen with half the text underneath it … as in I now have an “io” as opposed to Vaio.
March 2nd, 2012 at 2:43 pm
@ wasabi,
What about laptop screen? Is it garbled too?
If both, the external monitor and internal laptop screen get garbled sometimes, most likely this is graphics card failure.
March 2nd, 2012 at 2:36 pm
@ Kere,
It’s hard to tell what is causing the problem. Are you using the latest driver available?
February 27th, 2012 at 6:58 am
For me i dont know whats going on in my laptop sometimes when i reboot i had a grabled screen but when it loads up to desktop i push the sleep button to sleep so that it will go to the welcome screen then after that my screen goes ok really ok but when i log on sometimes its grabled again and sometimes it work fines i try to connect it to a external monitor and it always works good not like my laptop monitor i tried to fix the wires but it still up
BUT
it always happen because of the windows 7 and vista drivers i have a windows 7 installed in my computer and i try to install the xp VGA driver then it works fine no grabled thing or error but i dont have any aero effects etc. just basic theme .. i didnt know what to do to fix it cause i dont know whats the problem is the driver?VGA?or cable ahmf its making me insane pls help me thanks i’ll wait
February 19th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
sir i dont know why but when i connect it in an external monitor sometimes it grabled and sometimes its not ? how can i fix this video card problem or wiring ? i dont know
February 19th, 2012 at 1:30 am
sir..i connect it into a external monitor but the video is fine how do i fix this? but someday i format my laptop and i put my xp driver on it it works fine but when i play some 3D games like chess it grabled i format into windows 7 but i use the driver in xp /.. now i want to know how to fix my laptop screen it seems that it only grabled when my video card play a 3D game and if i use the driver of my vista or 7 .. sir how can i fix this ? my laptop is a NEO basic neo basic 4200 i think i lost the name