How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems
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 garbaged.
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 garbaged 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:
How I took apart and repaired my notebook LCD screen with water damage
Screen inverter replacement. Fixing laptop backlight problem
Laptop has bad video on the LCD screen. What is wrong?
Entry Filed under: Laptop Tips and Tricks
February 25th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
Thank you SO Much for providing this service. I spend the majority of the afternoon on tech support with Dell with an expired warranty on a 3 and a half month old computer with no backlight. There I was, sitting by the computer using a flashlight in order to read the screen. I was about to spend the fortune to send it to Dell for repair but found your troubleshooting guide it and was… the little thing was stuck down and it was keeping the backlight from coming back on. You just made my day, maybe my month!!! Thank you SO much!
February 27th, 2006 at 9:54 am
I just received Toshiba Satellite M35X-S161 laptop for repair. The laptop problem – completely white screen. It took me 5 minutes to fix the laptop. I removed the LCD mask and two screws from the screen to get to the video cable. The connector on the back of the LCD screen was half-way out. I put the connector back in place and secured it with a sticky tape. After the assembly the laptop started with a good video on the LCD screen.
March 15th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Excellent resource - two questions though.
Do you have a service manual for a Portege 7020?
My Portege 7020 sometimes makes a long beep and blanks the screen. Sometimes at power-on, sometimes after an hour of use. It remans functional (disc etc, boot-up) but the screen goes blank with the long beep sound. If the screen does come back it tends to flicker on and off along with the beeping sound.
I would love to know if a repair is possible or if it is destined for the skip?
With thanks
Damian
March 15th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
Hi Damian,
I have not worked on this model but let me guess. It is possible that the LCD lid close switch is causing the problem. The switch is supposed to turn off the backlight when you close the LCD and on some models it makes a beep sound during that. You can find the switch close to the LCD screen hinges and in most cases it looks like a little plastic pin. Check if it’s dirty and try to clean it. Try to tap on it a few times when you LCD screen opened and see if you can reproduce the problem. My guess is that the lid close switch is getting stuck intermittently and causing the backlight to go on and off.
March 16th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Hello again. I found and reseated the cables to the FL Inverter board in my Toshiba Satellite P35 to try and eleviate the faint image problem. This didn’t change anything.
I did notice that the lid close switch, which is NOT stuck in the down position, can be wiggled back and forth. When I do this, there is a flicker of backlight from time to time. How do I repair this switch? Or can I repair this switch?
Thanks again! ~Tiger~
March 16th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Many thanks - I discovered that if I disable the option “to shutdown when I close the lid” and turn off the speaker, the screen just tends to flicker - which like you say is either a loose inverter cable or the inverter itself.
I discovered that I actually have a 7220 so it will be very nice to repair and upgrade the memory - hopefully it will give some extra life
March 16th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
Hey Tiger,
I think the switch is fine and you have a bad FL inverter.
When the FL inverter is failing, you can get the backlight for a moment when you tap on the lid close switch. Try to tap on the switch a few times and see if you can get a flashing backlight. If you get the backlight, replace the FL inverter.
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:15 am
Hey! Thanks for such a great website!.
I’ve had my Acer 1710 Inverter broken TWICE, and both times i sent it to the repair center. I decided that I want to change the inverter myself next time. I have read in Internet that is a very common problem on this kind of laptops, so where can i found about changing an inverter? where it is located? how i screw out all the things to remove the broken inverter?
Thank u very much in advance!
March 24th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
Hey Giovanni,
I have never worked on Acer laptops, but I repair Toshiba laptops every day. I guess you have to do the same steps for replacing FL inverter on Acer laptops as for Toshiba laptop. I created a few guides for removing and replacing LCD screens and FL inverters for Toshiba laptops. Read through them and I think you will be able to replace the FL inverter board on your Acer notebook yourself. It should not be very difficult.
You will find my instructions here: Toshiba laptop disassembly guides.
March 25th, 2006 at 11:37 am
I have a screen with no backlightt. However there seems to be no physical switch for the screen as there are on other laptops (mine is a dell inspiron 1150). Also there is now a high pitched buzzing sound.
If there is no easy fix could it be possible to remove the monitor completely. I don’t particually want to do this as at the moment an external monitor will not work outside of windows. Any help would be greatly appreciated, especially with getting an external monitor to work in the BIOS etc.
March 27th, 2006 at 12:03 am
Hi…
Im trying to repair an Mitsubishi Apricot.. It does not give any display. Tried to reseat the connector but nothin happende, also tried to connect an external monitor the same thing no display…
Is this an indicative of a bad onboard display or motherboard?
March 27th, 2006 at 12:20 am
If you have no internal and external video, most likely it is not the LCD problem. I would check the AC adapter first. Also I would check the memory module. If you cannot boot your laptop with a known good AC adapter and memory, then it is possible that the system board or the video card (not sure if it’s a separate board in your laptop) is bad.
March 27th, 2006 at 4:29 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1200. Yesterday, with no prior problems, the display went black. My research landed me here. Thanks to your guides I was able to, maybe a little over cautiously, (or fearfully) reseat the inverter connections. Thank you very much for sharing you wealth of knowledge.
After reassembling the display, I was delighted to find that everything booted normal once again. Sadly, I watched as my efforts vanished into a sea of darkness just after windows explorer started.
It seems that the longer I wait between tests the longer I have a display. I can still , with a lot of effort, see the faint display in the blackness. If anything when the backlight is on I notice a slight pinkish hue on the darker transition screens.
Before I order an inverter I want to be sure that the problem is not some sort of overheating issue or safety shut off for the backlight. I’m probably reading too much into the whole thing. Any insight (or reassurance
you might offer would be greatly appreciated.
Great site….thanks for helping out
March 27th, 2006 at 6:34 am
Hi cj600..
I have checked the AC adapter and have tried using another AC adapter result is the same….
Yes maybe your right I also think that its the board.. Do you know anybody here that might have a copy of a service manual of Mitsubishi Apricot AL?
March 27th, 2006 at 11:40 am
Hey Dustin,
To me your problem doesn’t look like an overheating issue at all. Most likely it is just a failing FL inverter board. Usually you can get the backlight back for a while when you tap a few times on the lid close switch. You can find the switch close to the left LCD hinge. Make sure that the lid close switch is clean. Sometimes it might get stuck, causing the backlight to turn off.
One thing concerns me. You mentioned that you noticed a slight pinkish hue on the screen. It might indicate a problem with the LCD screen. Try to connect your laptop to an external monitor. If you see the same pinkish hue, most likely you have a problem with the video card (it is a separate board in this model). If the external video is fine, then I would suspect the LCD or the video cable connection. In some cases the LCD screen still would be usable because after it warms up the pinkish hue can go away.
By the way, a few days ago I created a guide for taking apart Toshiba Satellite 1200 laptop and opened a discussion for this particular model on my blog.
March 28th, 2006 at 7:56 am
I have a Dell Latitude CPX600 & I see individual pixels sometimes on the screen.A I shut down the sysytem, rows of pacman like characters appear. Upon re-boot, those packman like charactors get super small and appear in several rows when Windows 2000 is booting.
Then the screen goes back to one line of pixels and then to seveveral lines of pixels in any new windoe that opens. And then that whole thing will stop if the system is rebooted (again).
March 28th, 2006 at 8:09 am
Nice site!
I have a laptop here in repair, and I think the videocard is broken(it’s a seperate geforce 5700 go). The laptop displays strange white dots all over the display when booting(on both the screen, and the external video connector), and I don’t think it passes the videobios(on boot). Any tips? I’m thinking of ordering a new videocard for this laptop, do you think this is wise? The laptop is a Acer aspire 1510 series.
Thanks in advance Jules
March 28th, 2006 at 8:38 am
I have a Toshiba A70 and few days back when I start up, I got a black or sometime a flash screen. I try to connect my laptop to a monitor and it’s work fine. I check all cable and all seem to be ok.
Could some help me to solve this problem.
Thanking you
Jeff
March 28th, 2006 at 8:43 am
HI
How to check if the inventer is still good or need to replace?
Jeff
March 28th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Hey Carline,
Connect the laptop to an external monitor. If you see the same pattern of bad lines, the system board or the video card is bad. If the external video is fine, I would suspect the LCD screen.
March 28th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Hi Julies,
Yep, it looks like a video card problem. If you can, try to reseat the video card first. It might fix the problem. Sometimes the problem occurs because of a bad connection between the video card and the system board.
March 28th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Hey Jeff,
With a bad FL inverter you still should see some data on the screen. It would be a normal video output but very dim. You should see some data if you look at the screen at different angles. The problem might occur because of a bad FL inverter or a bad connection. There is a possibility that the backlight bulb is dying.
In a case like yours, we usually try to spray connectors with ProGold and reseat the FL inverter. If it doesn’t help we replace the inverter board.
March 29th, 2006 at 11:53 am
HI THERE
I OWN AN ACER ASPIRE 1360 AND EVERY NOW AND THEN MY DISPLAY GOES GARBAGED WITH ALL HORIZONTAL LINES ACROSS THE SCREEN.WHEN THIS HAPPENS I HAVE TO REBOOT MY COMPUTER TO GET THE DISPLAY BACK TO NORMAL.THIS HAPPENS ABOUT ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK OTHERWISE THE PICTURE IS FINE. IS THERE SOME SETTINGS I CAN MAKE IN WINDOWS XP TO CORRECT THIS OR IS THIS A PROBLEM WITH THE VIDEO HARDWARE.
THANKS
March 29th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Hi Paul,
I am pretty sure that is a hardware issue. If you see the same horizontal lines on an external monitor, then the system board or the video card is bad. I am sure if the video card is integrated into the system board or it is a separate board. If the external video works properly, then either the LCD screen itself or the video cable is bad. When you have a garbaged output on the LCD screen you can try to twist the display a little bit (not too much or you can crack it). When you twist it you put some tension on the screen. If during twisting you see that pattern of lines is changing or you get a normal video then most likely the LCD is bad itself. Be very careful with the screen during the test.
April 3rd, 2006 at 7:16 am
hey great help here, i just have a major issue that i cannot fix. toshiba satellite p25-s509 has lit backlight and boots up perfect with an external monitor. I have reseated all the connections and run out of ideas. Do you have any more not suggested here already?
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Hey Simon,
It is not very clear what problem are you experiencing? No image on the screen or something else?
April 4th, 2006 at 7:49 am
yeah im sorry, it works perfect in external and backlight is lit just fine but there are no images (not even faint under flashlight) appearing at all. i have checked close lid switch and all connections.
April 5th, 2006 at 6:29 am
Hi:
My wife’s Toshiba M35X-S161 LCD screen just went black last night. I have jiggled the switch for the backlight as you have suggested here and occaisionaly a faint image would appear, but it disappears pretty much right away. I have since hooked up an external monitor and rebooted the machine, but any image on the external monitor disappears after Windows XP starts to boot up. External monitor then goes blank and then shows a “No Signal” error. Prior to all this happening, the laptop had been running on battery for quite awhile, so the power level was way down. And, now even under AC power the display is blank. But the compter shuts down after a little while. She supposedly had this fixed a year ago under warranty. Could the display problem be a result of a power problem?
April 5th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
I have a Toshiba A75-S229 that has issues with the video. I get the backlight just fine, and I can use an external monitor with no problems. I pulled the cover off of the LCD and all the connections look good. The one thing I did notice is the wires going to the connection on the left side has what I would call a severe bend or kink in the cable. Is there anyway to test the cable? And where would I go to get a replacement cable for this?
Thanks for your help.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Hey Mike,
Usually a power problem will not affect the display. It might be just an FL inverter problem and the faint image is not disappearing, you just cannot see it. You say that the video on the external monitor goes blank after the Windows welcome screen. I’ve seen that before on some Toshiba laptops. I guess you can get a normal video on the external monitor if you pres Fn+F5 a few more times. I think that the system board is OK, and you have a problem somewhere in the display module.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Hi Jeff,
I would try to reseat the video cable on the system board and on the back of the LCD screen first, just in case. If it doesn’t help, I would try to replace the cable.
There are 2 video cables listed for Toshiba Satellite A75-S229 screen.
Toshiba part number for the first one: K000015960
Second one listed as backward compatible with the first one: K000034510
You can try to search on ebay by the part number or just google for it and find a store.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Hi Simon,
If the connections are fine, then I would try to replace the LCD video cable next. It is the cheapest replacement part between the system board and the LCD screen. You have very good chances that the cable will fix your problem.
There are 2 cables listed for Toshiba Satellite P25-S509:
K000005950 for Samsung LCD screens
K000005960 for LG Phillips screens
Check on the back of the LCD screen who made it and try to find this part via ebay or google.
Video cables in Toshiba Satellite P25 are not very reliable. I repaired a lot of P25 laptops with problem like yours just by replacing the cable. But it also possible that the system board or the screen is causing the problem.
April 6th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 and I am experiencing problems with the LCD. A few minutes after the system has booted and the desktop appears, the display goes black. However, you can faintly make out what is on the desktop if you look closely enough. I did attach an external monitor to my laptop and it works fine.
From the posts I have read on other forums, the problem could
be related to the inverter, backlight, or ribbon cable.
I don’t have enough knowledge to know which part(s) needs to be replaced. I would appreciate any insight on how to make this determination.
In addition, I began to disassemble my laptop and have the LCD panel flipped out from the protective casing. I don’t know where these any of these parts are located. If anyone can provide some instructions or diagram resources, this would be appreciated as well.
Thank you for your assistance,
Ted Cwynar
April 6th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Hey Ted,
Here are instructions for Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop.
By the description you provided I would assume that the FL inverter board is causing the problem. Most likely the inverter board fails when it’s getting warm. I think a bad LCD cable would give you an intermittent problem.
I think that it‘s also possible that the backlight bulb is failing itself but I would start with replacing the FL inverter board.
April 7th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
I know very little about the inside of my notebook, so please help me understand what I need to try. It’s a Compaq Presario R3000, and it’s just as you described - very faint screen with no backlight, when I tap rapidly on the lid switch, the backlight will flicker and I can intermittedly see video on the screen. How do you reseat connections or replace inverters? I’m still learning.
Also, we had a problem with our Invidia Graphics causing video distortions and crashes for several days, but those issues amazingly went away - that was only about 3 days prior to the backlight issues, do you think they are related?
April 7th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
WEBB,
If you feel uncomfortable with computers, I wouldn’t get inside. It’s easy to break something.
When you say that you can get backlight back by tapping on the lid switch, I suspect that the problem is caused by the inverter board. I do not have guides for Compaq, but you can find some guides for Toshiba here: www.irisvista.com
The process of removing and replacing the FL inverter board would be almost the same.
It’s hard to say why the video crashes. It might be a software problem as well as a hardware problem. I cannot troubleshoot it without seeing the problem itself.
April 7th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Thanks for this awesome website
I have a Toshiba and have the exact same problem you are describing. The display is very faint and when I push on the little hinge button, it beeps and the display flicker. However, I have noticed that if I am on battery (which has a life of 5 mins now) instead of being plugged in - it stays on. I am wondering if I can change some bios settings to fix this? Or is this a FL inverter issue? Or is this a Battery issue?
Thanks so much in advance
April 8th, 2006 at 8:51 am
HI all, surfing the web i’ve found this usefull site. I have a Toshiba Satellite P35 (P35-S6292 17″ LCD) sice 8 months ago. A couple of weeks ago appeared a cyan vertical line on my screen (from top to the bottom). Today a have 3 lines, cyan, red and yellow. A new LCD costs 650$ here in Asuncion Paraguay. Any help will be be very wellcomed. Thanks in advance.
April 8th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Hey Sree,
Very weird problem!
If you would only mentioned only a faint screen I would me almost positive that the FL inverter board has to be replaced. But after you mentioned, that you can get a normal video when you run off the battery, I’m getting lost. I have no idea what’s going on, I think you might have a system board issue. Just in case try to upgrade/reflash BIOS.
April 8th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Hey Guido,
Make sure that it’s the LCD problem first. Connect an external monitor and restart the laptop. If you see the same lines on the external video, then the LCD is fine, the system board is causing the problem. I’m pretty sure it’s just a failing LCD screen but still it would be nice to verify it by connecting the external monitor. In the USA the screen would cost you about the same or even more.
April 8th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Hi all again, this is a picture’s link of my Toshiba Satellite P35-S6292 with 3 colored vertical lines LCD problem
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grolon/125324583/
April 10th, 2006 at 4:14 am
Hi cj2600, i have connected an external montior to notebook, it seems that everything is ok, on that external monitor. This means that system board and video card are ok?.
April 10th, 2006 at 7:29 am
I have a Acer aspire 2002WLCI (centrino 1.5/ATI 9200 32mb on a seperate board). A few weeks ago I started to have problems with the LCD display on the laptop. At first, when I started the computer, the screen showed full brightness white vertical lines on a royal blue background. If I connected an external monitor everything was OK (normal windows login window). If I restarted the computer a few times, the LCD would come back in full working order. After a few weeks, the LCD started showing the the same vertical lines all the time (extenal video still OK) and the LCD went dim. I cannot see the normal windows graphics on the LCD now, just the lines, although if I move the mouse, I can see dim vertical lines moving on the LCD. I would like to repair the unit myself, I have already checked the connections but would like to know what part to change (inverter, graphic card, cable, LCD).
Thanks for the great site.
Jean
April 10th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
hi friends
i have a display problem with my thinkpad t22
i Try to connect the LCD screen to an external monitor,the external video is fine, but the internal monitor (lcd) is white
i change the lcd connection on the mainboard it”s the same problem,i do the same with a new sreen it ’s always white
i want your help to fix this problem
thank you for all
my best
touré
April 10th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
Guido,
Your laptop has a video chip integrated into the system board. If an external video is fine, then the system board works properly. I am almost positive that you are having a problem with the LCD screen.
April 10th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Hi Jean,
I am pretty sure it is not the video card, because you still can get a normal video on the external monitor. You would get a bad video output on the external monitor if the video card was bad.
Here is my guess. You have 2 different problems on the screen: vertical lines and lack of the backlight. Normally these two problems are not connected to each other and it is not likely that the LCD screen got 2 different problems at the same time. There is only one part that can cause these problems – the video cable. I would try to replace the LCD video cable first.
If replacing the video cable will not help, the next step would be to replace the LCD screen (of course after you checked all connections) . In most cases buying a new LCD screen wouldn’t be cost effective solution to repair the notebook computer. It would be better to buy a new laptop, unless you can find a way to buy a cheap LCD.
April 10th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
Hey Toure,
When I see a white notebook LCD screen I always check the connection between the video cable and the LCD screen first. Most of the time the video cable is half way out and after I reseat it the video is back to normal. You say that you tried to replace the screen and it didn’t help and the external video is fine. So I am pretty sure that you can fix the problem by replacing the video cable.
April 11th, 2006 at 3:29 am
My Dell latitude c600 display only covers half of the screen. The display adapter system shows the default vga driver is in use. I can’t find or load a new driver. Support for the driver should be included in windows-me.
Can you help?
Bob
April 11th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Hi, CJ
I’m so glad to find this blog. Now I’m so depressed because of my computer.
I have Toshiba Tecra S1 laptop and I think it has vedio problem.
It’s started few days ago. When I was using this computer, suddenly something happened on the screen. It seemed to be broken resolution or something trouble with graphic unit. Graphic was broken and suddenly computer was stopped. So I turned it off and turned it on again. Then there was no problem.
But yesterday, when I tried to connect with my external hard drive, it happeded again. So I thought it’s time to format this computer because recently it showed something weird. So I formatted it using recovery CD and installed it succesfully.
I turned it off and then when I turned it on again. on the screen there was nothing I can see. It was just black screen.
When I turned it on, I could hear one beep sound and fan worked. But on the screen it did not show anything.
I think I also heard three times beep sound from inside of computer after booting it. I think this could be vedio unit problem.
Could you give me any advice for repairing this computer? I think I may be able to fix it. But I’ve never opened laptop. If this computer is desktop, it is not a big deal. In my country I used to open and fix some parts.
I bought this computer in my country in 2003. This computer is my best friend ( of course I also have best friend in human ^^). Now I’m so sad…I can not do anything even my homework. :’(
Please help me out…..The cost for repairing is so expensive.
Have a nice day!
April 11th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Hey Robert,
Have you tried to find a new driver on Dell Support Website ? It looks like they have the video driver for Windows Me.
April 11th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Hey Chun,
Toshiba Tecra S1 has a video chip integrated into the system board. So if the onboard video is bad, the entire system board has to be replaced.
Sometimes Toshiba laptop beeps 3 times when you start the laptop without memory sticks. Check your memory modules. If you have 2 memory sticks installed try to remove them one by one and start the laptop. If you have only one memory stick you can try to move it to a different slot. It should be pretty easy because both memory slots are located on the bottom of the laptop. Also it would be nice to find another good memory for test.
Try to connect the laptop to an external monitor. If you cannot get any video on the LCD screen and the external monitor with a good memory installed, then most likely the system board is bad. If the external video is fine and you still have no video on the LCD screen, then the system board is good and the problem is somewhere in the display assembly.
April 12th, 2006 at 5:44 am
After installing a new video driver and deactivating the old driver, the computer restarts but when windows starts up the screen becomes black. How can I reactivate the old driver when I see nothing on the screen?
April 12th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Hi Nicole,
You can try to boot your computer in a safe mode. After that find a display adapter entry in the device manager. Right click on the display adapter and go to Driver tab. Use Roll Back Driver button get back to the previous driver.
April 12th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
Thank you for your reply, CJ. I tried to check memory modulus. I think it is not memoey sticks problem. I also tried to connect to external monitor. The result was fine. But what I don’t understand is when I connected my laptop to external monitor, it was fine. I removed external monitor and turned on my computer. At that time it was fine. However after I came back home, it happened again.
What do you think about this?
April 12th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Help! I have a screen with no backlight, images on my screen are really dim. I would like to check if the switch is stuck, however there seems to be no physical switch for the screen as there are on other laptops (mine is a dell inspiron 1150).
I am planning to buy an inverter online and replacing it, am i on the right track?
April 12th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Chun,
I think that it might be just a loose connection. I would try to reseat the cables. It requires some skills because you have to open the laptop case. Not sure 100%.
Try to turn on the laptop and use Fn+F5 key to toggle between the internal and external video output.
April 12th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
Irene,
Most likely a new FL inverter will fix the problem. It also might be a video cable problem or the LCD screen itself is bad. I would suspect the FL inverter first.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Hi, CJ.
Today I tried to connect to another external monitor. But it didn’t work. I think I should open this computer. When I turn on the computer, I still hear three times beep sound. One is a little long, and two are shorter than first one. I have no experience to open laptop, but I want to try it.Because I’m a student in electrical engineering in college. I will do it following your explanation in this site. When I open computer, should I also remove memory, hard drive and etc on the bottom? There is 23 steps, right? I think I should check “step 14 in your guide for Tecra S1″. For checking this, which steps should I do? Do I need all steps before step 14? I want to try to fix my computer by myself. I already appreciate you, but if you help me little more, I’m really happy. Please~~
April 12th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Hey Chun,
It’s hard to say what is happening with your laptop. If you want to take the laptop apart completely, then you have to go through all 23 steps. If you only want to check the video cable connection (step 14), then you have to remove the battery (step 1) and the keyboard strip (step 5), you do not need all steps. I do not remember if the keyboard strip is secured by screws on the bottom, be careful when removing.
It’s hard to repair a laptop at home when you do not have any spare/test parts.
Good luck!
April 14th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Hi there,
I have dell latitude c800 (it’s actually my roommates but he just bought a new one) and the screen turns on shortly after startup or not at all. When it does start up there appears to be a reddish hue to the screen for a moment. When the screen works it works fine I don’t suspect the back light. I can’t locate any switch specifically either. You can still see a very faint image on the screen. If there is anymore info you need just ask.
Thanks,
Marlow
April 14th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
Would you know what the electrical value on a Pavilion HP laptop inverter should be on the lamp bulb side? It is a pk070012310 inverter in a zt1000 laptop . I would like to check it out before I order a new one . Thank you George
April 15th, 2006 at 10:19 am
Hi George,
I work mostly with Toshiba laptops. For Toshiba laptops the output voltage on the FL inverter exit should be 200-600 VAC and the voltage before the FL inverter board should be 4.5-5.02 VDC. I have never tried to measure it myself, I just remember this numbers from Toshiba training. I think you should get the same values for HP laptop because most laptop manufacturers use the same LCD screens.
April 16th, 2006 at 8:33 am
Hi Marlow,
It doesn’t look like a backlight problem. I would suspect the LCD screen itself. Try to start the laptop with an external monitor. If you get the same reddish hue on the external video, the system board (or video card) should be replaced. If the external video is fine then most likely the LCD is going bad. Usually when a reddish hue appears on the screen, the LCD screen failing itself.
April 16th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
[…] Use Toshiba Tecra 8100 display disassembly guide to remove and replace the FL inverter board. If the backlight on your computer suddenly stopped working but you still can see a faint image, then most likely the problem is caused by a failed FL inverter board. Before you jump in and start buying hardware make sure to read through laptop video problem tips. Be very careful with the LCD screen mask. The plastic is very fragile and can be easily broken. Use only your finger when you remove the LCD mask. Do not use a screwdriver or any other sharp object because you can damage the screen. […]
April 17th, 2006 at 7:42 am
I have an Dell Inspiron 1200 notebook. When the laptop is running on power from the A/C adapter the backlight will only stay on for about 20 minutes. But when the computer is only running on battery power, the backlight will stay on until the battery dies. I already tried replacing the A/C adapter and that did not seem to help. Any other ideas?
April 17th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
Erica,
May be it is just a software settings. Check power options in the control panel. There is a setting to turn of monitor after some time. You can set a different time for your laptop when it runs off the battery and off the AC power.
April 18th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Hi. Thanks ahead of time for any help. I have a Dell Inspiron 1150 that is only displaying a white LCD screen. It displays to an external monitor just fine. I double checked and re-seated the LCD cable and then bought a new one, which didn’t do any better. I went to the Dell website to look for a new driver, but it told me that the driver I had was newer than the one I found on the site.
I can make the screen brighter or dimmer, but the only thing I ever see on the LCD screen is white - even during boot up. I can even get to the bios via the external monitor - just not with the laptop screen.
Any ideas?
April 18th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Hi Jamie,
When I get a laptop with a solid white screen, I’m pretty sure that I can fix the problem by reseating the cable or by replacing the cable. If it doesn’t help (very rare) then you might have a bad LCD screen or a bad system board. The only way to find out witch one is bad is to connect a test LCD screen and see what video output you get. I guess in your case it would be better to take the laptop for diagnostics to a computer repair shop.
April 19th, 2006 at 6:27 am
Having some issues with my M45 lcd. When I first boot up the computer the backlight works fine for 2 or 3 secs then goes out. I can see a faint image if I shine a light at the screen. If I unplug the fl inverter and plug it back in the backlight comes back for a couple secs and goes out. The same will happen if I switch between external video and lcd. I have replaced the fl inverter but the same thing happens. Right now I am running an external monitor.
April 19th, 2006 at 7:01 am
Hi cj2600
Followed your advice from post 43, changed the video cable for the laptop (12$ + shipping) and now the screen is back to its full functionnal state. A great deal compared to the 449$ flat fee for the service at ACER.
Thanks for your advice
Jean
April 19th, 2006 at 7:18 am
Here’s an odd one - It’s an Acer 1310 and the display is ‘washed out’. All colours are very weak eg black is a blue/grey. Gives the impression of contrast set below zero.
Screen is bright so no inverter problems. VGA output is fine and there is no corruption to the display so no RAM problems.
Any suggestions?
April 19th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
David,
Sounds like the LCD screen problem or the video cable problem. I would try to update / re-flash BIOS. It is possible that BIOS is corrupted. Is there are some settings for the contrast and brightness in BIOS? Try to reseat or replace the video cable. According to Jean (comment 70), the video cable for Acer is pretty cheap.
April 19th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Brian,
There is an issue alert for Toshiba Satellite M45-S165 and M45-S1651 models. It says: “The LCD Back Light would stay off when the Lid Switch was pressed and released quickly.” As a solution, Toshiba recommends to update the BIOS to version 1.50 or higher. Might be your problem somehow related to this issue alert?
April 20th, 2006 at 6:44 am
OK I have updated the bios to the most current and I reinstalled the display drivers, still no luck. Could it be possible that the Lid Switch is bad? Is there any way I could bypass the switch to take it out of the equation?
April 20th, 2006 at 7:29 am
I am replacing the FL Inverter on a Satellite M35X-S149. However, when I first dissassembled the laptop, I noticed there is what appears to be a ground strap coming from the wiring harness that runs from the main board above the F10 key to the connector at the top rear of the LCD panel. This ground strap was not connected to anything, and there does not appear to be any place to connect it. Is this supposed to be connected anywhere? The ground strap naturally lays very close to the lid switch. Thank you.
John
April 20th, 2006 at 7:56 am
John,
The ground strap is not connected to anything on Toshiba Satellite M35X. Just leave it alone with the harness when you assemble the laptop.
April 20th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
Sorry Brian, cannot help with the switch. We do not work on the component level. If the motherboard is bad, we replace the entire board and send the original one for repair to Toshiba. I think if the lid close switch is bad, then it is ether always “on” or always “off”. In your case, the backlight starts for 2-3 seconds each time you apply power to the LCD screen. I guess the lid close switch is not your problem.
April 22nd, 2006 at 6:00 am
Hi guys
Great forum - it gave me hope I can sort out my prob with your help!
I have a 2 year old hp Compaq nx5000. The problem it has is that in 90% of the occasions, its backlight fails during resuming from hybernation or stand-by. The only thing that helps keep the backlight on is cold reboot. Even after warm reboot, the backlight does not always stay on. However, once booted successfully, the backlight works fine indefinitely, until the next time I try to resume from hybernation/stand-by or warm reboot.
Does it sound like a software problem to you? I updated the monitor driver, did a Windows update, etc with no success. Shall I be looking at flashing the BIOS?
It would even be helpful if you can just asure me that it is a hardware problem - backlight going, FL inverter failing, loose connections, etc - at least I know I have no other choice but to spend the money to repair it!
Many thanks in advance.
P.S Sorry if I posted twice - my prevous message failed but just in case it went through somehow.
April 22nd, 2006 at 9:47 am
Hi Ivelina,
The problem with backlight might be hardware or software related. How do you put your laptop into hibernation or standby? Do you close the display or you enter these modes through the Windows? If the laptop backlight fails to resume after you close the display, then it might be a lid close switch related problem. Try to tap on it a few times after the backlight fails to start. If the laptop backlight fails to resume after you enter hibernation or standby modes through Windows, then the problem might be related to a bug in the BIOS. Some Toshiba laptops have the same issue and you can fix it by upgrading BIOS. Try to upgrade or re-flash the BIOS.
April 22nd, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Hi cj2600 and thanks for the reply.
I always put the laptop into hybernation/standby by closing the display. When I changed the power settings to “Do nothing” when the lid is closed, the problem did not happen when I reopened the lid (or when I pressed the lid switch for a few moments) so it will have something to do with the computer entering standby/hybernation. I will try using the windows standby next time and i will also try to disable the laptop going into stand by after a period of time (it is currently 30 minutes if not in use) to see what happens.
Please let me know if you still think upgrading the BIOS will help as it does not seem to be a Windows problem.
Many thanks!
April 22nd, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Ivelina,
You are right; it looks like the problem is connected to entering into standby or hibernation mode. I think it is not a problem with the FL inverter board.
I would definitely try to upgrade the BIOS. It is very possible that new BIOS can fix the problem. Carefully read instructions before attempt to upgrade the BIOS.
April 22nd, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Mine sister gave me a satellite 4030cdt laptop. It has a split screen on it problem. The Toshiba is on the buttom when starting up. But when I place mine home monitor on it and the screen is fine. I check all the connections. Any Ideas? Thanks.
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Hello - me again.
Reflashed the BIOS (was latest version anyway) with no luck in solving the problem. I used the Windows-based flash - is that the same as a floppy-disk based or would the latter be worth trying as well?
Does not seem to matter if it enters stand-by from Windows or just by closing the lid - same thing happens. The only thing that keeps the backlight working is to leave all computer on, just close the lid to switch off the screen while not using it.
Any other ideas? I am willing to try anything!
I think there should be a clue (to who can read it!) in that the backlight comes on during the first few moments of resume/boot - it only goes off a few seconds into it (but always at different stages).
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Hey CJ2600 -
I’ve got a Toshiba Satellite P25-S607, and I recently spilled water…ok, boubon and soda, on it.
I immediately shut the power down, took it apart, dried it thoroughly with a hair dryer (not too close) and came back a couple days later to fire it up.
First I should say that after I shut the power down, after the spill, I turned the in an upside down V on the table to help it drain.
Thankfully, the computer runs fine, but the display is dim. External monitor works fine. Lid close switch does nothing…no flickering. Is it possible when the machine was upside down, liquid shorted the FL inverter? Or could I have shorted something on the system board? But, the external monitor works fine. Could it be a power issue to the inverter? I poked around with a voltage meter on the board and was able to get some signal…(not an expert, just poking around) Could you post a close up picture of the inverter, I have what looks like some black goo coming out of a white circular piece on the board, and I’m not sure if its just some kind of insulation on the board, or if something is fried.
Thanks! Great resource!
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Hi there,
Just wondering if you could help. I have an Acer Aspire 1360 which I’ve had for just over a year.
When I put pressure on a certain point of the laptop underneath about an inch or two above the battery just below the arrow keys it swithches itself off immediately. As though the power supply has been disconnected.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks for the help you may be able to offer.
Charlie
April 24th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Frank,
I think either the LCD screen itself or the video cable is bad. Not sure, I have never seen a problem like yours. Try to reflash or upgrade the BIOS just in case, it might help.
April 24th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Ivelina,
I think the next step would be reloading the Windows operating system. It is just a guess – may be the power management software is corrupted somehow. By the description you provided, it shouldn’t be the fl inverter board problem, even though everything is possible. Some problems are very weird! I have a laptop that I haven’t been able to fix for over 30 days! Replaced almost every single part twice and it’s still doing the same! Just a nightmare. 
Not sure what is going on with your computer.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Derek,
Here is the best close up picture for Toshiba Satellite P25 FL inverter board I have for this moment.
You should be very happy that your laptop still works. Liquid spills are very unpredictable. Any part could be damaged even if it wasn’t affected by the liquid directly. Yes it is possible that only the FL inverter has been damaged, but it also possible that some circuits on the system board have been damaged too.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Charlie,
I would try to call to Acer and ask them if there is a know issue for your model. It is possible that not only you suffer from the same problem, and it is possible that they can take care of your laptop for no charge. I suggested calling to Acer because I know that Toshiba has some laptop models with a top cover issue, laptops freeze up when you touch the speakers and they fix out of warranty laptops with this problem at no charge to the customers. I’m not familiar with Acer laptops, but may be you have a similar problem?
April 25th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Thanks CJ! However, the business I wanted to see is under that protective plastic.
April 25th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Hi, CJ. I’m here just to say ‘Thank you’. I tried to open my laptop for checking connector part, but I couldn’t. it’s too tight. I gave it up and decided to send computer to repair center. Today I got back my computer. Fortunately my computer is under warranty. (Actually I didn’t know that.) I really thank you for your guide and advice even though I couldn’t fix it by myself.. They replaced and tested the Main System PCB, COROM and CPU cooling module. Is there any relationship between no signal on the screen and CDROM or Main system? I thought it was VGA proplem. Anyway my laptop came back to me. I’m so happy. ^^
April 26th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Hey Chun,
These days most laptops have a video circuit integrated into the main board. If you experience a problem with video, the entire system board has to be replaced. I guess they replaced the CD-ROM because they detected or suspected some problems. When a laptop is under warranty it is much easier for technicians to replace a suspicious part then to troubleshoot it. Troubleshooting might take hours, replacement just minutes.
I guess you have Toshiba Satellite A70 or A75, that’s why they replaced the cooling fan. Fans on this model are not very reliable.
April 27th, 2006 at 7:13 am
Hi CJ,
I stumbled across this rather informative site on a Google search about laptop LCD troubleshooting, and was wondering if I could find an answer here.
A bit of history. My Toshiba Satellite M-40 is less than a year old, but has encountered a fair share of problems. A moldy black smudge became a permanent fixture on the upper-right part of the screen. Although things were pretty much viewable, the darkened part was rather unsightly.
Since the notebook was still under warranty, I took it to the Toshiba Service Center for repairs. After the repair was done, the laptop came back with a clear screen, but with uneven lighting - there was a bit of backlight bleeding on the lower edge of the screen.
So back to the repair center it went, and now I got it back without moldy patch, dead pixels, or bleeding. However, there is something very slight that I noticed. My google searches don’t turn up anything definitive, so here goes:
At a normal viewing angle, everything is fine. However, if I tilt the screen back, I start to see a lot of subtle vertical lines all across the screen. These lines very faint, and are completely invisible at a full-on forward view.
So a question - is there a problem, or am I being overly sensitive?
http://www.jetsam.org/lcd1.jpg - Straight-on
http://www.jetsam.org/lcd2.jpg - Tilted
Any assistance is greatly appreciated!
Regards,
Zergrinch
April 27th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Hi Zergrinch,
I wouldn’t really worry about the LCD screen with a bleeding backlight on the lower edge. Some screens have it and I think it’s not a big deal. But I would definitely replace the screen with faint vertical lines.
April 27th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Thanks for the advice, CJ. The bleeding backlight actually bothered me a bit, since it made the screen more glaring for me on the lower part of the screen. Since the faint lines weren’t visible at optimum viewing angles, I was second-guessing myself.
Again, thanks!
Regards,
Zergrinch
April 27th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
thanks for thr info. I just put in a new lcd screen and it is fix.
April 29th, 2006 at 8:28 am
I had my 6 month old Sager packaged to go back, when I decided to look up the faont screen issue. And thanks to your site, I found it to be the switch, just as you said it would be, Thank You!
April 29th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
I have an old toshiba satellite 320 cdt w/ a working inverter & a presario 2200 with a broken inverter. Do u know if it’s possible to replace the presario’s inverter w/ the toshiba’s? I know it’s not likely, but possibly?
Also, would you recommend buying the inverter from any site or company in particular? reputable? I’m in Canada, and am having a difficult time locating a retailer that carries inverters.
cheers
April 29th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
My frined recently bought an Acer Laptop and when the laptop is on there is a small green speck of light in the screen. When it is turned off it vanishes. Any take on that.
Thanx
ps you’ve got a good site. Very helpfull
April 30th, 2006 at 9:00 am
Khalid,
It is unlikely that FL inverter from old Satellite will fit to Presario. I cannot recommend any particular store because we get all our parts directly from Toshiba and never buy them somewhere else. I would research on the Internet.
April 30th, 2006 at 9:04 am
Ibn,
I think this small green speck is the LCD screen defect. I’ve never heard that a bad video cable or a bad inverter can cause this problem. The only way to fix it is to replace the LCD screen.
Or to set a green background as a wallpaper.
May 3rd, 2006 at 1:54 am
hi people….having troubles with my satellite A70 screen….it works perfectly on an external monitor…but on its own..the bottom 2-3 inches of the screen are solid vertical bars (resembling the colors present above them)….i have dismantled the laptop and checked all connections, including grounds…..any help would be great….TY
May 3rd, 2006 at 8:43 am
I got a satellite a75-s209 dim video on lcd. Yet external gets awesome video. No backlight activity when pressing the suspend swith on board. need some advise.
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:59 am
Hello,
I have read all of the entries in this section regarding LCD problems and I am currently having a problem with my Toshiba Satellite 3000 series laptop. The lcd screen is almost black but you can faintly see the display. When I hook it up to an external monitor it looks great and super clear. I replaced the inverter thinking that might be it but with no luck. I am assuming that the only things left to check would be the lcd cable, lcd screen itself or the button to the top left could be stuck causing the backlight to not display. I took this laptop to a laptop repair shop and they previously told me that it was a mother board issue which would have been too costly for me to fix. I am assuming that was not correct since I have no problems seeing the display on an external monitor. Please let me know if you think that it could possibly be anything else. i would rather not trash my laptop since it works great except for the lcd screen. Thanks!
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Hey Justin,
I think you have a bad LCD screen and replacing the video cable will not help.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Heather,
If I would get a laptop like yours for repair I would suspect the FL inverter board first. OK, you have replaced it and it didn’t help. There are 2 more parts in the display assembly – the LCD screen and the video cable. There is only one way to test witch one is failing – to replace them one by one.
By the way, a faint image on the LCD screen might be caused by a failed motherboard. It is not very common problem, but I have seen it before.
Most likely, technicians in the repair shop already tried to install a test LCD screen and video cable, that’s what I would do first.
May 4th, 2006 at 1:25 am
Hello all
I wonder could anyone help with this problem. I have a Compaq Presario laptop - the monitor display blanks out as soon as the screen goes above a 60 degree angle, the screen is perfectly clear until then. The laptop stays switched on.
Thanks.
May 4th, 2006 at 1:42 am
i have adell insperion i have a line across my screen that goes away briefly when i tap the sides or back of the screen can you give me a clue as to what to do next thank you
May 4th, 2006 at 5:34 am
Thanks for the advice - I bought a refurbished motherboard and hooked it up and that didn’t fix my lcd problem either. Still the same problem surely trying another motherboard I wouldn’t have the same issue if it was the motherboard. So I guess I will try to replace the cable first since I am sure it is less costly and then if that does not seem to help I will replace the lcd screen. I feel like I will have a new laptop by the time I get finished! Thanks!
May 4th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Hi cj,
I’ve been looking over your site for a while now, seems like you might be the man to talk to. I have a Toshiba Satellite A75, and I have a similar problem to Guido from his posts in early April. I have a few thin vertical lines through my screen. When I press on the casing above the screen it goes away, but comes right back when I let go. Does that sound like maybe the casing is just loose somewhere? Maybe it’s possible for me to tight something instead of having to buy an entirely new screen? Not trying to spend hundreds of dollars if I don’t have to of course. Thanks a lot.
May 5th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
Michael,
It is possible that the problem is caused by the video cable. Check if the cable is seated properly on the system board and on the back of the LCD screen.
May 5th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
Craig,
Connect the laptop to an external monitor. Check if you have the same lines on the external video. If you do then you have a problem with the system board or the video card, I’m not sure if the video card is a separate module in your laptop. If the laptop displays lines only on the internal LCD screen then the problem is somewhere in the display assembly. The LCD screen is bad itself, the video cable is bad or the connection between the cable and the screen is loose. First step would be reseating the video cable on the back of the laptop screen. If it doesn’t help then you have to try to replace the video cable or the LCD screen. One more test. You can grasp the screen for top left and right corners and try to twist it a little bit, put some tension on the screen. If lines go away when you twist the screen, then I would suspect the LCD screen itself.
May 6th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Heather,
You project is getting costly. Are you sure that the FL inverter board you installed was 100% good? It is a reasonable risk to replace the motherboard, the FL inverter board and the video cable, but the LCD screen might be too expensive. That is the most expensive part in any laptop. May be it’s time to invest money into a new laptop?
May 6th, 2006 at 12:19 am
Aaron,
Check out comment 112 where I responded to comment 108. It looks like you have a similar problem. Toshiba Satellite A75 has the video integrated into the system board. If you get the same lines on an external monitor then most likely the system board is bad itself and should be replaced. When you press on the LCD screen cover you also flexing the system board, so it’s hard to say witch part is failing. Try to connect the external monitor first.
May 6th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Hey,
I am having a video problem on my Satellite A75. About an inch to the right of center there is an inch wide vertical stripe that is adding a significant blue tinge to any video displayed there and certain colors get streaked across it horizontally. It happened a couple months ago and I took it to a warranty center (it was still covered then) and they replaced the whole LCD assembly. It has come back now and is no longer covered. I am thinking that there may be something simpler than a bad LCD given that it is happening in exactly the same place as last time. I was wondering if it might be a loose video cable or something like that. I don’t think it can be a software issue because it happens whenever the screen is on (including during BIOS). Any ideas would be great.
Thanks,
Ed
May 7th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Hi Ed,
The warranty center replaced the entire LCD assembly (screen, video cable, FL inverter) or just the LCD screen? If they replaced the entire LCD assembly then it is possible that the video connector on the system board is failing or loose. Try to reseat the cable on the system board. If they replaced only the LCD screen then it is possible that the video cable is bad or the connection on the system board is loose. First, I would try to reconnect the video cable on the back of the screen and on the system board. If it doesn’t fix the problem, the next step would be replacing the video cable. Finally, if a new video cable doesn’t help I would suspect that the video connector on the system board or the system board itself is bad.
May 7th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
Thanks for the info! The guy at the warranty center said they replaced the entire assembly, but the paperwork only said the LCD screen, so I dont know entirely. I am going to take the thing apart on Tuesday to clean out my heat sink, and while I am in there I will give all the video connectors a check.
Thanks so much!
May 9th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
My ThinkPad A31p’s screen has horizontal lines going across it. They look like the matrix.
Sometimes they cover a small section of the screen, sometimes they cover the whole screen and flicker.
I can reboot and the screen may be perfect for the rest of the day, or the lines may be there right at boot-up, or they may appear after an hour or so.
This has been going on for a week. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Peggy
May 9th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Peggy,
Have you tried to start the laptop with an external monitor? What video do you have on the external monitor?
BTW, I was troubleshooting IBM ThinkPad A31p notebook this morning. The laptop had a faint image on the screen, the external video was fine. At first I thought about a failed FL inverter board. I took apart the display assembly and removed the screen. After that I connected my test screen and got the backlight! So, I had to quote to the customer a new screen. Our price from IBM was over $600!!! He declined the repair.
May 10th, 2006 at 4:54 am
I was afraid you’d ask that. Unfortunately, I tried an external monitor and the screen was perfect. But it could be that it’s just in a behaving mood right now.
I’ll have to troubleshoot by turning my laptop off and on throughout the day on the external screen to see if I get the garbage. I was hoping the intermittent nature of my problem would be a clue to something.
Thanks very much for your help!
Peggy
May 10th, 2006 at 5:14 am
hi i want to know if you can help me with a problum with a toshiba satelite 2410 pent-4m 17ghz there appears to be a fault with the nvidia driver error warning comes up advising to reinstall driver also when starting up display settings usally have to be reset and display is not always 100% some times will have vertical lines across it laptop is 4 yrs old would be thakful for any help .pat
May 10th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Peggy,
That is the first thing to do if you troubleshoot a laptop with a bad video output. This test helps to determine witch block is failing – the system board or the display assembly. Both parts are very expensive and you don’t want just start replacing parts without troubleshooting.
May 10th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Pat,
Do you see the vertical lines only in Windows? Do they appear right after you start the laptop and Winodws OS is not loaded yet? Have you tried to reinstall the video driver?
You can run a restore CDs (or DVD) to reload the laptop back to original factory settings. It will erase everything from your harddrive, so do not forget to backup or transfer all important data to another location before you reload the laptop. If you have a software issue, it would be fixed after you restore the laptop.
May 11th, 2006 at 4:10 a