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 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:
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
807 Responses to “How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems”
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Pages: « 81 … 15 14 13 12 11 [10] 9 8 7 6 5 … 1 » Show All
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 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 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 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 27th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
thanks for thr info. I just put in a new lcd screen and it is fix.
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 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 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 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 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. ^^