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?
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
September 13th, 2010 at 8:35 am
I have pretty near the same problem as Hadi.
Laptop boots up fine, I can use the biometric to login, hear the default windows sound but no video, very frustrating…
September 11th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Doesn’t look like it gets to windows without the LCD plugged into the main board. External output still doesn’t work. I even tried clearing the cmos, screen is still completely black. Motherboard went bad maybe? Or just a fluke bad lcd screen that causes the video output to not work?
September 10th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
about my dynabook,whenever i turn on my laptop it doesnt open at first attempt,the power indicator is on but the screen is black..i will turn it off pushing the on off button and try it again..den it will open and run smoothly,it happen always when battery is remove.tnx for answering..
September 10th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Hadi,
This part of your description sounds like a problem with the LCD screen.
That’s very strange that you can hear Windows login sound but no video on internal or external monitors.
What if you disconnect the LCD cable from the motherboard and try just with the external monitor connected? Can you get any video on the external monitor this way?
You wouldn’t hear any Windows login sound with bad video card. That’s why I asked you to disconnect the cable first and try with the external monitor again.
September 10th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Have a toshiba satellite p105-s6227. Right side of the screen had a bunch of vertical colored lines. Connected it to a monitor, monitor display was fine. Formated the hdrive and installed windows7. Was almost finished, just putting the final touches on it and installing anti virus (Macafee) and then the video flickered off. I could still hear the music from the speakers, but screen completely black. Restarted, removed batter, etc etc… even took the damn thing completely apart and reconnected everything from the processor, to the lcd/inverter. Same problem – boots up, I can hear it get tot he login screen, I login blindly and hear it get to the desktop but the screen is completely blank. External monitor shows no signal either.
Any idea? Guessing either the vcard died or problem with the lcd – but wouldn’t the video out work with a bad LCD?
September 7th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
erick,
I don’t think this is just the battery failure.
Does it fail when the laptop runs just from AC adapter with battery removed?
September 7th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
about my toshiba dynabook.i remove the battery and plug it in.it dont open at first attempt but it run smooth in 2nd attempt of opening the laptop..but when i put the battery there the problem occur.sometimes it hang..sometimes the screen is garbled.i thought it was video card failure,could it only be a battery failure???plz help sir..tnx
September 7th, 2010 at 7:36 am
lyla,
Internal screen gray and external has multiple color lines? Most likely this is video card failure.
This is a known failure with Toshiba Qosmio G15 laptops.
Read this post: http://www.asklaptopfreak.com/.....o-problem/
There is a chance Toshiba will replace the motherboard at no charge. Try calling them.
This problem is not related to the hard drive replacement. It’s just a coincidence.
September 7th, 2010 at 6:46 am
Kikoba,
Most likely this is LCD screen failure and you’ll have to replace the screen.
Just in case, you can try reconnecting the video cable on both ends (maybe connections are loose) but I don’t think that chances to fix the problem by reconnecting the cable are good.
September 6th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
My screen shows only a portion of a clear image but the main part is gabled what should i do?