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?
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July 25th, 2006 at 2:24 am
i have a toshiba satellite p10-792 and encountered all the symptoms of bad fl inverter but what really bothers me is that when the fl inverter gone bad sometimes my laptop will not boot.is bad fl inverter can be the cause of my laptop not to boot.
thanks mr. cj2600
July 19th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
i currently own an ECS G556E notebook and sometimes after i resume from standby the lcd does not turn on. the lid is not closed when this occurs. whay could possibly be the problem? thanks!
July 16th, 2006 at 6:14 am
anybody here encountered a problem regarding sensor switch magnet for toshiba satellite P10?
thanks!
July 14th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Simon,
Test the memory, try to install a test module, move it from one slot to another. Minimize the system – remove HDD, DVD, wireless card, etc… Finally, reseat connectors.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Hey CJ, you have helped quite a bit in the past, im just needing a refresher. where to start with a laptop that will not boot externaly or internal monitor?
July 12th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Julius,
I think that’s a bad LCD screen. A bad video cable can cut off the video signal completely or you’ll get some garbaged video, but I doubt that a bad video cable can cause just the middle column to be washed out.
It’s not the FL inverter board. The FL inverter provides power for the backlight bulb and if it’s bad you have no backlight at all. It will affect the entire screen and not the part of the screen.
So, if the laptop works fine with an external monitor then it must be the LCD screen problem and the motherboard (video card) should be fine.
July 12th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
I recently got given a Compaq Presario 1200 model 12XL300. It has a 600mhz celeron with 128mb ram and a 6gb harddisk. He told me the screen started playing up when he tried to install XP.
The screen has an extremely slow response time, it is very blury. If you could imagine dividing the screen into three colums the middle colum is washed out.
I am not 100% sure if the screen is actually faulty as i havwe not seen it in action before it was formatted with XP. Using an external display it works fine.
I have installed 98SE with the drivers from the HP Compaq website to no avail. The screen is slow also in the post and bootup.
Is it worth checking the logic board and replugging the video cable/Backlight ?
Thanks
July 12th, 2006 at 12:58 am
Thanks for the response! Unfortunately, restarting it in safe mode doesn’t work either. When I restarted the screen, I noticed the top third of the screen is “brighter” than the bottom half. I suspected a problem with the hardwares since the problem persisted and began as soon as the computer is turned on. Furthermore, when I connected my desktop monitor to the laptop, the display on the monitor is perfectly fine. Thanks again and please, any advise/suggestion is greatly appreciated!
July 11th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Sandy,
Try to boot the laptop in Safe Mode and see if you still have the same problem with the video. If it works fine in the safe mode, then you might have an issue with the video driver. Try to reload the video driver.
July 11th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Hi, I bought a Compaq Presario R3000 about a year ago. It ran great until two days ago when the screen suddenly “dimmed” in the middle of an application. One minute it was fine, the next the colors from the screen became really “washed out”–similar to when you turned the contrast all the way up, and you can only see faint images and colors in a whie haze. I was told that it may take up to $300 or more to fix it (depending on what the problem is). Can you give me an idea as to what the problem may be, and whether self repair is possible? Any comment would be appreciated!
Thank you!