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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September 11th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
I have a fujitsu Lifebook S6210. I just replaced the LCD and inverter, but still don’t have a backlight. I looked for a lid close toggle switch(pin) like you mentioned but couldn’t find one. Would anyone know where it might be located on this particular model?
September 11th, 2006 at 1:52 am
I have a HP pavilion zv5000 and my display is showing green where white should be and red where black should be. ie. when I reboot and get the windows boot screen, it should be a black background but its red wih this problem. I hooked it up to a desktop monitor and the display is fine. I bought a new display and that didn’t fix it either. It intermits back to normal for a while and then eventually screws up again. Please help! Thanks in advance!
September 10th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Christina,
, so try to install the FL inverter board from you husband’s laptop into your laptop. See if you can light up the screen.
Your LCD screen is TOTALLY black or you still can see a dim image on it? Take a closer look at the screen when you restart the laptop. Do you see any changes at all?
If you still can see an image, it could be just a bad FL inverter board. It looks like you know how to take it apart
September 10th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
i have a problem with my laptop screen it total black but went i hook it up to my husband laptop that the same model as my it works fine.I can hook it up to a external monitor it works fine.i have try the LCD lid close switch and nothing.does anyone know why the laptop acting this way.i also try updating the driver and the whole system and i try uninstalling the video card and restalling it and nothing.
September 4th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Luke,
Most modern laptops have a video card integrated into the system board. Some models have shared video memory (they use a part of the main memory), some models have a dedicated video memory. Laptops with dedicated video memory perform better then laptops with shared memory and they are more expensive. You should go with a dedicated video memory if you are looking for performance (gaming laptops). If you are going to use the laptop just for basic operations (Word, Excel, Internet, etc…) then shared video memory would be good enough. I don’t know if there is any advantage to buy a laptop with a removable video card. A laptop video card itself is pretty expensive and not a lot of models implement removable video cards, so you have a limited choice and if you need to buy a new video card it would cost you half price of a new motherboard.
September 4th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Ricky,
I still think that it could be a connection issue. You’ve mentioned in the comment 220 that sometimes you can get the screen back to normal when you jiggle the screen. At the next step I would probably reseat the video coble on the system board and on the back of the LCD screen, just in case. Also check the lid close switch, it should move freely. If the FL inverter goes bad, I don’t think that you can get it back to normal by jiggling the screen.
BTW, very often when the inverter is going bad, you can get the backlight back to normal for a moment if you tap a few times on the lid close switch. Try it and see if you can get the backlight flashing. If it flashes when you tap on the switch, then you might have a bad inverter board.
September 4th, 2006 at 11:18 am
I tried to reseat the inverter board by disconnecting both cables from it and then putting them back in. It did not fix the problem.
Do you have any other suggestions?
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Ricky,
I think it could be just a loose connection and you can fix the problem by reseating connectors on the inverter board. To reseat the inverter board, open up the display assembly, disconnect the inverter board (both connectors) and connect it back. If you plan to do it yourself, you’ll find a link to IBM laptop disassembly manuals here.
September 3rd, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Great Website. Thank you for taking the time to help me and everybody else.
I have an IBM thinkpad T22.
Recently, When I turn it on the screen is very dark and I see a faint image of windows.Sometimes When I jiggle the screen back and forth the screen goes back to normal and stays that way till I shut down.
Now even the jiggling doesnt bring back the screen and all I see is a dark faint image. However, The display comes up perfectly using an external monitor.
Do you belive it is most likely an inverter problem?
I am just not sure where to start. Thank you.
-Ricky
September 3rd, 2006 at 3:52 pm
cj2600,
Wow, thanks for the link. I agree w/your logic…
Yes, it seems my pc has a very expensive motherboard, looks like I’m out of luck for now
Guess thats what you get for buying a nice computer. ha.
Thanks for the help, I take it from your perspective, having removeable video is a good thing to look for when buying a notebook?
Thanks again.