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!
October 8th, 2006 at 7:27 am
reseated all connectors and still no change. screen stays on a few seconds and then goes off but the dim image remains. I noticed that the bottom part of the LCD screen is brighter than the top part from the backlight. Also notice a faint buzzing noise when the lcd is on for those few seconds. Any ideas on what would cause this?
October 6th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Osi,
Did you reseat the video cable connector on the motherboard? You can access it if you remove the keyboard. Try it first before you ordered any parts.
October 6th, 2006 at 5:03 am
I must say that your page is one of the best i’ve seen yet. very well laid out and comprehensive.
Anyhow, I have a thinkpad t23 and dropped it by mistake. Now the backlight comes on at first but then goes off after a few seconds but you can still see the faint windows logo. If i depress and release lid close switch the screen come back on but then goes back to faint after a few seconds again so i know the lid close switch seems to be working ok. I reseated the connectors from the lcd ribbon and the lcd inverter first but the problem persisted. I then replaced the LCD inverter itself and still have the problem. I am considering replacing the LCD ribbon next and if that doesn’t work perhaps the LCD screen. I really have no clue what the problem is and I’d rather not spend the money to replace anything else (especially not the screen) if the problem lies elsewhere. Any thoughts?
October 5th, 2006 at 10:01 am
DaVe,
Usually when you have a bad connection, it would affect the video output on the entire screen, not just on a part of the screen.
Check the video output on an external monitor to make sure that it’s not the video card problem. If you have the same lines on the external monitor, it’s the motherboard/vide card problem.
October 5th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Doug,
I think you are right. Looks like a video card problem. In most cases, when a bad video output appears on the external monitor too, the system board/ video card must be replaced. You mentioned that the laptop has an onboard video card, so you’ll have to replace the entire motherboard.
Apparently you have a problem with the video memory. If you laptop uses a share video memory (a part of the main memory), I would probably try installing another memory stick. I would try it just in case, even though the main memory passed Memtest. You can do that only the main memory is not integrated into the motherboard and both memory slots are accessible.
October 4th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
I’ve a dell inspiron 9300, horizontal white & grey lines apear in a vertical stack along the left hend side of the screen. The lines appear to be above the picture and images can be seen (distorted) on the part of the screen. changes and movement on screen also affects their spacing and colour. My first guess is that the problem is related to connections. Any further advice or ideas would be greatly appreachiated,
DaVe
October 1st, 2006 at 6:05 pm
This shows up both on the LCD and on an external monitor
http://www.dlogan.net/screen.jpg
Its on an Compaq 1800 Notebook. I am assuming that the onboard video is likely dead *sigh*, but would love a second opinion. Sometimes everything loads great. Also, when it looks like this, I can sometimes move the mouse around and it will redraw properly behind the area where the mouse has moved. I don’t appear to have any issues when I have simply text displaying. Any chance it could at lest be heat related? Memory passes Mem test. Thanks!
September 30th, 2006 at 10:37 am
[...] Read my other posts related to laptop video issues: How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems Laptop has bad video on the LCD screen. What is wrong? [...]
September 28th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Sorry Colleen,
I don’t work with projectors at all. Cannot help.
September 27th, 2006 at 9:43 am
I have been very frustrated. I have contacted Dell and Epson both. There tech people are not very helpful. This is the problem. We own an Epson PowerLite S1 LCD and a Dell Inspiron 9400. We previously owned a Dell Lattitude.
When using the Dell Lattitude with the Epson LCD everything was fine. The image was clear but when using the Dell Inspiron the image is not clear. The grid is magnified to the point that it distorts the image. I have messed with the focus, the tracking and whatever else I could think of on the projector. I have changed the pixels on the laptop. It just changes the size of the picture not the quality of the image. We have the laptop set at 1280X768. The projector’s native resolution is fixed at 800X600. Can you help? Like I said Dell and Epson have been of no help.