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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April 8th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Hey Guido,
Make sure that it’s the LCD problem first. Connect an external monitor and restart the laptop. If you see the same lines on the external video, then the LCD is fine, the system board is causing the problem. I’m pretty sure it’s just a failing LCD screen but still it would be nice to verify it by connecting the external monitor. In the USA the screen would cost you about the same or even more.
April 8th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Hey Sree,
Very weird problem!
If you would only mentioned only a faint screen I would me almost positive that the FL inverter board has to be replaced. But after you mentioned, that you can get a normal video when you run off the battery, I’m getting lost. I have no idea what’s going on, I think you might have a system board issue. Just in case try to upgrade/reflash BIOS.
April 8th, 2006 at 8:51 am
HI all, surfing the web i’ve found this usefull site. I have a Toshiba Satellite P35 (P35-S6292 17″ LCD) sice 8 months ago. A couple of weeks ago appeared a cyan vertical line on my screen (from top to the bottom). Today a have 3 lines, cyan, red and yellow. A new LCD costs 650$ here in Asuncion Paraguay. Any help will be be very wellcomed. Thanks in advance.
April 7th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Thanks for this awesome website
I have a Toshiba and have the exact same problem you are describing. The display is very faint and when I push on the little hinge button, it beeps and the display flicker. However, I have noticed that if I am on battery (which has a life of 5 mins now) instead of being plugged in – it stays on. I am wondering if I can change some bios settings to fix this? Or is this a FL inverter issue? Or is this a Battery issue?
Thanks so much in advance
April 7th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
WEBB,
If you feel uncomfortable with computers, I wouldn’t get inside. It’s easy to break something.
When you say that you can get backlight back by tapping on the lid switch, I suspect that the problem is caused by the inverter board. I do not have guides for Compaq, but you can find some guides for Toshiba here: http://www.irisvista.com
The process of removing and replacing the FL inverter board would be almost the same.
It’s hard to say why the video crashes. It might be a software problem as well as a hardware problem. I cannot troubleshoot it without seeing the problem itself.
April 7th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
I know very little about the inside of my notebook, so please help me understand what I need to try. It’s a Compaq Presario R3000, and it’s just as you described – very faint screen with no backlight, when I tap rapidly on the lid switch, the backlight will flicker and I can intermittedly see video on the screen. How do you reseat connections or replace inverters? I’m still learning.
Also, we had a problem with our Invidia Graphics causing video distortions and crashes for several days, but those issues amazingly went away – that was only about 3 days prior to the backlight issues, do you think they are related?
April 6th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Hey Ted,
Here are instructions for Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop.
By the description you provided I would assume that the FL inverter board is causing the problem. Most likely the inverter board fails when it’s getting warm. I think a bad LCD cable would give you an intermittent problem.
I think that it‘s also possible that the backlight bulb is failing itself but I would start with replacing the FL inverter board.
April 6th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 and I am experiencing problems with the LCD. A few minutes after the system has booted and the desktop appears, the display goes black. However, you can faintly make out what is on the desktop if you look closely enough. I did attach an external monitor to my laptop and it works fine.
From the posts I have read on other forums, the problem could
be related to the inverter, backlight, or ribbon cable.
I don’t have enough knowledge to know which part(s) needs to be replaced. I would appreciate any insight on how to make this determination.
In addition, I began to disassemble my laptop and have the LCD panel flipped out from the protective casing. I don’t know where these any of these parts are located. If anyone can provide some instructions or diagram resources, this would be appreciated as well.
Thank you for your assistance,
Ted Cwynar
April 5th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Hi Simon,
If the connections are fine, then I would try to replace the LCD video cable next. It is the cheapest replacement part between the system board and the LCD screen. You have very good chances that the cable will fix your problem.
There are 2 cables listed for Toshiba Satellite P25-S509:
K000005950 for Samsung LCD screens
K000005960 for LG Phillips screens
Check on the back of the LCD screen who made it and try to find this part via ebay or google.
Video cables in Toshiba Satellite P25 are not very reliable. I repaired a lot of P25 laptops with problem like yours just by replacing the cable. But it also possible that the system board or the screen is causing the problem.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Hi Jeff,
I would try to reseat the video cable on the system board and on the back of the LCD screen first, just in case. If it doesn’t help, I would try to replace the cable.
There are 2 video cables listed for Toshiba Satellite A75-S229 screen.
Toshiba part number for the first one: K000015960
Second one listed as backward compatible with the first one: K000034510
You can try to search on ebay by the part number or just google for it and find a store.