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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May 29th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Hi,
Yes, I’ve already set the brightness on the BIOS to high. I’ve attached an external LCD monitor and the display is clear and bright. Is my LCD already failing?
Many thanks.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Yuhoo,
Have you tried adjusting the screen brightness in the BIOS? I believe for IMB laptops you can adjust the brightness level in the BIOS setup menu.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Paul K,
Does the screen display garbled video even before Windows starts loading?
I don’t think this is a software related problem but just in case you can try booting the laptop from any live Linux CD (I recommend Knoppix) and see if it makes any difference and the video works fine with Linux. If it does, try reinstalling Windows.
If both screens show garbled video, most likely you have a problem with the video card. Toshiba Satellite M30 has a video card integrated into the motherboard. When the video card goes bad you have to replace the entire motherboard, you cannot fix it at home.
May 29th, 2007 at 5:47 am
Hi,
My IBM Thinkpad R32′s LCD looks dim/yellowish even if the brightness is on its full level. What should I look into? I have a photo on the URL below (the R32 beside a laptop with a clearer/lighter display).
http://www.geocities.com/yuho0/P5240784.JPG
Many thanks.
May 28th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Peter,
That’s a weird problem.
Boot the laptop with an external screen and then try using Fn+F5 key combination to switch the video output from the external monitor/TV to the internal LCD, maybe the laptops stuck in the external mode somehow. Press and hold down the Fn key and at the same time press on the F5 key to select the correct screen.
Also try this. Enter the BIOS and set it to default. Reboot the laptop and see if it helps.
Try upgrading the BIOS.
May 27th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Hi, my brother’s laptop is a Toshiba Satellite M30, and he asked me to take a look at it, in short, the lcd screen and an external display will show garbled video, it looks as if the days of the first nintendo when the cartridge would pop out of the system and you would see those white vertical lines, except on a laptop. at first i thought it might be the connection but after disassembling it with the guide from this website,and assembling it all back i did not get much of a video difference.i carefully looked around the motherboard and no sign of burning was present,i was wondering if replacing smth could help solve the problem or if i will have to replace the mainboard?and if reseating the GPU might help this as well.now when loading windows in normal mode it would start the loading process and then give me a blue screen which i cannot read,but it does load the laptop in safe mode, i can see windows but it is very hard to navigate.any help will be appreciated, thx and GREAT WEBSITE
. warranty is out of the question since the laptop is over 2 years old!! thx again
May 25th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Yes the screen is completely blank with no lines at all.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Peter,
The screen is completely dark and has no backlight at all or it turns dark gray with a few horizontal lines?
May 24th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
I have a toshiba satellie a 105-s2716 and when I turn it on the windows loading screen comes up fine. Once windows loads up, the screen goes dark, no light or anything. I plugged in an external monitor and it works fine. I did a fresh install of the OS and while the system is installing the new OS everything is fine on the screen, the problem is once the OS begins booting up, it goes dark and the only way to see it is through an external screen. Any ideas?
May 20th, 2007 at 2:30 am
coolex,
Test the laptop with an external monitor. If you see same horizontal and vertical lines on the external screen, most likely you have a problem with the video card. If the external monitor works fine, something is wrong inside the laptop LCD panel, could be just a loose cable or a faulty LCD screen.