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 11th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Hey Robert,
Have you tried to find a new driver on Dell Support Website ? It looks like they have the video driver for Windows Me.
April 11th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Hi, CJ
I’m so glad to find this blog. Now I’m so depressed because of my computer.
I have Toshiba Tecra S1 laptop and I think it has vedio problem.
It’s started few days ago. When I was using this computer, suddenly something happened on the screen. It seemed to be broken resolution or something trouble with graphic unit. Graphic was broken and suddenly computer was stopped. So I turned it off and turned it on again. Then there was no problem.
But yesterday, when I tried to connect with my external hard drive, it happeded again. So I thought it’s time to format this computer because recently it showed something weird. So I formatted it using recovery CD and installed it succesfully.
I turned it off and then when I turned it on again. on the screen there was nothing I can see. It was just black screen.
When I turned it on, I could hear one beep sound and fan worked. But on the screen it did not show anything.
I think I also heard three times beep sound from inside of computer after booting it. I think this could be vedio unit problem.
Could you give me any advice for repairing this computer? I think I may be able to fix it. But I’ve never opened laptop. If this computer is desktop, it is not a big deal. In my country I used to open and fix some parts.
I bought this computer in my country in 2003. This computer is my best friend ( of course I also have best friend in human ^^). Now I’m so sad…I can not do anything even my homework. :’(
Please help me out…..The cost for repairing is so expensive.
Have a nice day!
April 11th, 2006 at 3:29 am
My Dell latitude c600 display only covers half of the screen. The display adapter system shows the default vga driver is in use. I can’t find or load a new driver. Support for the driver should be included in windows-me.
Can you help?
Bob
April 10th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
Hey Toure,
When I see a white notebook LCD screen I always check the connection between the video cable and the LCD screen first. Most of the time the video cable is half way out and after I reseat it the video is back to normal. You say that you tried to replace the screen and it didn’t help and the external video is fine. So I am pretty sure that you can fix the problem by replacing the video cable.
April 10th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Hi Jean,
I am pretty sure it is not the video card, because you still can get a normal video on the external monitor. You would get a bad video output on the external monitor if the video card was bad.
Here is my guess. You have 2 different problems on the screen: vertical lines and lack of the backlight. Normally these two problems are not connected to each other and it is not likely that the LCD screen got 2 different problems at the same time. There is only one part that can cause these problems – the video cable. I would try to replace the LCD video cable first.
If replacing the video cable will not help, the next step would be to replace the LCD screen (of course after you checked all connections) . In most cases buying a new LCD screen wouldn’t be cost effective solution to repair the notebook computer. It would be better to buy a new laptop, unless you can find a way to buy a cheap LCD.
April 10th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
Guido,
Your laptop has a video chip integrated into the system board. If an external video is fine, then the system board works properly. I am almost positive that you are having a problem with the LCD screen.
April 10th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
hi friends
i have a display problem with my thinkpad t22
i Try to connect the LCD screen to an external monitor,the external video is fine, but the internal monitor (lcd) is white
i change the lcd connection on the mainboard it”s the same problem,i do the same with a new sreen it ’s always white
i want your help to fix this problem
thank you for all
my best
touré
April 10th, 2006 at 7:29 am
I have a Acer aspire 2002WLCI (centrino 1.5/ATI 9200 32mb on a seperate board). A few weeks ago I started to have problems with the LCD display on the laptop. At first, when I started the computer, the screen showed full brightness white vertical lines on a royal blue background. If I connected an external monitor everything was OK (normal windows login window). If I restarted the computer a few times, the LCD would come back in full working order. After a few weeks, the LCD started showing the the same vertical lines all the time (extenal video still OK) and the LCD went dim. I cannot see the normal windows graphics on the LCD now, just the lines, although if I move the mouse, I can see dim vertical lines moving on the LCD. I would like to repair the unit myself, I have already checked the connections but would like to know what part to change (inverter, graphic card, cable, LCD).
Thanks for the great site.
Jean
April 10th, 2006 at 4:14 am
Hi cj2600, i have connected an external montior to notebook, it seems that everything is ok, on that external monitor. This means that system board and video card are ok?.
April 8th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Hi all again, this is a picture’s link of my Toshiba Satellite P35-S6292 with 3 colored vertical lines LCD problem
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grolon/125324583/