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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August 16th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
cj2600 thanks for the answer. Fortunatly the video card is not onboard (ATI X700 128mb). So I will to buy a new one. Any idea where I can find a cheap one ? Meanwhile, I will stil to underclock the core and the memory you think that might helps, the default on the card is 351/330 ?
Thanks
August 15th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Daniel Laverdiere,
If lines appear on both internal and external screens then most likely you are right, the problem is related to the video card. The only way to test it is replacing the video card. If the video card is integrated into the motherboard, you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard.
August 15th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I have three LCD monitors these are having same problem , first i bought one it worked good but afterthree month it came problem that no brightness in display on time coming the light after sometime it is comimg bklack if try to re on it will come the brightness one time again go off then I bught another LCD monitor, after 4 month came to this same problem again bought 3rd one also same I gave these to repairing shope the tecnician tried to repair this but he could not do, now I am trying to repair this I thoght the problem in FL inverter section and I changed the transistose with new but no progress coming same problem can u help me to solve this problem.
August 14th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
*** On S-Video I also get the lines – sorry for the mistake.
August 14th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Hello, I have a Gateway M680. My screen display vertical line usually during the startup and a couple of minutes after. Sometime when it is cool I also experince some random crashes (?). On the S-Video everything is fine so I guess this is the motherboard or the video card (Ati X700). How can I test this ? Also I have never experienced any crashes or weird display was I was under battety. Any idea ? Thanks.
August 6th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Hello ! I`m the girl with that Fujitsu Siemens which were making white screen. I understand from where were the problem – my RAM memory wasn`t same frequency like it should be for this model. Because I increase it and instead of to put DDR 330, I put DDR 400.
So if someone have same problem and just before that he change his RAM memory , please check is it same frequency
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:32 am
Thanks CJ.
I reseated the memory modules and now the beeps are gone but there is no display on the LCD (not even the faint image that was before when only the inverter was bad) nor on the external monitor.
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Bogdan,
No, it couldn’t.
Check the memory first, make sure it’s seated properly. Reconnect the memory module and check if the contacts on the memory are clean. Test your laptop with a known good memory.
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:00 am
Hi.
I have an Acer Aspire 5630 with a bad FL inverter. The wierd thing is that often it also makes 3 beeps (1 long and 2 short ) when starts and then it hangs. Could the bad inverter cause this beeps or is there something else?
July 31st, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Pierre,
If the vertical line appears only on the laptop LCD but not on the external screen then most likely you have a problem with the LCD screen.
I doubt that this problem is related to the video cable. A bad video cable can affect the entire image on the screen but I don’t think it cannot cause a thin vertical line.
Check out example 2 in this post. You line looks something like that? If yes then most likely it’s a bad LCD screen.