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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November 18th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Hey cj.
I have an IBM T42 laptop that’s display went very dim a few weeks ago. I came across your site and found it very informational.
When the lid close switch is pressed it will flash for a moment like it is trying to turn on but failing. Everything works fine on an external monitor. It was showing all the symtoms of a bum inverter. But I may have jumped the gun and purchased a new inverter, but after I installed it there was no signs of the problem being solved. Same old story.
But a few days later when I started it up, the screen came on just fine, but it would shut back off after a few hours. Very bizarre behavior. Now I can sometimes get it to turn on by rapidly pressing the lid close switch. It seems to have a pinkish hue at forst but it goes back to normal after it is on for a little while.
Do you think that I could have received another bum inverter? Or do you think that I have some loose wires or a bad connection somewhere? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Matt
October 30th, 2007 at 5:03 am
I have a sony vaio. I have just changed a broken dc power connector and after reassembly the lcd is acting up. It will work right up until windows starts to boot and then cut out. External monitor works fine. Any ideas?
October 29th, 2007 at 1:05 am
My Asus laptop LCD becomes completely white
external output is good
Somebody suggest me about inverter
October 28th, 2007 at 5:12 am
The screen in our Presario 2700 only shows rainbow color vertical lines and similar random changing patterns. The laptop works fine when connected to an external monitor, and the LCD also works fine when switched to another laptop (same model). What is not working? We are not sure which part to replace. Help!!!
October 21st, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Wayne Jay,
This is not an inverter problem. You still can see the image on the screen and it’s still bright, even though it’s inverted, right? If the screen is still bright, there is nothing wrong with the inverter board.
I would check connections between the video cable and motherboard/LCD screen, it’s possible one of the connections got loose. There are two different places to check.
1. Connection between the video cable and the motherboard. Usually you can access this connection after you remove the keyboard.
2. Connection between the video cable and the LCD screen. In this case you’ll have to take apart the display panel because this connector is located on the back of the screen.
Reseat both connection and see if it help. If the image on the screen is still inverter, most likely the LCD screen has been damaged and you’ll have to replace the screen.
October 19th, 2007 at 9:12 am
My sister has a Dell Latitude D410. Recently it fell out of her bag and now the image on the display looks like a photographic negative and is very faint. When an external monitor is connected the display on the external monitor is normal. Do you think this would be an inverter problem? Thanks in advance. You have a great site!
October 14th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Hi there, i’m currently using a Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop. It is reaching its three year old mark but recently I encountered a problem.
Following a game session, the screen had many glitches with random lines and boxes. It appears in both my lcd and my external monitor. It also appear in the BIOS. I called tech support and they diagnosed it as a graphics card problem (a diagnostic test showed a video memory problem).
After replacing the graphics card, the problem went away. However, 2 weeks later the problem returned slowly. More and more lines started appearing and now it’s completely covering my screen.I’m wondering whether the graphics card is the only problem as the problem returned so soon. Is there a possibility of other malfunctioning system occuring concurrently that caused this problem? How do I check?
Furthermore, I think during the process of replacing my video card I think i might have damaged the lcd screen. It goes dark after using it a while although I can still barely make out what’s on the screen. It also happens if i move the lcd lid. Is this an inverter problem? Is there a way that I can make sure?
Sorry for so many questions.. this has been causing me much anxiety.. Hope you can help.. thanks in advance!
October 8th, 2007 at 11:03 am
My toshiba when turned on the bottom of the screen is a light blue.i can still operate it ,but i can not see the bottom half .
I have a picture if you have a place i can send it to.
October 6th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Hi, hoping you can help me i have some questions.
I received from a friend a nx5000 for free without screen, i have plastic parts and the video cable, not the lcd (broken).
I have connected a 14.1′ screen but all i can see is a black screen which in a few minutes turns in a brighter screen which shows only coloured vertical lines.
The external screen works fine.
the questions:
1- May i test this laptop (born for 15′ screen) with a 14.1 inch screen (on HP store both screens are sold for this laptop)?
2- May i connect any XGA 15′ lcd screen with 30 pins connection or i have to look for special one?
3- Maybe a (video)systemboard failure?
Many thanks and sorry for my english.
Andrea
September 27th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Mother in laws laptop had faint image on screen. When I connected a VGA monitor you could only see the XP startup and then the external would go black and say “no signal” I could not get the ext. screen to toggle on. Until I read #550 and popped the lid switch back up and now the laptop screen works perfectly.
Thank you
from the son in law