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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December 25th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I have a Gateway 600yg2 laptop and the screen has gone completely black. I have a external monitor hooked up and it works fine. The laptop monitor actually came back on a couple of times when I started it, but when I turn it off for a while then turned it back on it was black again. When I go to display properties it always says the montitor is not activated, so I tell it to activate the montor, and after rebooting It says the same thing (this monitor is not activated) any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You Chet
December 25th, 2007 at 4:03 am
Hi,
I’m having a problem with my Gateway M680, the screen, more often than not, will not get a signal. The backlight stays on though, I don’t think there is a problem with the inverter. I, embaressingly, can sometimes get it to work the old fashioned way, by hitting it, but I’d like to try to fix this.
Since the screen does sometimes work fine, I think the problem must be with the video cable, do you think this might be right? Or could there maybe be a loose connection somewhere on the motherboard? Any ideas where to look?
Thanks
December 18th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Me again
i havent done anything just yet. the problem prevails though. however, i found out, that the scrren stays on, when i reduce the brightness level from max to about medium.
It doesnt fix the problem but at least allows me to work on my thinkpad until i find a solution (that should not involve too much monex
)
December 17th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I have replaced the inverter board on my Thinkpad A31, but still only have faint image on screen. Toggling F7 will bring up screen corectly only for a second. Attaching output to working monitor gives a good image. What should I try next?
December 13th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
well, thanks for the helpful advice. i figured that the problem is the ose butto, which i abt a couple of tims (ca 1000
). after tapping the screen will turn back on. however, it turns off right away after about 10 seconds. i tab again and its on, after 10 secs ists off again. i guess the switch is wasted, however i would like to to know if you could give me some advice before i start some major action here.
thanks in advance,
phil
December 10th, 2007 at 1:15 am
i have a wird problem. just landed in dubai via bangkok. i used my laptop in bangkok and it was fine, then when i arrived in dubai the screen has distorted colors, pink is everywhere, wierd color spasms. only thing i can think of that may have caused this is thex-ray scan or something i went through at the bangkok airport. does anyone have any remedies??
November 30th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Jodi,
This sounds like a problem with the LCD screen. Most likely you’ll have to replace the screen.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I have a dell insprion 2200. The lcd has a “C-shaped” area on the right hand side that is lighter (almost white) than the rest of the display. You can still see the display, but it is faded in that area only, making lighter images difficult to see. Any idea what might cause this?
November 27th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Steven,
Have you tried Fn+F4 keys in order to switch video signal from the external to internal mode. I could be wrong but I think Fn+F4 is the right key combination.
Turn on the laptop, hold down Fn and then press F4.
Check the BIOS. Maybe you can find some settings for internal/external video output in there.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I have a compac presario v5102 nr and the screen is usaly blac but back light is workin and display starts working after hooked up to external monitor. need sugestions