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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January 5th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I have a serious problem with my laptop, 2 days ago while I was checking my email totally died on me. the screen kinda froze, I shut it down and it can’t seem to work anymore. it’s a HP dv2020 (1 1/2 yo). when I turn it on only the blue lights on the keyboard will pop up but can’t hear a vent sound or any other sound you usually hear when you turn on a laptop. i thought it was the screen but i start to think it is the mainboard in which case my files are gone! does anyone have any tip? some hidden reset button that I missed…anyway the most important thing for me is not to lose my files. is these any way i can transfer over another computer even though the laptop is not functional? Any advise will be very much appreciated! Thanks
January 4th, 2008 at 5:06 am
It’s me again. I have torn this thing down per the instructions here.
The video cable is connected well, but it is worn in the hinge area where it is running between the motherboard and the LCD.
I am going to try a replacement of the video cable.
I am pretty sure that the Hard Drive problems started with too many improper shutdowns, and got worse with my attempts at repair, lol. Once I get the display worked out, I will see what can be done with the Hard Drive.
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Update here, I am getting this to work fine on an external monitor.But I still cannot access Windows. Chkdsk r is showing volume contains unrecoverable problems. NTLDS files are missing even though I have copied them 3 times from the Installation Disk.
So I am thinking maybe some kind of virus?
Is there any chance that replacing the Hard Drive will fix this LCD issue also?
Or is there any chance that something loose in there could be causing both of the problems? It’s a Toshiba Satellite A105 S4054 notebook. I tried taking the HD out and putting it back in without results, and reseating the RAM, and of course Battery. It’s really hard to get into, I removed all of the screws on the back, and still really was afraid to keep pushing to remove the back because of all of the USB ports and such.
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:04 am
I am having trouble with a Toshiba A105 model. I can see everything fine when I hook it up to another monitor, but on the laptop I am getting both vertical and horizontal lines, and text is all garbled, I mean crunched up sometimes, stretched sometimes, showing shadows of words two or three times too sometimes, if I keep tapping around and moving the screen, sometimes I can get everything to look right, but I cannot use the keyboard all of the time.
Now I am stuck in a reboot loop, I cannot even get it into safe mode, it has XP Media Edition, and even using the external monitor I am getting nowhere with it. And I do not have a disk to repair XP Media, I only have an XP Pro disk for another computer.
Any insight would be really appreciated.
December 30th, 2007 at 9:30 am
first i want to thank you and to tell you that what you are doing is awesome.i’ll be short and not bother you with a huge story.
i have 10 vertical lines on my laptop display(toshiba m30)which stay there from the startup.i can see the window starting up through the lines but after that i see only a black screen plus the same 10 vertical lines which are by the way composed of around 12 lines each of different colours.the sound is ok.
thanks again and hope you can help me
December 27th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Glen,
It looks like the LCD is broken. Unfortunately the only way to fix this problem is replacing the whole LCD screen. You cannot fix the crack.
December 27th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I don’t even know if its reparable at home so this may be a pointless question. But after a fall onto a hard tile floor the LCD monitor looks almost like its cracked. There are lines running out from the right hand side and a bunch of rainbow colored lines crossing them vertically. The rest of the screen is simply black. The rest of the computer seems to be functioning normally and I’m using another monitor to write this. Is there anything that can be done short of sending it in for professional repairs?
Many thanks,
Glen.
December 26th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Jennifer,
Here’s how you can backup pictures from the hard drive.
Unfortunately there is no simple solution for this problem. It could be something simple like a faulty memory stick or something complicated like a problem with the motherboard. Just in case, try reseating the memory module or try installing it into the empty slot.
Also, it’s possible that your AC adapter is dead. The laptop flashes because you still have some charge left in the battery, but it’s not enough to turn on the laptop. It’s possible to test the AC adapter with voltmeter and find out if it’s bad or not.
December 26th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Thomas,
That’s right. If the screen lights up most likely there is nothing wrong with the inverter.
Did you test the laptop with an external monitor. It looses only internal video or external video is bad too?
I would check the video cable first. There can be some kind of connection issue between the video cable and the motherboard/LCD.
Check connection on the motherboard first, this one is easier to access. If it doesn’t help, try reseating the video cable on the back of the LCD screen. I think reconnecting the cable might help.
By the way, if video disappears on both internal and external screens then this problem is not related to the video cable. Something else is going on on the motherboard.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:05 am
I have a sony vio, and we have had trouble with it from day one but it seems to always work itself out. well now it powers up for a split second the screen flashes, the lights across the bottom flash and then it shuts down. I can also get this same afffect when I push the av button. First is there anyone that can help,second am I going to lose anything from my computer. All of our xmas pictures from yesterday are on there. Thank you