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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April 12th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Hi, CJ.
Today I tried to connect to another external monitor. But it didn’t work. I think I should open this computer. When I turn on the computer, I still hear three times beep sound. One is a little long, and two are shorter than first one. I have no experience to open laptop, but I want to try it.Because I’m a student in electrical engineering in college. I will do it following your explanation in this site. When I open computer, should I also remove memory, hard drive and etc on the bottom? There is 23 steps, right? I think I should check “step 14 in your guide for Tecra S1″. For checking this, which steps should I do? Do I need all steps before step 14? I want to try to fix my computer by myself. I already appreciate you, but if you help me little more, I’m really happy. Please~~
April 12th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
Irene,
Most likely a new FL inverter will fix the problem. It also might be a video cable problem or the LCD screen itself is bad. I would suspect the FL inverter first.
April 12th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Chun,
I think that it might be just a loose connection. I would try to reseat the cables. It requires some skills because you have to open the laptop case. Not sure 100%.
Try to turn on the laptop and use Fn+F5 key to toggle between the internal and external video output.
April 12th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Help! I have a screen with no backlight, images on my screen are really dim. I would like to check if the switch is stuck, however there seems to be no physical switch for the screen as there are on other laptops (mine is a dell inspiron 1150).
I am planning to buy an inverter online and replacing it, am i on the right track?
April 12th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
Thank you for your reply, CJ. I tried to check memory modulus. I think it is not memoey sticks problem. I also tried to connect to external monitor. The result was fine. But what I don’t understand is when I connected my laptop to external monitor, it was fine. I removed external monitor and turned on my computer. At that time it was fine. However after I came back home, it happened again.
What do you think about this?
April 12th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Hi Nicole,
You can try to boot your computer in a safe mode. After that find a display adapter entry in the device manager. Right click on the display adapter and go to Driver tab. Use Roll Back Driver button get back to the previous driver.
April 12th, 2006 at 5:44 am
After installing a new video driver and deactivating the old driver, the computer restarts but when windows starts up the screen becomes black. How can I reactivate the old driver when I see nothing on the screen?
April 11th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Hey Chun,
Toshiba Tecra S1 has a video chip integrated into the system board. So if the onboard video is bad, the entire system board has to be replaced.
Sometimes Toshiba laptop beeps 3 times when you start the laptop without memory sticks. Check your memory modules. If you have 2 memory sticks installed try to remove them one by one and start the laptop. If you have only one memory stick you can try to move it to a different slot. It should be pretty easy because both memory slots are located on the bottom of the laptop. Also it would be nice to find another good memory for test.
Try to connect the laptop to an external monitor. If you cannot get any video on the LCD screen and the external monitor with a good memory installed, then most likely the system board is bad. If the external video is fine and you still have no video on the LCD screen, then the system board is good and the problem is somewhere in the display assembly.
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!