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 20th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I have a Presario 2200 laptop and recently a 208px wide vertical bar appeared on the right of the display. The bar seems to have slightly more brilliance than the remaining screen. A day or two after the previous incident another vertical bar appeared 416px to the left of the first. It is also 208px wide and the brilliance seems to be at maximum. Everything on the screen is functioning normally with the exception that it is difficult to read text in the washed out bars – especially the one near the centre of the display.
I’m starting to think that it is a video display cable problem as plugging into an external monitor gives a normal picture.
Have you seen this before?
Many thanks
January 19th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Shwan,
If you replaced screen and cable but still having the same problem (whites screen) there is a problem with the motherboard. I don’t know what else could be wrong. It’s not related to the inverter board by the way.
I would check the memory first. In order to get video on internal or external screen you have to have good motherboard, CPU and memory. If replacing memory doesn’t help, probably you have bad mobo. CPU failures are not very common.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Well I replaced the Video Cable on the Toshiba Satellite A105 S4054, and I still have a problem with having to have the screen exactly in the right position to be able to see everything and run the mouse. Sometimes I have to open or close it more, sometimes I can just mash around a little on the screen. All of the screws are tight, the video cable is connected well.
Everything still works great on an external monitor, before I buy the FL Inverter, is there anything else I need to know?
January 17th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Hi,
Thanks you for your site and all the usefull information.
I have the following video problem:
I have a toshiba m100, core duo (yona) with ATI X1400 pcie graphic adapter. The screen stopped working almost completely. the screen is totaly blank (no dim image), but everything else works: The computer boots fine and I can even login with the fingerprint reader and managed to launch programs (using windows narrator, I managed to turn on disk sharing an rescue some files…).
I connected an external monitor and it is also blank. I made sure to try to switch to it using fn key combination.
curiously, once in a couple of days the computer boots with the screen working fine, but then after about 10 minutes, the screen picture freezes (still turned on..) and the computer hangs. on one ocasion when the screen turned on on boot, I changed the bios setting to make sure I try the external monitor, but for no good. when the laptop screen is blank, the external screen also does not work.
I understand that the fact the screen works once in while, together with the fact that when the screen is blank the external screen is also bad, suggests that this is a MOBO problem or a Graphic adapter (ati x1400) problem, and not an LCD problem.
My questions are:
1. How can I know if it’s the MOBO or grachic card which is bad?
2. is the fact the when the screen is blank the computer boots and works fine (with sound, wifi etc.) suggests the the MOBO is fine and the bad part is the graphic card?
Thank you very much.
3. I saw both parts are offered in SparePartsWarehouse, it it possible to replace just the graphic adapter?
Thanks,
David.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I love your website!
I am pretty new to the laptop repair world,but I do love it.I have a pair of Compaq Presario 3000’s.One boots fine,white screen,good external video.I tried replacing the inverter,screen,screen cable…same result..white screen.The other 3000,no video at all….black screen…even on external moniter…did same thing with this one…cable…screen…inverter.Im thinking the on board video card is bad on this one.But the one with the white screen…Im lost here!Any ideas?Thankyou for your time….Shawn
January 13th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Steven,
To me it sounds like a problem with the LCD screen and in order to fix the problem you’ll have to replace the screen.
January 13th, 2008 at 2:29 am
I’ve had a DELL Inspirion 9300 laptop for 3 years now.
2 months ago a 2″ wide white vertical stripe appeard
on the screen.Is seems as if it were taped from outside.
Icons cen be moved beneath it.If someone could find out
the reson, I’d be more than grateful.
Thanks,
Steven
January 8th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
You’re the MAN!!! I replaced the cooling fan in my Toshiba Laptop tonight. I am not a computer repair person by any means. Toshiba’s instructions to disconnect and connect the pressure plate connector was not near as good as your pictures and instructions. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
January 7th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Diego,
It’s possible that there is a problem with the motherboard. It’s hard to tell you what is wrong without looking at the laptop.
Most likely you’ll be able to recover your files because it looks like you have a problem with the motherboard, not the hard drive.
Just in case test the AC adapter with a voltmeter, make sure it outputs correct voltage.
January 6th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Thanks again,
I tried to remove the two memory slots and reseat them but nothing happen. when i turn it on my computer seems dead — don’t know if you are familiar with the hp dv2020 but basically when press the power button on only the blue lights come on but i don’t hear any noise, the one the you usually hear when you turn on a laptop (vent etc.). I know that I had issue with my battery, meaning that my battery power was less than 20 minutes therefore I always had to use my AC adaptor but I don’t think right now a new battery would help right?
I also tried to connect my laptop to a PC to see if it was a screen related issue but nothing would pop up on the PC monitor. I mean everything happened so abruptly, I was working on some emails (for more than 2 hours) and all of a sudden the screen made like a zzzzzzz sound and looked like snow in the old TVs. Therefore I pressed the power button to turn off the laptop and turned it back on and it died ever since (in the way that I described, that is only the basic blue lights come up, the ones that are on the top part of the keyboard…power button, volume, link to the quick time player commands but no computer noise). I also tried to put a dvd on, I would hear the initial noise but nothing after 30-40 sec. and no image of course.
At this point, I am wondering if this is something I can fix. It sucks I am loosing all my files and in this respect I am wondering if the USB enclosure you suggested to transfer the files to another computer would work given the current status of the laptop.
Thanks in advance for any tips you might have for me — you service is excellent!