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 28th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Hello, could someone help me with instructions or directions on how to replace my lid on my GATEWAY 600YG2 LID – 15.7 Laptop. I am considering buying a new lid but now wondering how difficult it will be to remove the old and install the new. It happens that my lid has had a cracking problem for some time now and I have had it in for repairs on at least 8 times. Gateway now tell me that it is off warranty. I plan on ordering a new lid from mundocorps.com. I would appreciate any help given.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
my dell laptop screen is black ,no pictures when i attach a moniter to it ,it works.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
HP zv5000, just replaced lcd with used one, works on startup from a cold start but if you reboot it will get this white haze covering the entire screen. Doesn’t matter how many times you reboot it will still be there, however, if you boot up from a cold boot 90% of the time it will go away. And if it’s not there and you try and mess with the display settings it will magically appear and not go away until you totally shut down and then boot up.. Any ideas?
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:39 am
cj, can you tell me where to get the CCFL for my Toshiba M50? What exactly do I ask for? I am not gettting that part. Does anyone know where to get it in Bangalore?
March 28th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Sorry, to add to my previous post, I also tried an external screen and the video output was crystal clear!
March 28th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Hello,
Firstly, just thought that I would echo the sentiments of many others who have found this site extremely useful. I think it’s amazing you have taken the time to keep a useful tool like this up and running.
Secondly, I have a question with regards to my Toshiba M40X laptop, model number PSM40XC-RS100E. My LCD has gone into wonky mode, and is now distorted with aqua, pink and red lines/dots. I should note that all black and dark shades are showing red – in case that matters.
Thirdly, this has happened before during my exams last year. I was going to get it repaired under the warranty in that case, but needed it during my exams. Fortunately, one night while studying it suddenly came back out of its wonky mode and worked fine, and continued so until now – a year and a half later.
Any ideas on what it might be / what I should do?
Cheers and thanks again for this great site!
OP
March 27th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Kevin,
you can press “Fn” and then F5, which should then revert the screen output back to the external screen.
Cheers,
OP
March 27th, 2008 at 3:04 am
I am trying to work on a Toshiba Satellite A15 laptop.
The LCD screen got impacted hard and definitely doesnt
work anymore. Only shows up as large dark spots and
cracked lines. I hooked up an external monitor, the bootup
process works until you get to the user login. Then the video
display reverts back to the trashed LCD screen and reads
cable disconnected on the external monitor. External monitor
boots up OK in Safemode. How do I get the ext. monitor to go
in normal bootup without reverting back to the broken LCD ??
THANKS !!
March 26th, 2008 at 8:02 am
I have a Sony Vaio PCG_FRV27 and the graphics chip on it is shot.Where could I find a replacement and do you have a how to segment for replacing the chip like you do for the dc jack repair or could you possibly create one.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:33 pm
TKNY,
Do you have any important information on this laptop? Make a backup. Try reimaging the hard drive back to factory defaults using software recovery discs. It’s possible that you have a software related problem and reimaging the hard drive will take care of your problem.