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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June 7th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Don Weaver,
Could be bad inverter board. That’s the first think I would try to replace.
June 7th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
My toshiba a135 screen goes blank,only faintly seeing anything at all
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Danny Cannon,
Did you test the laptop with an external monitor? External video is fine?
If external video works fine and this problem appears only on the internal screen, I guess you a right, it’s related to the LCD screen but there is a possibility of bad video cable.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Adom,
If there is an image on the screen, bad or good, and you can see the image, there is nothing wrong with the inverter. The inverter board is just a power supply for the backlight lamp. The inverter board cannot affect image on the screen.
Are you sure that the new LCD screen is compatible with the old one? Different LCD screens require different cables.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:02 am
My display looks like its going bad, I have red tint to everything and you can see at the bottom some red swirly lines down at the task bar. This just happen today when I booted up…….
I have a Toshiba P205-S6267 17″ running Vista bought new in May of 2007.
If you give me your email I’ll send you some screen shots.
Thanks
Danny
June 1st, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Adom: The computer was being used when it was dropped perhaps 2 ft, mostly onto the battery side. Then the screen when blank. Here is the current situation: When first turned on and booting, the screen is bright and pale white with thick (~1.5 in) bands that are very similar in color and shade. Then, as it continues to boot, the screen begins to fade to dark (not black) and some thin banding begins on the right side…I have attempted to reseat all cables and everything works when attached to an external monitor.
cj2600: I think when you dropped the laptop you damaged the LCD screen. This sounds like a problem with the screen.
UPDATE: Thanks for the help! I replaced the inverter board and saw no difference. Put old one back then replaced the LCD screen. THEN something starting smoking on the board, I think by the next to where the video cable is attached. No video. Ripped the battery out. Put the old LCD back in and get basically the same thing. Plugged into an external monitor again and everything ran fine. Anyone?
June 1st, 2008 at 11:20 am
Ghost,
Try stating the laptop without the hard drive installed. Can you get video on the screen this way?
Try reconnecting the memory modules. Just remove the memory module from the slot and install it back in. Does it help?
June 1st, 2008 at 11:16 am
Doug,
This sounds like a problem with the motherboard/graphics card.
Can you unplug the LCD screen cable from the motherboard and test the laptop just with the external monitor. Will the external monitor work when the LCD screen is unplugged from the motherboard?
June 1st, 2008 at 11:11 am
Sooraj,
It’s possible that you see that reddish screen because the backlight lamp is getting old. Take a look at this laptop for example.
Check settings in the BIOS setup menu. I believe in BIOSes you can change settings so the startup screen, so it appears in the center. Not sure 100% that you have these settings on your laptop, this is just a guess. Enter the BIOS setup menu and load default settings for the BIOS.
May 26th, 2008 at 5:31 am
I have Toshiba A135 when I start it the screen is blank and no
hard drive loads.