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?
June 18th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Jeff,
I don’t think that your problem is related to the inverter board. When you have a bad inverter, the screen my flicker (the backlight goes on and off) but there shouldn’t be any ghosting. Try reseating the video cable first, that could be connection related problem.
I think it’s either bad video cable or bad LCD screen. That’s my guess.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Can you please help me find a service manual for a Fulitsu Siemans Amilo M3438G model laptop. I need to see how to pull the laptop apart as well as to see why every time I touch the screen the computers just powers down as if there is a short circuit. It switches off immediately no saving of anything just straight off.
Any Help is appreciated
June 16th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
First: Thank so much for this much appreciate service. Whatever you can do my daughter will be ever so gleefully happy!
My Dell Inspiron 6000, Win XP boots up as far as this text:
“A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damaage. . .”
Technical information:
Stop: 0X000000BE (0XF876E2D8, 0X02E6A121, 0XF8902420, 0X0000008)
PartMgr.sys - Address F896E2DB base at F876C000, Datestamp 3b7dc5a
Gil
June 16th, 2008 at 5:02 am
I have an Acer Aspire 9301awsmi 17″ widescreen laptop, The screen has suddenly gone white with very fine coloured lines running vertically on the screen. I’ve tried re-seating the lcd cable but still no joy. sometimes the startup screen comes on fine, but the minute it goes to the windows xp boot screen thats when it happens. please help!!!
June 12th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
My dell xps m140 lap top screen just went out. The video on the LCD screen is garbaged. It started working again the other day then quit again. I noticed last night if i press on the screen it seems to fix it. Sometimes when pressing on the screen i can get it to work again but slightly faded. Right now though without holding my thumb on the screen in a certain place on the monitor screen it is garbaged. Is this somthing that can be fixed or should i try to find a cheap used replacement screen.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
hi i have a problem with my laptop the screen has lots retragles red and black but its the same on the external monitor as well any idears thank u
June 11th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
The video on the LCD screen in my laptop is partially garbaged, I have a HP Pavilion DV6000t and I see in perfect conditions upper 3/4 of the LCD screen, but the bottom 1/4 sometimes freezes and sometimes show garbage, I have to close and open the lid and I can back to normal, but when I close the lid to shutdown and I open again to turn on, I experience the same problem.
I realize that when I touch/press left/bottom corner LCD border (close to conecion between board and screen) the view improves, so maybe the problem is near that zone.
What should I check inside my LCD screen to fix it?
thank you
June 8th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Hello, First thanks for this excellent resource!
I have a Gateway MX6440 and the screen intermittently flickers with the text ghosting itself making things almost unreadable. I have tested on a external monitor and things look perfect.
It seems to be worse when I am using the external power source instead of the battery. The screen is not dark so I am not sure if it’s the invertor. Any suggestions?
June 8th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Josie,
If we assume that the inverter board and the CCFL lamp are good, then this problem is related either to the video cable or to the motherboard. The only way to find out is replacing the video cable and hopefully it will cure the problem.
June 8th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Hi, I was wondering if my video cable is bad. I replaced the inverter & the CCFL lamp. I have my laptop connected to an external monitor and everything works fine. When I replaced the lamp, it did not light up…so I am hoping its b/c the video cable is bad.