How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems
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?
Entry Filed under: Laptop Tips and Tricks
792 Responses to “How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems”
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Pages: « 80 … 74 73 72 71 70 [69] 68 67 66 65 64 … 1 » Show All
June 24th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Tarun,
If you have the same problem that it’s related to the LCD screen. You cannot fix that, you’ll have to replace the screen.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:52 am
i have a same problem as you have shown in example 9 of bad screens, is there anyways to repair it?? thanks for your help
June 24th, 2008 at 12:44 am
i have about 2 inch vertical white band runing on left side of my screen. i turned off my laptop and switched on again next day and now i have 2 such bands on my screen.
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
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.
Did you test the laptop with an external monitor? The external video is working properly?
Yes, it works fine when i connect to an external monitor. Tried reseating the LCD cable but still no joy
June 20th, 2008 at 12:58 am
I have a Northstar notebook model # A929 that powers up but does not come on…i thought it might be a backlight but it also does nothing when plugged into a desktop monitor do you know what the problem could be?
June 18th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Paul,
Did you test the laptop with an external monitor? The external video is working properly?
June 18th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Paul,
Did you test the laptop with an external monitor? The external video is working properly?
June 18th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Matt,
This sounds like a problem with the screen and it has to be replaced. I don’t know what else can cause a problem like that. Unfortunately, you cannot repair a laptop LCD screen at home.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
dave k,
I think this problem is related to the graphics card. If the graphics card is integrated into the motherboard, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
Just in case. Try reseating the memory and maybe replacing it with another one if you have any. Why? These days most laptops share main memory with the graphics card (shared memory). It means that a part of the main memory is used for the video purposes. Theoretically, it’s possible that a part of the main memory witch is shared with the graphics card is bad and it’s causing the problem.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Daniel Herrera,
This sounds like a problem with the LCD screen.
You can try reconnecting the video cable on both the motherboard and the LCD screen. If reconnecting the video cable makes no difference, most likely you’ll have to replace the LCD screen.