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?
October 20th, 2008 at 11:57 am
HI. In my case, my HP laptop boots with a blank LCD screen, but it lights normally once the OS(Vista Home Premium) kicks in, then, everyhting is normal. When I attached an external monitor, it did not have any problem showing the boot screen, etc. Also, the LCD display was previously being shown as a Plug-n-Play Monitor, but since this problem has started, it now shows Generic Non Plug-N-Play Monitor. I have no idea how all this happened on its own. Please help me out.
October 19th, 2008 at 8:29 am
ey i need some help wid my vista laptop ok heres the problem. evrytime i log on to my vistas account the screeen goes al black and it wont respond i even slept for 3hrs and stil black help!
October 18th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
i have sony vaio vgn-tz50b Japanese version, the lcd become error. its show only 4 colours. yellow, blue red and green.
i can see image on the lcd, but only 4 colours. what wrong with my vaio? thanx
October 15th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
i have compaq f500..my laptop glass break.disply is working properly
but glass is broken..
i open my lcd but i am fail to fix it,,tell me how can i fix it
please
October 14th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I have a toshiba 1905 s301 with windows xp home. I have changed the fl inverter once. I have lines appearing where they shouldn’t be when the laptop is ‘cold’. Once it’s warmed up on the AC adapter, the lines start disappearing. I also go to display properties and change the refresh rate back and forward and it fixes the problem once the laptop has been connected to AC for a while. Any idea what the problem may be?
Thanks for such a valuable site!
October 14th, 2008 at 11:57 am
cj2600, the problem with my laptop is that when I turn it on, I can’t see anything because the screen is so dim. I can see a little only when I hold a flashlight to the screen. And, when I use an external monitor, I can see everything just fine.
I’ve already decided to replace the entire motherboard, my classes are becoming more and more dependant on computers and it would really help if I just had a computer to use.
The computer (HP Pavilion 5215us) is not a bad computer at all, definitly not one to just get rid of when it stops working properly. Hopefully, once the repairs are done, I won’t have any other serious problems… gotta just keep my fingers crossed I guess.
October 13th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
RO,
Sounds like a problem with the video card. Test the laptop with an external monitor and if you have the same problem with external video, most likely it’s bad video card.
If the video card is integrated into the motherboard (witch is true for most laptops), you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard.
October 13th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I have a Compaq/HP NX9600, the video comes on and it looks like the Matrix screen, a bunch of text scrolling it would stop for a couple of minutes and start up again.
Can you direct me on what could be wrong and what to replace. I’m willing to try replacing some parts but, if the parts are over $150.00,like a MB replacement, I’ll probably buy a new or refurbished laptop for a little more money with a warranty.
Thanks for the helpful website and hope to hear from you soon.
October 13th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Omar,
I think you forgot to mention your problem. What is wrong with the laptop?
October 13th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I just got off the phone with a local computer technician and he said that it’s “definitly not the inverter or lcd screen but either the video cable or the motherboard.”
When I originally replaced my lcd screen, I made sure that the video wire was plugged all the way into the back of my lcd screen… so I’m pretty sure that the video wire is not the problem. The computer technician said most of the time, from his experience, the $30 video cable is not the problem but rather the motherboard. He wants $275 - $300 to replace the motherboard but I am still hesitant.
Should I spend the $30 for the new wire and see if that is the problem or is that a waste of my time? Also, are motherboards hard to install? Say I bought a new motherboard off of ebay for example.
Mind you, I’ve had this issue with my laptop for about 3 months now. I can’t use it unless I have an external monitor nearby and, as a college student, I would like to be able to bring my computer to class so I can get some homework done. I’ve even thought of just buying a completely new laptop… $300 for the repair, $800 for a new much better computer.
Thanks for the help