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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April 22nd, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Hi cj2600 and thanks for the reply.
I always put the laptop into hybernation/standby by closing the display. When I changed the power settings to “Do nothing” when the lid is closed, the problem did not happen when I reopened the lid (or when I pressed the lid switch for a few moments) so it will have something to do with the computer entering standby/hybernation. I will try using the windows standby next time and i will also try to disable the laptop going into stand by after a period of time (it is currently 30 minutes if not in use) to see what happens.
Please let me know if you still think upgrading the BIOS will help as it does not seem to be a Windows problem.
Many thanks!
April 22nd, 2006 at 9:47 am
Hi Ivelina,
The problem with backlight might be hardware or software related. How do you put your laptop into hibernation or standby? Do you close the display or you enter these modes through the Windows? If the laptop backlight fails to resume after you close the display, then it might be a lid close switch related problem. Try to tap on it a few times after the backlight fails to start. If the laptop backlight fails to resume after you enter hibernation or standby modes through Windows, then the problem might be related to a bug in the BIOS. Some Toshiba laptops have the same issue and you can fix it by upgrading BIOS. Try to upgrade or re-flash the BIOS.
April 22nd, 2006 at 6:00 am
Hi guys
Great forum – it gave me hope I can sort out my prob with your help!
I have a 2 year old hp Compaq nx5000. The problem it has is that in 90% of the occasions, its backlight fails during resuming from hybernation or stand-by. The only thing that helps keep the backlight on is cold reboot. Even after warm reboot, the backlight does not always stay on. However, once booted successfully, the backlight works fine indefinitely, until the next time I try to resume from hybernation/stand-by or warm reboot.
Does it sound like a software problem to you? I updated the monitor driver, did a Windows update, etc with no success. Shall I be looking at flashing the BIOS?
It would even be helpful if you can just asure me that it is a hardware problem – backlight going, FL inverter failing, loose connections, etc – at least I know I have no other choice but to spend the money to repair it!
Many thanks in advance.
P.S Sorry if I posted twice – my prevous message failed but just in case it went through somehow.
April 20th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
Sorry Brian, cannot help with the switch. We do not work on the component level. If the motherboard is bad, we replace the entire board and send the original one for repair to Toshiba. I think if the lid close switch is bad, then it is ether always “on” or always “off”. In your case, the backlight starts for 2-3 seconds each time you apply power to the LCD screen. I guess the lid close switch is not your problem.
April 20th, 2006 at 7:56 am
John,
The ground strap is not connected to anything on Toshiba Satellite M35X. Just leave it alone with the harness when you assemble the laptop.
April 20th, 2006 at 7:29 am
I am replacing the FL Inverter on a Satellite M35X-S149. However, when I first dissassembled the laptop, I noticed there is what appears to be a ground strap coming from the wiring harness that runs from the main board above the F10 key to the connector at the top rear of the LCD panel. This ground strap was not connected to anything, and there does not appear to be any place to connect it. Is this supposed to be connected anywhere? The ground strap naturally lays very close to the lid switch. Thank you.
John
April 20th, 2006 at 6:44 am
OK I have updated the bios to the most current and I reinstalled the display drivers, still no luck. Could it be possible that the Lid Switch is bad? Is there any way I could bypass the switch to take it out of the equation?
April 19th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Brian,
There is an issue alert for Toshiba Satellite M45-S165 and M45-S1651 models. It says: “The LCD Back Light would stay off when the Lid Switch was pressed and released quickly.” As a solution, Toshiba recommends to update the BIOS to version 1.50 or higher. Might be your problem somehow related to this issue alert?
April 19th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
David,
Sounds like the LCD screen problem or the video cable problem. I would try to update / re-flash BIOS. It is possible that BIOS is corrupted. Is there are some settings for the contrast and brightness in BIOS? Try to reseat or replace the video cable. According to Jean (comment 70), the video cable for Acer is pretty cheap.
April 19th, 2006 at 7:18 am
Here’s an odd one – It’s an Acer 1310 and the display is ‘washed out’. All colours are very weak eg black is a blue/grey. Gives the impression of contrast set below zero.
Screen is bright so no inverter problems. VGA output is fine and there is no corruption to the display so no RAM problems.
Any suggestions?