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?
January 6th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Helin,
Why do you think your problem is related to the virus?
Can you enter the BIOS setup menu? Will Esc, F1, F2, etc… keys work?
Try entering the BIOS setup menu when the hard drive is removed. If you cannot and still have no response from F* keys, most likely your problem is not related to the virus. There is something else going on.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I have a m35x-s149, i replaced the motherboard in it since known issues were with the power chip solder job were bad……
I tested the new board and all worked fine before i installed the motherboard into it’s case… After installation of the motherboard into the case, i had no video,…… but a faint sign of the images on the screen…. i replaced the fl inverter twice and backlight bulb……. Result……. the same, no backlight, and then i put a Fluke test meter on the outgoing leads on the fl inverter and no voltage, nothing…….. Help!…. any ideas at all, ………..it seems like the power from the motherboard is not going to the inverter to the backlight bulb…
January 6th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Hello
I`ve a laptop of Mitsubishi Apricot Al model.
I`d a problem with activexdebugger32.exe virus and then my laptop off. When I on it there write only Apricot and then only black board.
I wanted to call Safe Mode but I don`t know how can I do it because I pushed F8 F10 F12 every of F but safe mode will not come
Help me please
December 30th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
precious,
Looks like a bad LCD screen.
December 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
can you tell me what might be wrong with the lcd IMAGE.
December 27th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
my laptop Toshiba satellite A70 works well (video display) however a bright-green appears in the monitor since it was opened by a technician. Can this LCD problem be fixed?
December 26th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
i have a compaq presario v2140us that has a error code 104 unsupported wireless device detected system halted please remove the device and restart do you have any suggestions on how to fix the bios problem so my wireless mini pci card will be accepted by my laptop again?
December 22nd, 2008 at 7:31 am
Guys need your help……
wel me using Hp dv200 laptop…..i am getting message biosinfo.inf file is missing and even ,I can’t install XP on my dv2000. It always says “NO HARD DISK DETECTED” when i have hard disk in it. HELP! Thanks!
December 19th, 2008 at 10:26 am
hi
my laptop screen goes black if you move it and sometimes as a blue line going across it can anybody help and do you know how much to fix
thanx
December 18th, 2008 at 8:58 am
I have a Gateway MA-3 MX646. The problem is: When POSTing there is a momintary flsh of Pink then back to normal. By the end of POST or @ Desktop the screen starts to Flicker/Jump, and a Black blanket effect occurs (starting from the bottom 33% to 95% of the screen jumping up & down.). I have allso noted that the lower 1/3 of the sceen gets Very warm. Thank you for any info you can give me.