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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February 2nd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Penny,
Probably it’s a bad screen.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:16 am
Hi.
I have a notebook: Acer Aspire 9500.
I few weeks ago a top-to-bottom 3 cm wide white bar appeared somewere in the middle of my screen. after a fewdays it dissapeared.
Now it is back on a different part of the screen; see this: http://i580.photobucket.com/al.....CN5961.jpg
The white bar is transparant and showing best on a dark screen.
What’s wrong?
I’ve searched this nice site but couldn’t find anything similar.
Any help/comment would be highly appreciated.
January 29th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Great article/review/help, first off.
I’m having a bit of an issue. I’m a tech.. but laptops aren’t my strong suit. I’m working on an HP ZD7000 that either has a bad MoBo/Video Card or LCD. The laptop screen is black with white lines sometimes. The first time I booted to it I could see the windows logo and then it would go all black. I could hear the windows logon sound. If I hook it up to an external LCD it works with VGA mode; I’m pretty sure it doesn’t normally. Since hooking it up externally I can’t get anything on the laptop by itself, just black with a few random blurry lines.
I think it has an ATI Radeon Video card of some sort which has knows issues with Microsoft/Windows (ati2dvag.dll or something)
Help please!
Thanks
January 27th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
CJ
We are putting our thumb on the frame that fits around the screen, sort of like twisting the top.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Penny,
Do you have to press on the top cover or LCD cover?
If the LCD screen works fine when you press on the LCD cover, most likely it’s a bad screen.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Aaron costine,
I have a thread dedicated to Satellite A60 laptop problems.
It’s possible that you have a memory related problem, it’s very common for this model. Do you have an external RAM module installed? Remove it and test the laptop again. Still same problem? Probably onboard memory is bad. Also, could be bad motherboard.
Read the post I mentioned above.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
melcan,
Did you try reseating the cable on the motherboard or on the inverter board? Maybe it’s bad cable?
January 26th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Linda,
You have to hook up an external monitor and only after that turn on the laptop, so the external monitor is detected by the laptop. Did you try that?
So, there is no video on both the internal and external monitors, right? The first thing to blame would be RAM. Try reconnecting the memory module. If you have only one RAM module move it into the empty slot, if you have one available. If you have two RAM modules, try removing them one by one. Test the laptop with each one separately.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
gil,
First of all, read this article. It’s possible that your HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop will be fixed by HP at no charge.
Anyway, the first thing to check will be RAM. Try reconnecting the memory module or even replace it with another known good module.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
nurse183,
If you:
1. reseated all cables
2. checked the lid close switch
3. replaced inverter
4. replaced the whole LCD
but still experiencing the same problem, there must be something wrong either with the video cable or motherboard.
I guess the video cable will be next.