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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March 8th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Michael Casey,
I think you can do that but I’m not sure 100%. I searched through the service manual and they didn’t mention models 2652 or 2897. If both LCD screens have the same size, most likely you can swap them. If it doesn’t work, probably you can try swapping the video cable too.
Here’s a link for the service manual. It will help you with the laptop disassembly.
March 8th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Hello,
I have a Dell Inspiron 6000. The bottom 3 inches of the LCD is speckled light blue with yellow and black vertical lines. Above this 3 inches, the screen appears fine. Any ideas whether this would be the inverter, screen, backlight, or a combination of these? Any assistance you could provide would be appreciated. Any way I can send you a picture of this issue?
Thanks,
Jason
March 7th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Hi,
I was given an IBM ThinkPad R40 (2897). My screen has a yellowvertical line and and a blue vertical line just to the right of center and black splotches in certain areas on the screen and around the perimeter of the screen. From what I have read on your site, I would assume that it needs a new LCD screen. I recently got another R40 (2652) that was used for parts and was going to be discarded. I was told that the screen was fine on this machine. It is the same size as my screen, but different model. Would I be able to replace the bad screen using the other one? Any assistance that you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I would send you photos of this screen, so that you could add them to your examples, but I do not have an E-mail address to send it to
Mike Casey.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:59 am
John Ray,
From your description is sounds like a bad screen.
Take a look at this post: Laptop has bad video on the LCD screen. What is wrong?
I think your case is similar to the example 7.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:55 am
tfm238,
Hard to tell. Could be bad video cable or LCD screen. You can open up the display panel and carefully move/touch the video cable while the laptop is still on. Will it affect video on the screen? Can you make the image worse or better by touching the cable? If yes, probable it’s a bad cable. If not, could be a bad LCD.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:46 am
The video on the LCD screen is garbled.
I have tried all below
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 do not have a extra screen to test with and wonder if you found out what the problem was with the LCD above. ?
My screen looks exactly like this one shown. (Garbled)
After 3-5 minuters the screen goes white. I checked all Caps. OK, all lamps OK, Cant find any cracks on screen face.
Thanks
John Ray
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I have a screen problem not detailed here: most of the white areas are bluish (turquoise) or pink and these colors appear kind of blurry.
An external screen is fine.
It can be back to normal after a few weeks and then it comes back. But I don’t have any idea of the trigger.
Do you have any idea??
Thanks
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
I have aspire 4720z no power comes, but no display on the monitor and when I connect it to a external monitor still on image is this a lcd problem or maybe a board problem..
February 26th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Charles,
Sounds like a problem with the video card.
No, it’s not a virus related problem. Your description sounds like a hardware failure.
February 26th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Ann,
So, you’ve replaced the inverter and backlight but the screen still works for a minute and after that goes dark? Did you purchase the inverter board from a reliable source? It still feels like a bad inverter or backlight. If not, apparently there is something wrong with the motherboard.
I don’t think that this failure is related to the video cable.
Can you make it work if you reduce the screen brightness?