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?
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
June 5th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Dear CJ,
I have a five year old Dell Inspiron 8600 LCD 15.4 WSXGA notebook. Its screen was replaced in the third year during the warranty period because some pixels were always on. On power up, it usually goes into a blank screen mode and you can see the dim image most of the time. Some times it is quite dark. After pressing the LCD turn off switch many times, the screen will show fine and stay that way for hours. I have replaced the inverter board with no change in screen behavior. The switch actuator seems OK and it is not stuck. I have vacuum cleaned the key board and the inside LCD turn off switch area. It didn’t make any difference. Any suggestions?
Thank you,
Mohinder
June 4th, 2009 at 2:27 am
Hi,
recently my kids have installed some Game on my laptop (campaq V5000)and after that my screen went on Red color.
i uninstalled the display Driver and restarted my laptop . it was working fine till last night, in the morning when i switched it on ..i was not able to see anything on screen..it was black.
however laptop is work..i can see disk moment and windows booting sound but display is not coming.
Please provided me some suggation on above senerio..what shoudl i do not ?
June 2nd, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I have a 4 yr old Gateway laptop which I think is a 4740Z. In the last couple of days I had this problem a few times. While using it the screen would go solid blue, similar to blue screen of death but no text. First times I couldn’t get it to do anything to forced power off and rebooted. Last couple of times I figured it was “just” a problem with the screen, so jiggled the cover a little and the screen came back to where I was. I guess a connection problem is developing between the laptop base and its cover/screen. I’d hate to see this laptop die. Suggestions?
Bernie
June 1st, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Rosemary,
Can you see a very faint image on the screen when it goes blank? The image could be very dark so you have to look very closely under bright light.
I suspect you have either a bad inverter board (could be replaced separately) or failing backlight lamp (a part of the LCD screen).
May 31st, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 – about 4 years old. One day the screen went black and I confirmed with a phone tech that it was the LCD. I’ve been using it with a monitor, then the screen came on. It worked a little while, then black again. Now it’s been working for a while. I guess the problem is with a switch or something rather than with the screen itself. Is there something I can do if/when it happens again? Is there anyway to fix it that won’t cost as much as a new laptop? I’m not handy or knowledgeable about computers but I have friends that might be able to help.
Thank you. Rosemary
May 19th, 2009 at 9:15 am
MSI Crystal Edition Megabook M677. Turned it on one day no backlighting, no display at all I can hear it booting up fine. Screen had been getting lighter and lighter and pixels were out so I figured lcd was bad either way. Researched and found a replacement lcd cheap, installed it, nothing came on. DVI connection on the laptop, hooked an adapter to a regular monitor, nothing comes up. I found an inverter but have not ordered it yet. Unless I have to hit a function key or do something else from what I have been told my graphics is done and im not sure if it is economical to continue to fix. Your advice would be greatly appreciated
May 18th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Ville,
I don’t think that your problem is related to the cable or poor connection.
Here’s my question. Does the screen look stretched even before Windows is loaded or it looks normal on startup and after Windows loads the screen goes bad?
If the video is bad even before Windows starts, most likely you have a faulty LCD screen.
May 18th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Hello.
I have an Acer Aspire 2920Z 13″ laptop. It’s completely functional otherwise, except the screen looks stretched and limited about 2/3 of the screen to the left. External monitor works fine, so I guessed the problem might be a disconnected cable. I opened up the screen bezel, checked the connection behind my LCD screen but it seems to be solid? As in, connected to the circuit without any visible detachable cable. The cable end connected to the motherboard was properly in place.
There’s a little history to this problem. The computer’s been with me on a lot of trips and had it’s share of little bumps to corners and such, and after some of those the screen problems started. The screen would go on completely normal sometimes, other times with the same problem it’s having now. Opening and closing the screen several times seemed to help, but I’m not sure whether it was that or the rebooting. Nowadays it never displays correctly.
Another peculiar thing about the problem. If the computer was rebooted properly without the display problem, then put into standby mode, thus not losing power altogether at all, the screen problem wouldn’t return no matter how I’d turn the screen or move the computer. Turning it off or putting into hibernation, or anything else making it lose power completely might return the display problem.
Any suggestions for this problem? Should I look again at the connections behind the LCD to see if it can be detached by removing the tape or such?
I can provide some picture too, if helpful.
Thanks, Ville.
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:41 am
Hello,
I am havinga DELL laptop and it was working fine for the past 1 year and suddenly the battery drains out finally the battery is gone, however I have to replace the battery. But I thought it should work with the power adapter. So I tried to connect it with the power adapter. It was working fine and suddenly the monitor went black. But I am still able to see the Windows screen faint image. So nowadays it got increased and when I switch on the laptop I am able to see initial screen after that the monitor becomes black but still I am able to see the faint windows on the monitor. Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Ranjith.kr
Are you sure there is no faint image on the laptop LCD screen? Take a closer look, maybe the image is there but it’s just very dark? Let me know.