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!
July 26th, 2009 at 10:05 am
ok, i went to see if my lcd cable is seated properly. and in the process of un screwing the screws i striped one nasty one (already had pre existing damage to the head) and i cant get to the screws in the corners of the pc. im a little skidish on using a extractor on the striped screw as the other screws that i did remove are really small. my model is identiacl to the model used in your tutorial. halp!!!
July 21st, 2009 at 10:28 pm
ok i messed up my laptop screen so i took it apart and fixed it for the most part i took it aprt agin becuse the lid close switch waznt working so when i did that i messed it up agin now every time i move the screen forward even an inch the screen dies and i have 2 shut it down and restart so i waz looking online 4 a monitor cable (if thats what it called) becaues i figered outthat its a loose connection in the cablr that runs from the internal componants to the screen so i dont know where i could get a new 1 so plz help me and contact me at my e-mail adress yozam87@gmail.com
July 12th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Hello, I recently got a laptop satellite a105 2712 (used)
when i 1st got it, It didn’t show any video on the lcd screen
but on the external screen it was fine. after reformatting it worked, then after updating the video drivers im back to square one it only shows on the 2nd screen. ive tried several different drivers all w/ the same outcome.
also..im not sure if its related but when the lcd screen IS working i have to have the external monitor connected in order for it to boot w/ lcd visual…if not the screen is lit but still black….any help with this would be appreciated thank you in advanced
July 7th, 2009 at 7:40 am
When I turned on my laptop computer, the power light is on , backlight is on but there is nothing display on the screen. I get a black screen, no video action
July 6th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Hi,
I have a Gateway Laptop MT6841, the desktop appears to have “shrinked”. I recently disassembled it to replace a broken touchpad and when I later turned it back on the desktop got smaller; about 1/4 of the right side of the screen is black and 1/16 of the bottom as well. I’ve tried adjusting the screen resolution, but it only gets smaller, not bigger. It used to work fine before disassembling it. Please help.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Here’s a fun one. We just replaced the motherboard in a Gateway S-7500N laptop. The old motherboard had 8MB video ram, the new one has 128MB. When on just battery power, it works fine, no issues at all. However, as soon as we plug in the AC Adapter, the screen goes black a few minutes later. Everything is still running, because we can hear sounds, but the screen is black.
Any ideas? We are thinking it’s the wrong wattage AC Adapter, but are not sure
June 28th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Jag,
It’s possible that the video cable got loose and not making good contact with the motherboard. Try reconnecting the video cable.
June 28th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Hi, I have an NEC i-select M5210. I dropped my laptop. When I turned the screen on the laptop is showing black and white lines across the screen and I can see blue in the backround which is my wallpaper setting. I have connected the laptop externally to a monitor and the laptop is working fine and have full visual. There are no cracks on the laptop screen.
June 20th, 2009 at 11:18 am
I have a broken left hinge on an IMB T42 Thinkpad. Need help removing the screen and replacing the hinge, which I think I can order from a parts supplier. Thanks, Alan
June 18th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Hi,
I have a Toshiba Laptop Satellite P100-441 and it doesn’t start anymore. Actually it doens’t start in de normal mode. When i put it in safe mode, or safe mode + network. Then it does start. When i press the on-button, it starts , so you get the Toshiba screen, normally then you’ve got to see the user screen, but that’s where it goes wrong. It goes black. it isn’t shut but just black, the only thing i can do is turn it off again. I already took my battery out and cleaned it from dust.
Can anyone help me please?