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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August 9th, 2009 at 5:48 am
Hi, Is it possible to replace or repair a bad video card in a laptop?? Thanks and hoping for your answer.
August 9th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Hi,
Thanks, yes, I’m OK with disassembling & reassembling it. I suspected it’s a loose connection, but it’s odd that it’s OK after a reboot.
August 8th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Hamish,
I think problem happens because of poor connection between the video cable and LCD screen. There is a good chance to fix the problem is you reconnect the video cable on the back of the LCD screen but it means you have to disassemble the display panel. Are you ready for that?
August 8th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Hi,
I’ve a Fujitsu Siemens laptop that has developed an odd fault. If I change the angle of the screen sometimes the screen goes blank (about 10% of the time) and, about 1 in 10 of the times when it fails it goes to solid white instead. Disk activity etc carries on & a rebott will get everything working again, even without changing the screen angle again. Once it’s gone blank or white no amount of changing the angle will recover the image – I always have to reboot. V V strange!
August 8th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Alemu,
Do you mean only one half of the screen is working? I think you’ve damaged the screen and it has to be replaced.
August 4th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I seated on my laptop a week ago and when I turned on my laptop after that, I got half screen. Can somebody tell me what is wrong wth my laptop and give me the solution for getting full screen?.
Thanks,
July 31st, 2009 at 6:19 am
Hi,
help me please,i have deel labtop computer. my computer screen sometimes does not work. and if i restart the computer sometimes stsrt to work and sometimes dose not.
thanks a lot
July 30th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Thanks for the advise! It worked like a charm………
July 28th, 2009 at 11:14 am
glenn,
Make sure the CPU is seated correctly and the socket is LOCKED.
Make sure RAM modules are seated correctly. Try reconnecting them.
Test the laptop with an external monitor before you plug in the LCD screen.
July 28th, 2009 at 11:12 am
I have just installed a new motherboard in my laptop, the laptop is fired up but can not get any display