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 24th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I am not a whole lot experienced at the whole monitor repair but I am familiar with PC’s and to a degree laptops. Anyway I am trying to repair my girlfriends Pavilion 2500 laptop with an 15″ LCD Monitor, Model#: HSD150PX14.
Anyway the backlight turns off randomly within a couple of minutes. I used a flashlight to confirm that the LCD still got picture though just no backlight. Before taking the laptop apart the backlight would go out whenever I touched the laptop at all but would be fine if I let it sit, now it goes out within seconds of booting up. Another CRT monitor works fine when connected via VGA.
I took the monitor apart, tried to seat all the connectors of the FL Inverter and the Cable that connect the whole monitor to the laptop. I noticed that when I had the monitor out the backlight flickers, then just shuts off.
Any Ideas? Suggestions? Questions? Anything could help! Thanks in advance!
August 24th, 2009 at 3:01 am
hallo sry for so mutch posts xD it is an inverter cabel for 12″ lcd it has 6 smal cabel inside
August 24th, 2009 at 2:26 am
o sorry i mean that cabel who goes from motherboard to FL inverter board where can i buy it
August 24th, 2009 at 2:13 am
i have buyed a new blacklight but it dont works i tink that (video cable, motherboard)dont work where can i buy it
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:09 am
my laptop has got a blue screen up telling me 2 press f2 or f12 or start in safe mode f8 but it wont let me. i was doing a system restore and turned it of by mistake can you help please?
August 18th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Bill,
Sounds like a problem with the LCD screen. You’ll have to replace the screen.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Thanks for answering all of these questions. Hopefully you have time for one more.
The display I’m working on shows the colors inverted, it’s this way even in the bios and startup splash screen. It looks normal on an external display.
Bill
August 15th, 2009 at 5:04 am
Do you have suggestions for what is wrong when a laptop display rolls? It will roll continuously, have to hold laptop lid to stop the rolling.
August 11th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Hi,
I have a Gateway Laptop MT6841, the screen 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; there’s a 2 inch black bar on the right side and a smaller bar on the bottom the “blurs” everything on the edge of it. I’ve tried adjusting the screen resolution, but it only gets smaller, not bigger. It used to work fine before disassembling it. Hope you can help.
August 9th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
fox,
It depends on the model of your laptop. If you have a discrete video card, you can remove it and replace with a new one. If the video card is integrated into the motherboard, it’s not repairable (at least in home conditions). You’ll have to replace the whole motherboard.