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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October 29th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
alan566,
Maybe the LCD screen from the donor laptop has a different part number and requires a different video cable? Just a guess.
October 29th, 2009 at 8:05 am
hi,
i swapped out a lcd on my laptop from the same make and model laptop(everex VA4300M) because of a broken screen. when i power on the laptop the screen is white.
if i try to reseat while the computer is running its garbled.
if i unplug the lcd at the systems board, start the computer wait till i see the white screen appear then plug in at systems board it works great. problem is i have to do this every time i power up. it will stay working for as long as the laptop is on. any thoughts on this problem? thanks alan
October 29th, 2009 at 4:39 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite L350D, and i’m having a problem with the video. When you turn on the computer, you see part of the Toshiba display and then the screen goes from black to a lighter gray color but I can’t see anything. I cannot see anything when I hook up the laptop to my desktop monitor just the samething i see on the laptop screen i see on the desktop. Please help. Thank you.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:45 am
I have a ASUS laptop. Recently there is flashing on the bottom part of the screen.. and the area of flashing seems larger n larger….any idea to solve it ??
thanks for your help and soultion to this problem !
October 25th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Chris,
Does your laptop fail exactly the same way when a new “used” screen is installed?
If the new screen fails the same way, I guess it’s not related to the screen.
You said the laptop works fine with the external monitor and I assume the video card and motherboard work properly.
Check connection between the video cable and motherboard/video card. Try reseating the connection.
Try replacing the video cable.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I have a Compaq Presario i think 1200 anyway model# 1456VQL1N. When you turn on the computer the screen goes from black to a lighter gray color but I can’t see anything. I replaced the screen (with used but was told they were working) parts, But no luck. I can see everything when I hook up the laptop to my desktop monitor just the laptop screen dont show anything. Could this be a bad screen or bad video cables Please help. Thank you.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Hi I have an hp pavilion ze2000 laptop. The screen of my laptop keeps falling that I can’t put it in place. I can use my laptop from a 90 degree angle it not it would either fall back or front. Please help me fix my laptop. I will greatly appreciate your help. Thank you so much.
Josephine
October 14th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
fitsum,
Sounds like the LCD screen failure. Can you test your laptop with an external monitor and find out if same white stripe appears on the external video?
If the external video works fine, I would say you have a faulty LCD screen.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
i have a siemens fujitsu laptop.there is a single horizontal white stripe generated.please send me the solution.thank you.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
FL90,
Does the problem occur as soon as you start the laptop, even before Windows starts loading?
If yes, most likely this is the LCD screen failure.