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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January 5th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
TomG,
Take a close look at the laptop screen. Do it in a dark room.
Is it completely blank and black or you still can see a very faint image on the screen? The image could be very very dark, so look closely.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:27 am
Hi, my Toshiba A105 screen went totally black so I hooked it up to an external monitor & it looks & operates normally. I toggled back to the LCD & it was initially pink…could see windows & icons & then it cleared up. Seems like something is on the way out…suggestions? Thank you!
January 1st, 2010 at 11:09 pm
my lg rd410 monitor screen blingking every 3 sec. can u help about this problem?
January 1st, 2010 at 8:51 am
My wife has an emachine laptop which is progressively losing the image on the right hand side of the screen. It seems about half of the vertical lines are missing giving a faded look and making it hard to read. Is there a fix for this or is this the death throes of the laptop? It’s about 5 or 6 years old.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:50 am
My daughther has a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop. When I swivel the screen, the screen goes dark. If I play with a screw holding a wire under the hinge cover plate, I can get the screen back. This has to be done alost everytime I boot her machine up.
Is there a way to dignose intermittent blank screen on this Dell?
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:21 am
laptop works ok, except when i lightly bump the computer or the built in mouse the screen is garbled, then i have to turn off and re-start. what could be the problem
December 19th, 2009 at 6:19 am
Im impressed!!!!
The lid close switch was indeed stuck.
My Toshiba works just fine now after years of backlight problems.
You should take a bow.
many many thanks
December 12th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
hey.
i have a acer extensa 5620 ,the LCD back light it dos not work .
i have changed the LCD inverter and the LCD cable and in the lsat i have changed the LCD and i still have the same problem. when i conect the laptop to external LCD it works well .
i hope you can help me .
December 1st, 2009 at 6:14 am
I have HP DV9000z laptop.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jo.....6364841538
http://picasaweb.google.com/jo.....0914568498
These lines appear within 20min after i turn on the laptop and sometimes random time. It works good with external monitor even at BIOS screen,but laptop screen has horizontal lines. Is this an inverter/lcd screen or wireless antenna related problem? I installed pc-doctor service center and checked for any hardware problems.Everything passed. When i see these lines, i tried to restart, but it keeps restarting and all i see is a black screen. I wait for 30-60 mins. and i turn it on, it works fine.
November 15th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Rachel,
How it flickers?
Does it lose the backlight or image?
Also, test video on the external monitor. Will it flicker too or the external monitor works properly?