Here I’m going to post some laptop screen photos showing bad video output. I’ll explain what was wrong with the screen and how I fixed it. I plan to ad more examples as soon as I get new pictures. If you have your own example (and know how to fix it) please let me know and I’ll post it too.
Here’s some help for finding a correct part for your laptop.
Other post related to troubleshooting laptop video problems:
How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems
Taking apart notebook LCD screen
Replacing LCD screen inverter
The newly installed screen is not working
Example 1.
Here’s a picture of Satellite M55 LCD screen I made this morning. I got this video output as soon as I started the laptop. There were a lot of vertical lines, and they were changing color without any pattern. To me it looked like Northern Lights (never seen in real life) 
. The external monitor worked fine.
As soon as I applied some tension to the screen it changed the pattern. Some horizontal lines appeared in the middle of the LCD.
Here’s the difference. When I torque the screen, the image appears but it’s distorted with some horizontal lines running across the screen.
Reseating the video cable didn’t make any change and the problem was fixed after I replaced the LCD screen.
Example 2.
I took this picture from Toshiba Satellite M65. I think that this example is very typical. One day you wake up, turn on the laptop and see one or a few hair-like vertical lines in different colors.
When you move the LCD screen some lines might disappear or more lines appear on the screen. A video output on an external screen would be perfect, without any lines. Unfortunately, these lines indicate a screen problem. I’ve never seen this kind of video output caused by a bad video cable or bad FL inverter board. My laptop was fixed after I replaced the LCD screen.
Example 3.
The photo below comes from Toshiba Satellite 5205. The laptop displays identical vertical lines all over the LCD screen as soon as I turn it on. Sometimes these lines are red, sometimes they are blue, sometimes they become wider and change color to white.
The same pattern appears on the external monitor. It displays same vertical lines. When the same video defect appears on both monitors – internal LCD screen and external screen, then most likely it happens because of a bad video card. On some laptops the video card is integrated into the system board, on other models it’s a separate module.
In this example, the vertical lines were caused by a failed video memory on the system board. I’ve tested the video memory with Microscope utility and it failed the test. In Toshiba Satellite 5205 the video memory is integrated into the system board. To fix the problem, I’ll have to replace the board. (We do not have equipment to replace the memory module itself).
Example 4.
Here’s another example of a bad LCD screen. My bad! It wasn’t the LCD screen problem.
As soon as I turned on the laptop, I was getting these reddish marks on the LCD screen but not on the external monitor. Reseating and replacing the video cable didn’t help. The problem disappeared when I installed my test LCD screen. Yes, for some reason I wasn’t able to reproduce the problem on my test LCD screen. But the reddish video appeared again as soon as I replaced the screen. I guess it happened because the system board had some kind of intermittent problem with onboard video or video connector. Long story short, I had to replace the system board and it fixed the problem. Yep, I misdiagnosed this laptop.
Example 5.
Here’s one more example of a faulty LCD screen. The left half of the screen works just fine but the right side is completely white.
Example 6.
Here’s another laptop with a bad LCD screen. This time it’s a tablet PC.
Example 7.
This screen looks like the screen on the example 1. I hooked up an external monitor and the external video works perfectly fine.
Here’s the difference. When I torque the screen, the image appears but it’s distorted with some horizontal lines running across the screen.
After a few seconds the image washes away.
I had to replace the LCD screen.
Example 8.
This laptop displays inverted colors right from the startup. As you see, the Toshiba logo is light green instead of red. The background is light gray instead of black. The Intel logo should be blue on a white background but it is red on a black background.
When your laptop displays inverted colors as on the picture above, this is an indication of a bad screen. You’ll have to replace the screen.
Example 9.
Here are two more screens. In both cases this problem is related to the LCD screen, witch means the screen has to be replaced.
On the image below you see a white band running from the top of the screen to the bottom. This band appears right from the laptop startup and runs through the logo too.
On the following image only the left side of the screen is working properly. This problem is caused by faulty LCD screen.
Are you looking for a new LCD screen for your laptop? Try here.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Kaushik,
Probably it’s not related to the digitizer. A faulty digitizer would affect video on the screen. I think it’s either a bad video harness or bad screen.
April 2nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Hi Everyone,
this website I think is excellent for advice, I can’t quite see my problem as it is happening though so if anyone can help that would be great.
It doesn’t seem to happen at any particular set time, but every now and then the back page on the display that is white and everything else that shows up white turns bright pink all over, it doesn’t matter whether I am using the laptop or not and it doesn’t matter whether it is on charge or running on the battery it just happens.
It can sometimes flicker and other times it will stay on longer, if anyone could help I would be very grateful.
Thanks.
Alexandra
March 29th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Hi,
Hats off to this resource, before anything else. Now, for the rest. I have a Acer travelmate c100 with a screen which is misbehaving (similar to the first picture, but nothing happens on torquing the screen) This is what actually happens – when the unit is powered on, horizontal bluish lines appear, which steadies to a pattern which has a hint of the shape of the windows login screen. On loggin in, I can hear normal disk activity and again, lines appear which vaguely resemble the graphic patterns to be expected, like predominanly blue lines interspersed with the white of the start menu when the windows start key is pressed.
I checked the output on an exernal monitor and its fine. I took apart the cable assembly, used contact cleaner and put it back again. Took apart the lcd housing, and put it back again, but to no avail.
I suspect it is either the screen or the digitizer that has gone, not the inverter or the backlight (the reason I think this is because the brightness of the horizontal and vertical lines that appear on the screen can be controlled by the screen brightness feature.)
Finally, finally, my question. How do you diagonize whether it is the lcd screen or the digitizer that has gone? Also, any place where I could get cheap or used screens? My apologies for making this a mile long, and thanks again.
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I have a Compaq Evo N800W that has a problem when I try to use an external monitor. When I try to “Extend my Windows Desktop onto this monitor” the laptop screen has a problem. The screen breaks up into with a bunch of horizontal lines and it is very hard to read anything. It’s kind of like the refresh rate is wrong. The external monitor screen works fine. When I turn the extend feature off, the laptop screen goes back to normal. I have updated the video driver & BIOS to the latest offered for this machine. The Evo uses an ATI Fire Mobility GL 9000 video card.
Any suggestions?
March 21st, 2007 at 7:17 am
Hi,
First, this site is an excellent source of information for laptops, thanks for all the information.
I had what seems to be an inverter problem, no backlight at all (very dark image) and the external works perfectly.
March 19th, 2007 at 9:58 am
my friend has a Dell e1505 with a cracked screen. We looked on ebay but they are all expensive. I found “Dell Inspiron XPS 9100 8500 8600 D800 15.4″ WXGA LCD”
would this fit in my friend’s laptop? they are both 15.4″.
March 18th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Wonderful web site! Tons of helpful info.
My problem is identical to that of yasmin (# 166). Satellite a105-2716 (had it since late jan. 06) has begun going to a gray screen with white horizontal lines after being on for 30-40 minutes. When I close the screen and reopen, the computer restores and screen is fine. But after 20-30 min. problem returns. I have had my WiFi switch OFF since getting a broadband cable connex. But I turned it ON while troubleshooting this problem and the screen immediately went gray with the lines.
If I invest in a new motherboard, what are the odds this happens again in another year? Thanks again for all you do.
March 17th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
thanks for the information…i am really thankfull to you…i was wordering what is happening and i went to the three computer shop everybody said its a software prolems…it needs to reinstall the windows xp and i was not having inst cd…so thanks once again for the information
March 17th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Hey,
I’m having some problems starting up my Acer Aspire 5114WLMi laptop-computer.
I’ve already tried the methods described in the user manual:
- Pressing any button on the keyboard to ensure it’s not in power-saving mode.
- I’ve tried pressing + -> to try to increase the brightness-level.
- I’ve also tried pushing the power button to “wake up” the computer; I’ve even turned the whole thing on and off without any result. The power is on, no doubt about that, but I just can’t see anything on my screen. When I start it, it sounds like it usually does when I start it, but then it stops loading after a few seconds. The only thing that’s audible is the fan below the computer.
I’ve only had the computer for 3 weeks time, so it’s quite unlikely that some sort of strain caused this.
March 15th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Really, what my problem is my laptop is having pink color vertical line in my lcd unit.
pink line on blue background
gray line on yellow background
not visible on white background.
When I was working with laptop my son pulled out the “cordless mouse usb senser”. Suddenly the line displayed on the screen.I tested with multimedia projector, the line is not in the project display.
What is ur idea about udpixel software.
I run it but I don’t know where to place the flashing area in the line.
is it recoverable? please email.