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!
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Jennie,
You’ll have to test your laptop with an external monitor and check out if the same problem appears on the external screen.
If both internal and external screens fail the same way and both screens start changing colors, apparently there is a problem with the motherboard and/or the video card.
If the external screen is fine and only the internal screen changes colors, the problem is somewhere inside the laptop display panel. It’s possible there is connection issue between the video cable and the LCD screen, might be the cable got loose and it’s not making a good connection with the LCD screen. In this case I would try reseating the video cable first, it will eliminate any connection related issues.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Soren,
Test the laptop with an external monitor. If the video fails only on the internal LCD screen while it’s perfectly fine on the external monitor, most likely you have a faulty LCD screen and it has to be replaced.
December 3rd, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Hi. I’m having problems with my laptop and was wondering if you can help me out. I turned on my computer today and after 10 minutes or so – my screen started to go blank and then changing colors. It goes from red to blue to green to gray and this cycles continues. I can’t see anything else on my screen. Occasionally, it will go back to the desktop, but eventually it does this color changing screen. What should I do? What is wrong with my laptop?
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Hi
Thank you for a nice site.
I have a problem with my IBM R31 Laptop.
Please see the pictures and let me know what to change.
The video problem dissapeers when tap the screen i lttle hard on the back of the LCD.
Here is s picture of the laptop working perfectly.
http://www.pq.dk/r31/200712022055_039.jpg
Here is the picture of the same laptop not working.
http://www.pq.dk/r31/200712022056_043.jpg
Hope you know, how i should fix my laptop.
I have tried to change the LCD cable, but that didn’t do anything.
Help wanted.
Best Regards
Soren.
November 28th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
My laptop looks just like the one in example 5 and exxample 2, i use a Compaq Presario M2000. if anyone has advice PLEASE e-mail me at tuan_na80@yahoo.com. Thank you very much
November 20th, 2007 at 7:26 am
My laptop looks just like the one in example 5,I was wondering how much it would cost to replace it? I have a Dell Inspiron E1505
I left it one day and came back and 2/3 of the screen was white!
I’m not a expert on fixing computer,I’m great on programming though.! I really need this computer!!!!! SO if anyone has advice PLEASE e-mail me ASAP……..!
November 19th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
HELP !
I have an HP pavilion DV8000 laptop, was bought in USA last year. I’m from Brazil. Now, my screen have 4 vertical lines, The lines are like a hair. What I need to replace to my laptop work fine again ? Please help me !
November 19th, 2007 at 7:39 am
It’s always easier to plug the laptop into a monitor first.
Video issues can be caused by: Video rasterizer circuitry (video card), memory (system or built-in), LCD cable, LCD assembly itself, clip connectors and sometimes bad parts on the motherboard.
If you plug it into a monitor and switch it over, and you get video problems, then you know the issue is not with the LCD. Viceversa, if you plug it in and get issues with the LCD but not on the monitor, you know that the LCD is at fault. From there you can impliment a fix. Lines on the screen are often bad cabling, and no picture is often a bad backlight (use a super-bright LED Flashlight to tell).
November 18th, 2007 at 7:28 am
i can load my laptop up to the start up screen then after that it goes green and the only way i can get to my files is though my task manger what can i do?
November 10th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
hello i am a pc repair techniition and i am trying to repair a laptop a packard bell easynote r1938 the customer siad she dropped it four times and on the last time the screen devoloped a green yellow tint to it, now i imediatly thought damaged screen as after running a few tests the motherboard and vga are all working also when plugged direct into a monitor via vga cable perfect screen, so i replaced said lcd screen and charged £180 pounds but still the same, could it be the lcd ribbon even though i did jiggle it about all over or the inverter, which should only adjust the lbackight. i have been trying to figure this out for 4 days now and could really do with some help. the on board video is via s3g unichrome pro.
thank you for all your help.
robin