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.
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September 20th, 2006 at 6:07 am
Hello,
I have a gateway m500 that fell off a desk and crack the LCD. I couldnt use the external monitor so we sent it in for warranty to use the external display. I bought another lcd, put it in, replaced the cables,and now I get color with vertical lines but no picture. Now that I have replaced all of this, my external monitor no longer works. Do you have any ideas on what needs to be replaced next? please let me know. Thank you
September 19th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Hi I have a Satellite p35-s605,which has developed a red horizontal line on the display,when connected to an ext monitor there is no line,guess Lcd problem also have reinstaled the os and drivers,
what would b your recomendation other than lcd replacement
thanx
bernie
September 18th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
Vanessa,
Start laptop troubleshooting with connecting an external monitor. That’s the first thing to do when you have a bad image on the LCD screen. If the same blue and purple vertical lines occur on the external monitor, then it’s the motherboard (video card) problem. If the external video is fine, then I would say that you might have a bad LCD screen.
Have you tried booting in Safe mode? Can you see the same blue and purple vertical lines in Safe mode or the video looks normal?
September 18th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I have blue and purple vertical lines along the bottom 40% of my laptop screen and absolutely no image (entirely lines). The top 60% of the screen works great! I tried contacting Gateway but they won’t even answer me as to what it could possibly be without me paying them $3 per minute for cusomter support! Argh! Any advice on why only part of the screen is on the fritz? Thank you.
September 12th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
T,
It looks like a bad screen. From my experience, this kind of failure (thin vertical line across the screen) is not related to a failed video cable, bad connection or bad video card.
September 12th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
I woke up this morning, turn on my Dell Inspiron 6000 and theres a vertical line. Reboot, Reboot in safe mode and line still there and everything runs fine. After reading the great info on this site it seems a my screen has gone bad. Below is a link to my screen while XP is booting. I need a new screen right? Just wanted to get some feedback before I go spending on one. Thanks in advance.
http://img.photobucket.com/alb.....006063.jpg
September 10th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Allen,
I think that’s the screen problem and if you want to fix the laptop, you’ll have to replace the screen. In order to replace the screen, it’s necessary to open up the display assembly. If you feel comfortable, you can do it yourself. You can see some guides for opening up laptop display on my site for Toshiba laptops. The procedure for Compaq laptop will not be much different.
But, I want you to know that you can buy a similar laptop on eBay for under $200 and it could be cheaper then buying a new screen. Do you really want to invest this kind of money into the old computer? May be it’s time for a new laptop?
September 10th, 2006 at 10:55 am
hello sir, i have a compaq armada M700 laptop…since yesterday i am getting a horizontal line exactly at the middle of the screen. every thing is working absolutely fine. the line is about half a milimitre thick. what should i do…take it to a techician or can i repair it myself
plz do reply at the above address
thanking u
September 7th, 2006 at 11:54 am
just an update, but disassembling the LCD and re-seating the connections as well as the inverter seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks for your advice.
September 6th, 2006 at 9:21 am
With backlight it could be a loose connection problem, try reseating cables on the inverter board. To find a replacement screen, you’ll have to search by the part number. You can find the part number on the back of the LCD screen and it looks like: A000002050 (you might have different part number). Try searching through Google or on eBay. LCD screens are very expensive and very often it doesn’t make any sense to replace the screen, it’s better to buy a new laptop.
If you cannot find the part number for the LCD, give me more info about your laptop: model number and part number from the bottom and I’ll look up a part number for you.