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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June 8th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I installed Lord of the Rings Game – Battle for Middle Earth II, then when it started up, screen went colorful and computer stopped responding. So now i have color bars from the moment i start the laptop. The thing is that the lines are really wide when it boots up, then they were slimer when windows started. Resolution on my screen was huge. I reinstalled the nvidia drive and the lines are even smaller now since the resolution worked back to widescreen. The device manager keeps telling me it found a device (video controler) but it cannot find the driver. The lines are there, vertical and slim. Reboot and lines are thick. Is this my screen or can i fix this with a driver instalation?
Toshiba Satellite M35 S456
June 8th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I have a Toshiba Tecra 8000 PII 400MHz laptop with the 14.1″ LCD display.
I have an intermittent problem with inverted colors displaying after getting past the black background ‘Windows XP’ loading screen (sort of similar to your Example 8 except that I also have graphics and font garbling associated with cursor [mouse] movement).
If you could e-mail me, I’ll return e-mail pictures of the symptomatic screen displays as soon as the issue recurs (which, lately, seems to be more and more often, and, more consecutively (re-boot-wise) difficult to get rid of.
Thanks, Kevin
June 8th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I’m having a problem with my daughter’s HP ZV6000 laptop (mine now, as she has bought herself a new one). After powering up, the screen will turn various shades, then it will turn a light blue and develops a series of horizontal green and dark grey/black lines (some thicker than others) with a thin pink vertical line across the screen. When I squeeze the top of the screen at the center, the display is normal. If I move the LCD as if to close, or move it back and forth, the display will jump around and either return to normal or revert back to the series of lines. I would sure appreciate some suggestions as to how serious a problem this might be. If I can find out what the trouble is, then I will attempt to fix it myself.
June 7th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
dada,
This sounds like the inverter board is working fine but the screen is not getting data signal from the motherboard (of the screen is bad). I would definitely wait for the new inverter and then test the screen with the original video cable.
June 7th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
richard douglas,
How about external video. Did you test the laptop with an external monitor?
June 7th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Thanks for replying cj,
The screen in definitely black, no image, but having said that, you can see it’s ‘on’. Also, if I change screen resolution (throuh external monitor) something happens in the laptop screen, as if changing from one type of black to another…
Let’s hope that I can fit the new video cable into the motherboard…I’ll report back when the inverter arrives and I install everything
d
June 7th, 2008 at 1:20 am
when i start up my pc it hse all kind of lines red blue green ect and not only lines but letters to give it a little time it woks fine . what could be the prolbem with it?
June 6th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
The new LCD doesn’t show ANY image or the image is very very dark? Take a closer look at the new LCD screen. If the screen is dark but you still can see the image, then the new inverter may fix it.
If we assume that all three parts LCD, cable and inverter are good, then either your new LCD is defective or it requires a specific video cable witch is not compatible with your old cable.
It’s not difficult. The video cable connector is located either under the keyboard bezel or under the keyboard. Just unplug the old cable from the motherboard and then connect your new LCD, cable and inverter.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Hi all,
Recently I bought an acer aspire 3630 from ebay. The screen froze when moved, and generated lines etc. Thanks to this site I found out that by pressing the corners of the screen I could get a temporary fix. However it was a pain, and I decided to change the lcd after checking that an external monitor would work ok.
So, I have bought a replacement lcd, which is an LP154W01(TL)(AE). The old one was an LP154W01(TL)(A2). As you can see, the only difference is the last 2 letters within the last bracket. According to this info (http://www.lcds4less.co.uk/faq.shtml), this is the LCD part number suffix:
“LCD screens with the same base part number, but different suffix are the same screen. The suffixes distinguish a different manufacturing batch for a particular base part number. A part number with a different suffix commonly denotes superficial and negligible differences between LCD screens. These superficial differences may include differences in inverter cable length or serve as an identification method to distinguish between batches of LCD screens for different laptop brands. For example, the LTN141X8-L00 is installed in an IBM ThinkPad and the LTN141X8-L02 is installed in a Dell Inspiron 4000.”
I mention all this because when I plug in the new lcd, it doesn’t show any image, just stays black (whereas the old lcd does light up, though it freezes often) . Why is it not working? I have noticed that the video cable that came with the new lcd is not the same as my old one. It does not fit with the inverter. But why would it not be possible to use the new lcd with the old video cable/inverter, if it is the same lcd model?
Assuming that the new screen is somehow incompatible, I am now waiting to get an inverter (which they forgot to send) that fits with the new cable. The problem is I am going to have to disconnect the old video cable from the motherboard, and I don’t even know if it’s going to work…
What’s happening? Help please!
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:48 pm
anyone know where I can find a take-apart for a Gateway 450ROG?