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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December 23rd, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Hi there,
I have an Toshiba A200-MR4, and I got some weird lines of black and colours dots on the screen, but this is happen when I use only battery and after starts Windows. I connect on external monitor and defect appears too. If I plug onto power cord, the defect dissapears. I used recovery cd and re-install the windows vista but still the same.
Thanks in advance
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I have a toshiba satellite a-135 and i have the exact problem in example 2. a friend of mine told me there’s a way to fix it when i told him about it. surely there has to be a way other than getting a new screen.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:39 am
Hi, I upgraded my Bios from a22 to a32 on my Dell Inspiron 5100. Since I have done this my start up screen for Windows XP has turned red (from black) and the the graphics in windows are a bit distorted & it has a lot of blues & reds. The system does operate
ok, but by changing the bios it has the over all look of poor resolution. I have checked the display setting and the are set fine and the system says the video card is ok…………..I dont know what to do!
December 12th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Hi there, hope someone can help. i have a philips freevents laptop, and recently it has started freezing on me a lot. After I turn it on, it stays on between a minute and fifteen before crashing. When it freezes, I get vertical blocks or horizontal black lines. I can’t take a screen shot – it crashes and has no function. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be? Please help.
Fi
December 9th, 2008 at 12:06 am
CK,
You can try reconnecting the video cable on the LCD screen, just in case if it’s loose connection.
But most likely it’s related to the LCD screen.
Did you test the laptop with an external monitor. I assume there are no lines on the external video?
December 8th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Recently I have a horizontal line across my Dell Inspriron 640M. After a few days, total 3 horizontal line across the screen. Any way to eliminate the three horizontal line? Thank you
December 7th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Jorge,
I don’t know. It’s hard to tell without looking at both LCD screens. If both screens have the same type of the video cable connector, there is a chance that you can swap them.
December 7th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Thanks for the answer.
I’m working now in the laptop via an external monitor.
I’ll try the loose connections.. Hope is the last thing to die..
Since it stretched when it fells maybe something got disconected.
And there’s no visible “physical” damages to the LCD.
One last question. It’s possible to know if the LCD of the ASUS A2500H (Monitor TFT XGA 15′) is compatible to my (ASUS A3H 5026h)? I have a chance to buy parts of an ASUS A2500H for a good price.
Thanks again for the quick response.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Jorge,
You’ll have to test your laptop with an external monitor connected to the laptop VGA connector to find out if external video works properly.
If your laptop works fine with an external monitor, most likely there is nothing wrong with the system board or video card, but there is a problem with the display panel.
Possible problems:
1. Loose connection between the LCD cable and screen. It’s not very likely, but just in case try reconnecting the cable.
2. Damaged LCD screen. I think you’ve damaged the LCD screen and it has to be replaced.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Hi there,
I have an ASUS A3H and yesterday it fell on the flloor while opened and with the screen down.
I got some horizontal and color lines but the screen is divided in 3 equal horizontal-reactangular areas and the botton one is a complete mess of lines and colors, the middle one is slight better and the top one is almost normal…
Do you think is the LCD Screen? the connections? or the video card? The part that took the most impact was the top plastic part of the screen. Thankx in advance