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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April 12th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Kari Doctor,
You can upload you picture to a photo sharing site (like Flickr) and give me the link in comments.
Yep, sounds like a bad hard drive. Also, just in case, you can try reimaging the hard drive from the recovery disc. Just insert the recovery disc into the drive, restart the laptop, press F12 when Toshiba logo appears on the screen, select to boot from the CD/DVD drive and follow instructions on the screen. This procedure will reimage the hard drive back to factory defaults and might fix your problem.
NOTE: all personal files will be erased when you run the restore disc.
Try running the recovery disc first and let me know how it goes. Will it fix the problem or you get errors?
April 12th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Sean,
Does it appear on the external monitor? If not, most likely it’s a problem with the LCD screen. There is not much you can do besides replacing the screen.
April 11th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite P35-S6292. I took a picture of my screen that I would like to email you. I have heard it is my hard drive because it also says read error occured and to press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart – when I turn on the computer. Will getting a new hard drive fix the screen?
Sincerely,
Kari
April 10th, 2009 at 5:49 am
I have also a problem with my laptop screen…
There’s a thin multi-colored horizontal line under the taskbar.
The line appears when I start the computer and never goes away. Can anyone help me??? Please?
April 9th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Brandon,
I’m glad it helped you but don’t be really frustrated if the problem comes back. Be ready to buy a new LCD screen.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:29 am
YESSSS!!!!! IT WORKED THANKS ALL I DID WAS TORQE THE SCREEN A LITTLE AD WALLA I TRYED EVERYTHING AND IT WORKED
March 31st, 2009 at 9:44 pm
glenn cruz,
Does the line appear only in Windows or you can see it as soon as the laptop is turned on? Can you see the line in Safe Mode?
Nope, it’s not a dead pixel. A dead pixel is a very small dot on the screen which lights random colors.
March 31st, 2009 at 9:41 pm
matt,
This description sound’s like a problem with the video card. Do you know if this laptop has a discrete video card? It’s possible, when you dropped the laptop the video card was dislocated a little bit and now it’s not making good connection with the motherboard. Reseating the video card may help. Also, check memory modules. Make sure they are connected correctly.
March 31st, 2009 at 3:10 am
Hi I have an Advent K4000, it was dropped and the screen sometimes works (the picture is perfect) but most often get lots of multicoloured vertical lines and PC crashes. In safe mode it works fine all the time. External monitor only works when the laptop screen is ok. The safe mode bit confuses me it also fine prioe to XP starting and will display perfectly in bios. Have reseated video cable behind screen but struggling to get keyboard off to check other end. Any ideas please?
March 24th, 2009 at 3:28 am
my is laptop hp dv 2700,…a week ago i notice a horizontal blinking green line at the very bottom of the screen…i don’t why is that line apear, its annoying…
my cousins speculation that it is not a dead pixel and she said to me if i dropped the laptop but i haven’t drop it yet, but i always borrow it where ever i go.
can it be fix? by myself? or someone at the repairshop?
PS: grammar error ^^