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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May 18th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Мое,
Your description sounds like a problem with the video card. If that’s the case, most likely you’ll have to replace the motherboard because the video chip is integrated into the motherboard. The video chip cannot be removed separately, unless you have a discrete video card (not very common). Then you’ll have to replace the video card.
Just in case, try removing and reconnecting memory modules. If your laptop has shared video memory, there is a slight chance that replacing laptop RAM might fix it, but I’m not sure. Do you have two RAM modules installed? Remove them one by one. Test the laptop with each one sepratelly. If you still have the same problem, most likely it’s related to the video card.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Hello,
i haave a bigggg problem
I was on my laptop on msn, lisening to music andon youtube and all of a sudden some WEIRD lines came up.
and then the blue error screen came up saying windows had to shutdown.
I have restarted the laptop a million times nothing happened.
i have tried everything, except openeing it.
even in safe mode and BIOS the lines are still there
when i open the laptop the sony vaio sign comes up then the windows loading and then nothing else a black screen.
:s
im really confused
please help me
Fast pleeeaaassseee
Thank you.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Pam,
Maybe another defective screen? It worked for a while so there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the video cable. Try reconnecting the cable just in case.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:25 am
David Wood,
You mentioned the pinkish tint and flickering and it tells me that most likely there is a problem with the backlight lamp inside the LCD screen.
Can you make the reddish tint go away if you move the display panel or it stays there all the time? If it goes away, there is a possibility of bad video cable, but I cannot tell without looking at the laptop.
May 18th, 2009 at 8:38 am
I have a Green320 laptop, and The picture somehow seems Embossed, and has a pinkish tint,it effects the whole screen but is more prominent when viewing pictures.it also flickers sometimes, I have tryed every thing in The Screen settings, no luck though,could this bee a lcd,inverter or video lead problem?
May 14th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Have a LCD laptop screen that shows 2 identical windows/screens horizontally. It use to have 4 but replaced the lcd and it was ok for about a week and now it is two. Occasionally it boots up normally but doesn’t stay like that on other boots. It is hard to explain how it looks but you can see windows startup screen then there is very small line (maybe edge of that window) and then another of the same thing right under it. I can’t find
May 13th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Bruce,
If you have the same problem in Windows and BIOS it’s not related to the software. The external monitor works fine, so I assume there is nothing wrong with the video card.
Have you tried reflashing the laptop BIOS?
If refalshing the BIOS doesn’t help I would say you have a faulty LCD screen. That’s my guess. A faulty video cable wouldn’t cause a problem like that.
May 13th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Hello,
A correction to my prior post. The same problem DOES occur on the BIOS screen INCLUDING the duplication of the information at the bottom. I don’t know why I didn’t notice bfore. Sorry for the misinformation.
May 13th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Hello,
I inherited a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a screen problem. It boots to Windows XP but the desktop display appears approximatly 13″ of the 15″ display. The right side of the screen is black about 1 3/4′ wide and the top 1″ of the desktop screen is duplicated below. So it appears like I have a 13″ desktop on a 15″ screen with a 1″ band of the top of the desktop duplicated below. On the BIOS screen the same problem appears on the right side of the screen but there is not a duplication of the screen information below. When I plug into an external monitor everything appears normal. I presume from this that the lcd of the laptop needs to be replaced and opposed to the problem stemming from a bad video card. I have attached a photo link to help clarify my attempt at describing the problem. your opinion is greatly appreciated. Thanks
May 9th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Hi
I’ve got a HP nc8000. It’s had screen problems for a while, with the backlight intermittently flickering.
Then it developed a black stripe down the left hand side of the screen. There’s about an inch of dimly fuzzy image, then completely black for an inch, then fine.
External monitor is OK.
Upon dismantling, it appears that two of the pins in the inverter-to-screen socket (left hand connection) have scorch marks. The blacklight appears to be lit 100% when examining from the back.
Is it possible that the inverter has just fried the cable? Or has it managed to kill the LCD?
Thanks