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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January 13th, 2010 at 5:01 am
Hi,
Like in example 4 i have a Vaio VGN-A that has symilar symptoms, i have allso been told that although it is attached to the MB it is possible to fix the graphic card. I have some reparing skills but can´t seem to find a way to do that. Could you possibly help me?
Sony charges values that are not even considerable, and the laptop is obviously out of warrnty.
Best regards
January 7th, 2010 at 8:58 am
Dell 2005FPW 20.1 LCD Monitor – I have found this monitor to power up and display its splash screen just fine (the genesis chip splash). However, after the power up splash upon initiating the monitor’s built in self test, the screen is unreadable and shakes badly for the first minute of use. As the initial warm up progresses, the screen becomes more and more stable (allowing the self test to become clearer and clearer) until the image is normal. Once warmed up, the monitor can be power cycled (both at the switch and PSU) without any symptoms. Upon sitting and cooling, the problem will return.
What intrigues me is the power on splash screen is 100% clear and normal (just absolutely beautiful even on a cold startup). It isn’t until the monitor seeks input from one of the four sources that the screen turns into garbage for the first minute of warm up. In the back of my mind, I am thinking inverter board, but again, the splash is always perfect (an internal ROM supplying the picture). So the main board makes more sense. Any suggestions?
January 6th, 2010 at 10:25 am
james,
Sounds like the LCD screen failure. I’m afraid there is not much you can do except replacing the LCD screen.
January 6th, 2010 at 10:12 am
hi need some help here with my laptop,my laptop is a compaq presario 5000.what the problem is my screen splits into 3 screens with 1 big black line down the right hand side.sometimes the screen works ok for a while.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
BoB,
Sounds like the video card failure.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Alright My laptop was hooked with an HDMI cable to the TV. we were watching a movie. and out of no where vertical blue lines came on the laptop screen(first time this happens to me) and vertical blue lines were also on the plazma Tv screen sooner (couple of seconds) a complete freeze. what does this mean. what problem do I have?
January 5th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Tom,
Sounds like a problem with the LCD screen. Most likely the LCD screen was damaged and has to be replaced.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:54 am
My dog stepped on my girlfriends toshiba satellite a205 laptop while it was closed and since then, when ever started or woken up, the screen correctly displays for a few seconds, then fades to gray and then into photo-negative. All display settings and the driver have been checked and rechecked, external video works fine.
Many others have reported the negative screen, but so far I haven’t found any that describe that fade at startup, or as it being a situation caused by trauma, rather than regular use. Any ideas? thanks for your time.
December 28th, 2009 at 11:17 am
hi, i have a compaq Presario CQ50 and everything is really big and all the colors are messed up. it happens every once and a while. it mostly hapens when i exit out of a game. its very agravating. can you please help?! thanks.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I have a hp dv9000 laptop. Suddenly the laptop screen has gone bad. when i open up the laptop and i started the laptop i got all vertical banding. When i put the screenlid more open and then to the normal position everything was normal again. Afther a month or 3 the laptop decided to stop working. When i now start the laptop i see vertical line’s and a white screen. Afther further loading (no drivers for the video card i get a normal picture. Seems fine. But when loading the videodrivers load then i see horizontal line’s and everything is halted. I tried windows and linux. They react the same. When a external lcd is connected i get the same problems.
I searched the internet and i’m not the only one with this prob. Is this a cable/lcd or video failure. I did the 30sec power option etc.
The laptop is out of garanty.
Thanks