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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August 15th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Evgeny,
Did you buy this laptop used? If it’s new and covered by the warranty, do not disassemble yourself.
First, I would check the cable connection on the motherboard. Reconnecting the cable might help.
Second, I would try moving the cable while the laptop is turned on. If moving the cable affects video on the screen and the blinking strip disappears, it’s likely you have a bad video cable.
August 11th, 2010 at 6:39 am
Hi,i have bought asus x83v and first couple of weeks it worked perfect, but later i have got a blinking strip at the bottom of monitor. Strip appear and disappear every second. I connected external monitor and it is no problem with that, works perfect. How can i check if it is problem with my screen or may be with video card or connection problems? Thank you.
August 10th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
I tell him my experience and forgive my English, I’m Spanish.
The screen of my laptop almost every time it goes blank. The screen is white and gradually leave him vertical stripes of different colors, when I go into windows directly screen is black (I think it’s because Windows does not recognize the screen.) I tested with an external monitor and works fine. I tried pressing the screen and does not change. One thing I find curious is that sometimes the display is working properly and not fail again until you restart Windows, sometimes throws without a miss two or three restarts, but then takes too long to return to work. Another curious thing is that when the screen is blank and start Windows with the external monitor, Windows only recognizes the external monitor and not the screen. I tried reconnecting the LCD cable but neither has helped. I can enter the BIOS from the external monitor.
What could be the possible problem? Thank you very much.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Brian,
A saw your comment on another blog.
Same advice. Test your laptop with an external monitor and find out if the external video goes bad too.
If both, internal and external images go bad, you have a problem with the video card.
If external works fine and only internal goes bad, most likely it’s either bad video cable or LCD screen failure.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:13 am
dell precision m60 – lcd working normally then starts pixilating and becomes unreadable and screen goes black. Restart with dianostic boot, screen is barely readable with lots of vertical lines, but hardware tests are passing. It gets to graphics test & screen returns to almost normal. Let it run another couple tests and as soon as I see that the dialog box running a test looking normal I can escape the test and windows reboots normally and graphics work fine – all day! I updated the video drivers but it didn’t make any difference. Any advice as to whether this is software or hardware related would be appreciated.
Thank you
July 9th, 2010 at 3:35 am
Hi,
My laptop dispay is not coming.But its working using remote monitor.When i gave it to repair centre they said even changing lcd monitor doesnt work.Now they are telling nvidiai chip had problem.will it happen like both nvidia chip and display will be damaged.just want to know they are fooling me or not.
my doubt is if nvidia chip is not proper will it work on remote monitor ????
June 30th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Hi,
My Sony Vaio VGN-N320E LCD screen displays a horizontal line which disappears when I slightly move the screen upward (it’s like the LCD is divided in two pieces and joined together when I move the screen). If I open the top of the LCD, what should I look for to know if the screen is loose or broken? OR What other parts might be causing the horizontal line effect? I found a website which sells a LCD screen for my laptop for $85!! plus includes one year warranty. Thank you!!
June 14th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
I had a similar video fault to example 3 on the motherboard of my laptop. I was getting the same fault on the external monitor aswell.
And eventually found a blog which mentioned technomart. They fixed the problem within a day because were able to repair motherboards.
Saved me a fortune since a replacement motherboard was nearly as much as a new laptop.
Try http://www.techno-mart.co.uk
Hope this helps.
June 6th, 2010 at 6:14 am
Hello.
I’ve a HP DV-5000 which has an inverted colors screens.
Its OK from external video.
I’ve tried to unplug/clean/replug the LCD cable and Inverter and its the same.
But If I play with video cable on the connector of the motherboard, I can have the good value colors, just like 0.5 seconds. The screen go blank next… Repluged totally the video cable and its always inverted colors.
It is really a bad LCD screen ?
April 24th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Felicia,
You’ll have to test your laptop with an external monitor.
If the same problem appears on the external monitor, most likely this is the video card problem.
If the problem appears only on the internal LCD screen and external video works normal, most likely you have either bad LCD screen or bad video cable.