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 1st, 2011 at 7:25 am
I have an interresting problem. I have a toshiba satellite that the lcd is displaying colors very wrong. For example, during post, where the screen should be black with white letters, it is instead yellow with white letters. I have replaced the led panel and video cable with brand new replacements with no change in this behavior, and have even taken a screen and cable from a working identical computer just to have the same issues. My train of thought leaves only the motherboard/video controller being at fault, but I would welcome any other thoughts/opinions, or suggestions!
March 31st, 2011 at 10:23 am
keith,
Take a very close look at the LCD screen. Can you see a very dim image when the laptop turned on?
Does your laptop work with an external monitor? Does external image look normal?
I don’t think so.
March 31st, 2011 at 6:16 am
Hi I have a Gateway M675 Laptop 17″. Ok so I had a picture like you described in your main page was the third pictire with lines on the screen then finally blank, I replaced the LCD with new one and same thing no picture. I checked all connections are all good, however in my case the M675 has a wifi card Gateway M675 Wireless Wifi Card BCM94306MP. This card has two wires connected to it then to the LCD blk/and gry. Could this be my problem?
March 14th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
I have a Compaq Presario CQ60-211DX Notebook (laptop) that just 2 days go started having screen issues. It is fine unless I tip the screen back a little. I would like to know if anyone can tell me what the issue is and I can look up from there how much it will cost. It is NOT under warranty, and my nearest store that can tell me what may be wrong is over an hour away. Please help! Here are some pictures of my laptop:
Normal-
http://i21.photobucket.com/alb.....ooksok.jpg
When I tilt the screen-
http://i21.photobucket.com/alb.....ssedup.jpg
Closer-
http://i21.photobucket.com/alb.....broken.jpg
Closer-
http://i21.photobucket.com/alb.....laptop.jpg
Any ideas??
March 13th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
gumi,
First of all, you said the external monitor works fine, so this is not a video card related problem.
New screens didn’t fix it, so it’s not a screen problem.
I think this could be one of the following:
1. Bad connection between the video cable and motherboard or LCD screen. Try reconnecting the video cable on both ends.
2. If reconnecting the cable doesn’t help, try replacing the cable with a new one.
3. If it doesn’t help, apparently this is motherboard related failure. Maybe there is a problem with the video cable connector.
March 9th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
First, I would like to thank you for shareing your great knowledge and experience.
I’m a laptop Technician and this is the case-
HP DV4, starting up with one horizontal line at the top of the screen, after a few second (post) a differnt horizontal line appears in the middle (the upper line was disappear..).
most of the time the screen is black and nothing appears. sometimes i’m able to see a corupted graphic (like 256 colors..) from the O/S.
When connecting to an external monitor, all works fine !
I replaced the LCD screen and the same problem appears (tryed with 2 diffrent screens)
I checked the video cable and i can’t see any damage or a problem, i tried to touch/move the cable but there is no change.
I’ve cleaned the heatsink and the fan tunnel, i found there alot of dirt (excessively).
also i would like to mention that the computer was very dirty.
What do you think doc ?
Thank You !
March 5th, 2011 at 3:10 am
Hi, I have a Toshiba Satellite P35-S605 with 17″ screen @ 1440×900
the problem start 2 years ago with only one blue vertical line on the far left side of the screen, the rest part are usable although the line is uncomfortable to see.
2 years later, the lines added one by one, not only blue, but also red green white, any basic color would appear, the center side is completely gone and just filled with lines, the whole left side of it have red color flickering. The screen now is completely unusable for me to work so i plug an external monitor and it’s perfectly working.
to my question, which is likely going wrong, the lcd cable or the screen itself? and how to determine?
thanks in advance
February 24th, 2011 at 5:46 pm
Lali,
It’s possible your new 15.6″ LCD screen has a different native resolution that your original 15.6″ screen and requires a different video cable.
February 24th, 2011 at 6:17 am
Hello
i bought a brand new laptop LCD and installed it ,its not the first time i do this,this one is a 15.6 it turns on fine but its the black vertical lines on the screen appear to be too far apart from each other resulting in very poor image quality,your eyes will hurt looking at it.i have installed same manufacturer 15.4 and it was fine.im not sure what might be wrong here.
Thanks
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:14 pm
Alex,
Firs of all, I don’t think this is the video card failure.
A failed video card would affect image on the entire screen, not just bottom part of the screen.
I think it’s either bad video cable or faulty LCD screen. Most likely the LCD screen.
Here’s how to replace the LCD screen on a HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop:
http://www.insidemylaptop.com/.....00-laptop/