What can you do if the laptop LCD screen turned completely white? From my experience I can tell that this problem may be related to the following:
1. Loose connection between the video cable and the LCD screen.
2. Defective LCD screen.
3. Defective motherboard (I assume the graphics card is integrated into the motherboard).
Here’s an example of a laptop with white screen. When you turn on the laptop, it starts but the image on the screen is completely white right from the beginning. In my case it was a Toshiba Satellite M45 laptop but this problem may occur with any other brand.
Most likely you still can use the laptop with an external monitor. Just connect the monitor to the VGA port on the back or side of your laptop and then switch the video output from internal to external mode.
On Toshiba laptops you can toggle between internal and external screens using Fn+F5 keys. Hold down Fn and press on F5 until you get video on the external monitor.
On IBM laptops use Fn+F7.
On HP laptops use Fn+F4.
It’s possible that you have to use a different key combination on your laptop but you get the idea.
On some laptops, in order to be able to use the external monitor, you have to connect it to the laptop and then restart the laptop so the external monitor is detected by the laptop.
I noticed that in some cases the laptop screen may turn white because of poor connection between the video cable and the LCD screen. If you want to check this connection, you’ll have to take apart the display panel because the connector is located on the back side of the LCD screen.
These laptop service manuals and disassembly instructions may be useful.
I always check the video cable connection first. Reconnecting the video cable may fix your problem.
If reconnecting the video cable doesn’t help, most likely you have a problem either with the LCD screen or with the motherboard.
The best way to find out witch one is causing the problem is testing the laptop with another working LCD screen. Without this test you’ll have to guess because as I mentioned before this could either bad motherboard or bad LCD screen.
You’ll have to disconnect the video cable from the LCD screen (connector 2) and the inverter board (connectors 3 and 1). After that you connect another working screen and test video.
For this purpose I’m using one of my test LCD screens. My test screen is cracked and because of that you see a wide white band in the center but it still works fine for this test.
The original screen is white but my test screen works normal (except the crack of course) and I can see the image. After this test I can tell that the problem must be related to the screen.
After I assembled everything back together and connected the original LCD, it’s still white.
CONCLUSION. In my case this problem is related to the LCD screen and it has to be replaced.
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February 2nd, 2012 at 8:20 am
@ Chris P.
It depends. A new screen with higher resolution might require a new video cable. Will it work without replacing the cable? I don’t know. You’ll have to try.
If in doubt, go with the same resolution to be safe.
January 26th, 2012 at 1:39 am
Just want to mention something on what Chris said above. Be careful buying new lcd screens cause they may not work on your laptop. The connector must be the same..There is 30pin 40pin and 50pin connectors and also these three some times are led connectors too. I change laptop screens as a job so if anyone has any questions e-mail me to answer it if i can… liamas88 AT hotmail DOT com…
January 25th, 2012 at 4:15 pm
I believe I have this problem, as well. I’ve mostly determined it to be related to the screen, but I have a question regarding getting a replacement screen. Does the resolution of the replacement screen matter that much?
For example, my laptop(Presario V5303W) has a WXGA (1280×800) display and I found one option that is a WSXGA+ (1680×1050). Would that make much difference?
January 24th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
@ muthupandi,
You’ll have to test your laptop with an external monitor and see if the same problem appears on the external screen.
Connect an external monitor to your laptop and turn it on. In Windows you can setup your laptop to output to both screens (Fn+F5 keys). Wait until laptop video fails and see what happens on the external monitor.
Let me know.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:48 am
Sir I am using Toshiba satellite L350 series laptop.
The thing is it was working fine till last month and now it is showing colours Like the one in your discussion “laptop-lcd-screen-turned-white”. But its not just white…….if am viewing my destop wallpaper which is blue in colour then the entire screen becomes in that blue colour.. If I am viewing a picture whichis in pink colour then the screen becomes entirely pink…. and i could not switch off and all the process comes to end..
I thought in to be virus problem and installed fresh OS formatting everything. But when i was loading OS from CD the same thing happened.
This problem occurs not in any pattern. Sometimes I am able to work for very long and suddenly it happens.But sometimes as soon as i enter the desktop this error occurs. Then again I have to switch off and On.
Please help me find wats the problem.
January 23rd, 2012 at 5:18 pm
@ jake,
I think this is LCD screen failure. Just in case test the laptop with an external monitor and confirm that external image is fine.
I think you’ll have to replace the screen.
January 22nd, 2012 at 11:58 am
i have a gateway nv series theres probably a longer name but idk what it is but when i start it it seems normal but the screen starts white then fades to black on almost all the screen but the rest of the screen is outlined in a fading white around the sides and there is a piece of paper looking white shape in the midde. any thoughts on how to fix this or what the problem is?
January 8th, 2012 at 10:11 am
@ Jerarte,
Is it an intermittent problem or it always happens on the initial startup?
Let’s say the scree started working normally. What happens if you restart the laptop? Will it start with a white screen again or this time it works properly right from the startup?
I’m just trying to figure out if this failure somehow related to the temperature of the screen.
January 7th, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Hi, I have an acer aspire 5742-7653, my screen starts white and then the image comes back to normal by itself ( no tapping, no pressing screen, no magic angles), I check the video cable connection, and i also tried using an external monitor and it works perfect, but i am not sure what is the problem, any suggestions will be accepted, thx in advance.
December 14th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
@ khurshid,
Could be loose connection, bad LCD screen or motherboard problem.
Try reseating the video cable connection on the LCD screen first. If it doesn’t work, try replacing the screen.