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.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
December 5th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I have a question about what to do with an LCD that will not display. I have a Compaq v2424nr and my LCD stopped working, but if I plug in an external monitor it works fine.
If I tap on the button that puts the computer into standby when you close the lid the LCD screen blinks to the tapping of the button, it tries to turn on but won’t and the screen looks ok (a little reddest as it flickers). I have changed the settings for the display and nothing works.
I have read through the guides and I am ready to tackle the repair, but where to start? I took the computer into a shop and for $40 they said it was the LCD and could replace it for $525 (way to much).
Any help in where to start!
Thanks, Dan
November 11th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
HI everyone,
Ive got a Hi-grade EAA-89 laptop a few days ago. when i switched it on the screen just went white with a few vertical white lines across the screen after i leave it on for a few mins, the screen seems to split into two halves one being white and one dark grey/black.
I have read through the wonderful and helpful guides on this site and therefore done some experiments:
1) Ive opened it up checked all the ribbon cables etc all connected fine!
2) during the boot up procedure if i press FN+F3 with an external monitor plugged in it will switch over to the other monitor however the picture seems fuzzy sometimes with random distortion shooting across the screen for a few mins but then windows runs fine.
3) But if i press Fn +F3 with no monitor connected then it seems to switch over somehow and display the picture, however this only lasts during the DOS/BIOS selection (ie: how do you wish to start windows………..) as soon as i select any option to get into windows then it goes white again ????
I PHONED A FEW COMPANIES WHO IMMEDIATELY TOLD ME IT WAS THE SCREEN BEFORE LISTENING TO ALL THE SYMPTOMS WHICH TELLS ME THEY WANT £150 OUT OF MY POCKET, SURELY IF THE SCREEN WAS DEAD I WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO VIEW THE DOS BOOT SEQUENCE? I WAS THINKING IT MIGHT BE THE POWER INVERTER BOARD IE: IF WINDOWS TRYS TO DRAW MORE POWER THEN IT CAN PRODUCE, OR POSSIBLY THE GRAPHICS CARD THAT WOULD EXPLAIN THE FUZZY BITS WHEN AN EXTERNAL SCREEN IS CONNECTED.
THATS ENOUGH OF MY RANTING LOL, ANY IDEAS ARE WELCOME………
REGARDS JAS
November 6th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
hi I dropped my laptop bought a new screen and replaced it and it just shows a white screen I took it apart again and saw damage to the data conenction ribbon how much about isit to repair thanks
October 24th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I have a similar conundrum. The Toshiba Satellite A105 started with a white screen now – nothing at all. I read to try pressing on the outer edges of the LCD screen – no change. I connected it to an external monitor and it worked great. When I unplugged the monitor and tried to go back to just the lcd screen, now I have nothing – black screen. I tried removing the battery and ac power and pressing the power button for a minute. After I put everything back, I turned it back on – still black. I removed the screws that held the top half of the laptop (kb, screen, touchpad, etc…) to the bottom to try to see where the screen connected to the main board. I removed and reseated the cable, verifying that there were no bent pins and everything lined up. When I put everything back together and tried turining it on nothing – still black. I checked the cable again – no bent pins and everything was aligned – still black.
I know the problem could be the screen, the inverter, the cable or the mobo. Since I have a limited income and if I tried all 4, I would be at the cost of a new laptop. Can anyone help?
Any and all suggestions are welcomed!
Thanks in advance.
September 20th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Nick,
Could be bad connection between the video cable and LCD screen. Reconnecting the video cable could help.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:15 am
In my case, toggling back and forth from external to internal screen I can manage to get the video back on my laptop screen. Sometimes I turn it on and it is white, some other times it is normal, and some others, I lose the video while working! Any ideas on that? Fiddling around with the screen, repositioning it or moving it in anyway does not bring the video back.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
adny,
Yep, sounds like a problem with the LCD screen.
Do you mean your laptop is still under warranty and they are trying to charge you for the screen replacement? It shouldn’t be this way.
If your laptop is still within the warranty period and the LCD screen is not damaged, it should be replaced under the warranty agreement.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:35 am
My screen had a one pixel vertical bar down the middle of the screen. then one day it just all of a sudden went completeley white. However,when I move the screen to certain angles It flickers back into a seeable image of the login screen before it again fades slowly to white.
I sent it in to hp for repairs, and they told me it was going to be a lcd screen replacement based ON the vertical bars that they saw. I just want to ask if its possible that the vertical bar was the catalyst that set off the entire screen breaking, as it seems that only that bar was there one day before, and one day later the screen completeley broke (without being subjected to any heat or pressure. (They are trying to charge me 450$! and I think that my case should be covered under my 3 year warranty! Especially because it was a 2k business notebook at the time of purchase)
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
cj,
yes that is what i was planning but i found the a way to do it but i found a cheap flat monitor so i am using that instead (less hassle), if you anyone wants to figure out how its not too bad you are just running it via a network instead a direct connect (its more like redoing the laptop and putting a program on it so it is used as a monitor instead of a laptop. but it is possible i just found a cheap monitor and am using it instead.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Mychal Pelham,
Do you mean loose connection between the video cable and LCD screen? I guess it’s possible, try reconnection the cable. If no help, probably it’s the LCD screen problem.
Did you test your laptop with an external monitor? The external video works fine?