How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems

Here are some tips and tricks for troubleshooting and fixing laptop video problems. Video issues are very common within portable computers and with the following tips you should be able to detect and eliminate basic laptop video problems.

Laptop LCD screen has a faint image.

Faint image on laptop screen

Look at the LCD screen very closely and check if you can see a faint image on the screen. It’s possible that the LCD lid close switch stuck in the “closed” position and the backlight stays off even when you open the LCD screen or turn on the laptop. The switch turns off the backlight when you close the LCD display to save the laptop battery power. Check the LCD lid close switch. Usually it is a small plastic pin located close to the LCD hinges. Try to tap on the switch a few times to turn on the backlight. If after tapping on the LCD lid close switch the backlight stays on, you fixed the problem.
It is also possible that after tapping on the LCD lid close switch the backlight works fine, you see a normal video on the screen for some time and then the backlight turns itself off again. In this case I would blame the FL inverter board. Try to reseat cables on both end of the FL inverter to make a better contact between the cables and the FL inverter board. If it doesn’t help I would try to replace the FL inverter board.

Laptop LCD screen is solid white color.

Screen is white

Most likely it is just a bad connection between the LCD display and the system board. I would try reseating the video cable connector on the back of the LCD screen first and check if it fixes the problem. After that I would try reseating the video cable connector on the system board. I would also try reseating cables if there is no video on the LCD screen at all.

The video on the LCD screen is garbled.

Bad image on laptop LCD screen

Try to connect the LCD screen to an external monitor. If the external video is fine, you have a problem with the LCD screen or the LCD video cable. You can try to fix the problem by reseating the video cable on the back of the LCD and on the system board.
If you see the same garbled video output on the external monitor most likely it is not the LCD screen problem. In this case the system board (with onboard video) is bad or the video card is bad.

I understand that these tips will not cover all video problems with portable computers. If you have a different problem, you are welcome to leave a comment and I will try to help you if I can. :)

Are you looking for a new LCD screen for you laptop? Try searching here.

Here’s a notebook display assembly diagram and tips for finding spare notebook parts.

Related articles:
How I took apart and repaired my notebook LCD screen with water damage
Screen inverter replacement. Fixing laptop backlight problem
Laptop has bad video on the LCD screen. What is wrong?

 

Entry Filed under: Laptop Tips and Tricks

808 Responses to “How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems”

Pages: [81] 80 79 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 711 » Show All

  1. 808
    Helin Says:

    Hello
    I`ve a laptop of Mitsubishi Apricot Al model.
    I`d a problem with activexdebugger32.exe virus and then my laptop off. When I on it there write only Apricot and then only black board.
    I wanted to call Safe Mode but I don`t know how can I do it because I pushed F8 F10 F12 every of F but safe mode will not come
    Help me please

  2. 807
    cj2600 Says:

    precious,

    can you tell me what might be wrong with the lcd IMAGE.

    Looks like a bad LCD screen.

  3. 806
    precious Says:

    can you tell me what might be wrong with the lcd IMAGE.

  4. 805
    Peregrino Says:

    my laptop Toshiba satellite A70 works well (video display) however a bright-green appears in the monitor since it was opened by a technician. Can this LCD problem be fixed?

  5. 804
    steven Says:

    i have a compaq presario v2140us that has a error code 104 unsupported wireless device detected system halted please remove the device and restart do you have any suggestions on how to fix the bios problem so my wireless mini pci card will be accepted by my laptop again?

  6. 803
    Rohan Says:

    Guys need your help……
    wel me using Hp dv200 laptop…..i am getting message biosinfo.inf file is missing and even ,I can’t install XP on my dv2000. It always says “NO HARD DISK DETECTED” when i have hard disk in it. HELP! Thanks!

  7. 802
    Bluenose Says:

    hi
    my laptop screen goes black if you move it and sometimes as a blue line going across it can anybody help and do you know how much to fix

    thanx

  8. 801
    Westlake Computers Says:

    I have a Gateway MA-3 MX646. The problem is: When POSTing there is a momintary flsh of Pink then back to normal. By the end of POST or @ Desktop the screen starts to Flicker/Jump, and a Black blanket effect occurs (starting from the bottom 33% to 95% of the screen jumping up & down.). I have allso noted that the lower 1/3 of the sceen gets Very warm. Thank you for any info you can give me.

Pages: [81] 80 79 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 711 » Show All

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