Hp Compaq Nx9005 Drivers Free Download

Here are some tips and tricks for troubleshooting and fixing laptop video problems. Video issues are very common within portable.

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. Purpose Pattern Process Ebooking more. 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. 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.

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. Related articles:. Thank you SO Much for providing this service. I spend the majority of the afternoon on tech support with Dell with an expired warranty on a 3 and a half month old computer with no backlight. There I was, sitting by the computer using a flashlight in order to read the screen. I was about to spend the fortune to send it to Dell for repair but found your troubleshooting guide it and was the little thing was stuck down and it was keeping the backlight from coming back on.

You just made my day, maybe my month!!! Thank you SO much! Hi Damian, I have not worked on this model but let me guess.

It is possible that the LCD lid close switch is causing the problem. The switch is supposed to turn off the backlight when you close the LCD and on some models it makes a beep sound during that. You can find the switch close to the LCD screen hinges and in most cases it looks like a little plastic pin. Check if it’s dirty and try to clean it. Try to tap on it a few times when you LCD screen opened and see if you can reproduce the problem. My guess is that the lid close switch is getting stuck intermittently and causing the backlight to go on and off. I have a screen with no backlightt.

However there seems to be no physical switch for the screen as there are on other laptops (mine is a dell inspiron 1150). Also there is now a high pitched buzzing sound. If there is no easy fix could it be possible to remove the monitor completely. I don’t particually want to do this as at the moment an external monitor will not work outside of windows. Any help would be greatly appreciated, especially with getting an external monitor to work in the BIOS etc. I have a Toshiba Satellite 1200.

Yesterday, with no prior problems, the display went black. My research landed me here. Thanks to your guides I was able to, maybe a little over cautiously, (or fearfully) reseat the inverter connections. Thank you very much for sharing you wealth of knowledge.

After reassembling the display, I was delighted to find that everything booted normal once again. Sadly, I watched as my efforts vanished into a sea of darkness just after windows explorer started. It seems that the longer I wait between tests the longer I have a display.

I can still, with a lot of effort, see the faint display in the blackness. If anything when the backlight is on I notice a slight pinkish hue on the darker transition screens. Before I order an inverter I want to be sure that the problem is not some sort of overheating issue or safety shut off for the backlight. I’m probably reading too much into the whole thing. Any insight (or reassurance you might offer would be greatly appreciated. Great site.thanks for helping out •. Hey Dustin, To me your problem doesn’t look like an overheating issue at all.

Most likely it is just a failing FL inverter board. Usually you can get the backlight back for a while when you tap a few times on the lid close switch. You can find the switch close to the left LCD hinge. Make sure that the lid close switch is clean. Sometimes it might get stuck, causing the backlight to turn off. One thing concerns me.

You mentioned that you noticed a slight pinkish hue on the screen. It might indicate a problem with the LCD screen. Try to connect your laptop to an external monitor. If you see the same pinkish hue, most likely you have a problem with the video card (it is a separate board in this model). If the external video is fine, then I would suspect the LCD or the video cable connection. In some cases the LCD screen still would be usable because after it warms up the pinkish hue can go away. Hi Paul, I am pretty sure that is a hardware issue.

If you see the same horizontal lines on an external monitor, then the system board or the video card is bad. I am sure if the video card is integrated into the system board or it is a separate board. If the external video works properly, then either the LCD screen itself or the video cable is bad.

When you have a garbaged output on the LCD screen you can try to twist the display a little bit (not too much or you can crack it). When you twist it you put some tension on the screen. If during twisting you see that pattern of lines is changing or you get a normal video then most likely the LCD is bad itself. Be very careful with the screen during the test. Hi: My wife’s Toshiba M35X-S161 LCD screen just went black last night. I have jiggled the switch for the backlight as you have suggested here and occaisionaly a faint image would appear, but it disappears pretty much right away. I have since hooked up an external monitor and rebooted the machine, but any image on the external monitor disappears after Windows XP starts to boot up.

External monitor then goes blank and then shows a “No Signal” error. Prior to all this happening, the laptop had been running on battery for quite awhile, so the power level was way down. And, now even under AC power the display is blank. But the compter shuts down after a little while. She supposedly had this fixed a year ago under warranty.

Could the display problem be a result of a power problem? Hi Simon, If the connections are fine, then I would try to replace the LCD video cable next. It is the cheapest replacement part between the system board and the LCD screen. You have very good chances that the cable will fix your problem. There are 2 cables listed for Toshiba Satellite P25-S509: K000005950 for Samsung LCD screens K000005960 for LG Phillips screens Check on the back of the LCD screen who made it and try to find this part via ebay or google.

Video cables in Toshiba Satellite P25 are not very reliable. I repaired a lot of P25 laptops with problem like yours just by replacing the cable. But it also possible that the system board or the screen is causing the problem. I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 and I am experiencing problems with the LCD. A few minutes after the system has booted and the desktop appears, the display goes black. However, you can faintly make out what is on the desktop if you look closely enough.

I did attach an external monitor to my laptop and it works fine. From the posts I have read on other forums, the problem could be related to the inverter, backlight, or ribbon cable. I don’t have enough knowledge to know which part(s) needs to be replaced. I would appreciate any insight on how to make this determination. In addition, I began to disassemble my laptop and have the LCD panel flipped out from the protective casing. I don’t know where these any of these parts are located. If anyone can provide some instructions or diagram resources, this would be appreciated as well.

Thank you for your assistance, Ted Cwynar •. I know very little about the inside of my notebook, so please help me understand what I need to try. It’s a Compaq Presario R3000, and it’s just as you described – very faint screen with no backlight, when I tap rapidly on the lid switch, the backlight will flicker and I can intermittedly see video on the screen. How do you reseat connections or replace inverters?

I’m still learning. Also, we had a problem with our Invidia Graphics causing video distortions and crashes for several days, but those issues amazingly went away – that was only about 3 days prior to the backlight issues, do you think they are related? I have a Acer aspire 2002WLCI (centrino 1.5/ATI 9200 32mb on a seperate board). A few weeks ago I started to have problems with the LCD display on the laptop. At first, when I started the computer, the screen showed full brightness white vertical lines on a royal blue background. If I connected an external monitor everything was OK (normal windows login window).

If I restarted the computer a few times, the LCD would come back in full working order. After a few weeks, the LCD started showing the the same vertical lines all the time (extenal video still OK) and the LCD went dim. I cannot see the normal windows graphics on the LCD now, just the lines, although if I move the mouse, I can see dim vertical lines moving on the LCD. I would like to repair the unit myself, I have already checked the connections but would like to know what part to change (inverter, graphic card, cable, LCD). Thanks for the great site. Hi Jean, I am pretty sure it is not the video card, because you still can get a normal video on the external monitor.

You would get a bad video output on the external monitor if the video card was bad. Here is my guess. You have 2 different problems on the screen: vertical lines and lack of the backlight. Normally these two problems are not connected to each other and it is not likely that the LCD screen got 2 different problems at the same time. There is only one part that can cause these problems – the video cable.

I would try to replace the LCD video cable first. If replacing the video cable will not help, the next step would be to replace the LCD screen (of course after you checked all connections). In most cases buying a new LCD screen wouldn’t be cost effective solution to repair the notebook computer.

It would be better to buy a new laptop, unless you can find a way to buy a cheap LCD. Hi, CJ I’m so glad to find this blog.

Now I’m so depressed because of my computer. I have Toshiba Tecra S1 laptop and I think it has vedio problem. It’s started few days ago. When I was using this computer, suddenly something happened on the screen. It seemed to be broken resolution or something trouble with graphic unit. Graphic was broken and suddenly computer was stopped.

So I turned it off and turned it on again. Then there was no problem. But yesterday, when I tried to connect with my external hard drive, it happeded again. So I thought it’s time to format this computer because recently it showed something weird. So I formatted it using recovery CD and installed it succesfully. I turned it off and then when I turned it on again. On the screen there was nothing I can see.

It was just black screen. When I turned it on, I could hear one beep sound and fan worked. But on the screen it did not show anything. I think I also heard three times beep sound from inside of computer after booting it. I think this could be vedio unit problem. Could you give me any advice for repairing this computer? I think I may be able to fix it.

But I’ve never opened laptop. If this computer is desktop, it is not a big deal. In my country I used to open and fix some parts.

I bought this computer in my country in 2003. This computer is my best friend ( of course I also have best friend in human ^^). Now I’m so sadI can not do anything even my homework.:'( Please help me out.The cost for repairing is so expensive. Have a nice day!

Today I tried to connect to another external monitor. But it didn’t work. I think I should open this computer. When I turn on the computer, I still hear three times beep sound. One is a little long, and two are shorter than first one. I have no experience to open laptop, but I want to try it.Because I’m a student in electrical engineering in college. I will do it following your explanation in this site.

When I open computer, should I also remove memory, hard drive and etc on the bottom? There is 23 steps, right? I think I should check “step 14 in your guide for Tecra S1”. For checking this, which steps should I do? Do I need all steps before step 14? I want to try to fix my computer by myself. I already appreciate you, but if you help me little more, I’m really happy.

Hey Chun, It’s hard to say what is happening with your laptop. If you want to take the laptop apart completely, then you have to go through all 23 steps.

If you only want to check the video cable connection (step 14), then you have to remove the battery (step 1) and the keyboard strip (step 5), you do not need all steps. I do not remember if the keyboard strip is secured by screws on the bottom, be careful when removing. It’s hard to repair a laptop at home when you do not have any spare/test parts. Thanks ahead of time for any help. I have a Dell Inspiron 1150 that is only displaying a white LCD screen.

It displays to an external monitor just fine. I double checked and re-seated the LCD cable and then bought a new one, which didn’t do any better. I went to the Dell website to look for a new driver, but it told me that the driver I had was newer than the one I found on the site. I can make the screen brighter or dimmer, but the only thing I ever see on the LCD screen is white – even during boot up. I can even get to the bios via the external monitor – just not with the laptop screen. I am replacing the FL Inverter on a Satellite M35X-S149.

However, when I first dissassembled the laptop, I noticed there is what appears to be a ground strap coming from the wiring harness that runs from the main board above the F10 key to the connector at the top rear of the LCD panel. This ground strap was not connected to anything, and there does not appear to be any place to connect it. Is this supposed to be connected anywhere?

The ground strap naturally lays very close to the lid switch. Hi guys Great forum – it gave me hope I can sort out my prob with your help! I have a 2 year old hp Compaq nx5000.

The problem it has is that in 90% of the occasions, its backlight fails during resuming from hybernation or stand-by. The only thing that helps keep the backlight on is cold reboot. Even after warm reboot, the backlight does not always stay on.

However, once booted successfully, the backlight works fine indefinitely, until the next time I try to resume from hybernation/stand-by or warm reboot. Does it sound like a software problem to you? I updated the monitor driver, did a Windows update, etc with no success.

Shall I be looking at flashing the BIOS? It would even be helpful if you can just asure me that it is a hardware problem – backlight going, FL inverter failing, loose connections, etc – at least I know I have no other choice but to spend the money to repair it! Many thanks in advance. P.S Sorry if I posted twice – my prevous message failed but just in case it went through somehow. Hi Ivelina, The problem with backlight might be hardware or software related.

How do you put your laptop into hibernation or standby? Do you close the display or you enter these modes through the Windows?

If the laptop backlight fails to resume after you close the display, then it might be a lid close switch related problem. Try to tap on it a few times after the backlight fails to start.

If the laptop backlight fails to resume after you enter hibernation or standby modes through Windows, then the problem might be related to a bug in the BIOS. Some Toshiba laptops have the same issue and you can fix it by upgrading BIOS. Try to upgrade or re-flash the BIOS. Hi cj2600 and thanks for the reply. I always put the laptop into hybernation/standby by closing the display. When I changed the power settings to “Do nothing” when the lid is closed, the problem did not happen when I reopened the lid (or when I pressed the lid switch for a few moments) so it will have something to do with the computer entering standby/hybernation. I will try using the windows standby next time and i will also try to disable the laptop going into stand by after a period of time (it is currently 30 minutes if not in use) to see what happens.

Please let me know if you still think upgrading the BIOS will help as it does not seem to be a Windows problem. Hello – me again.

Reflashed the BIOS (was latest version anyway) with no luck in solving the problem. I used the Windows-based flash – is that the same as a floppy-disk based or would the latter be worth trying as well? Does not seem to matter if it enters stand-by from Windows or just by closing the lid – same thing happens. The only thing that keeps the backlight working is to leave all computer on, just close the lid to switch off the screen while not using it. Any other ideas? I am willing to try anything! I think there should be a clue (to who can read it!) in that the backlight comes on during the first few moments of resume/boot – it only goes off a few seconds into it (but always at different stages).

Hey CJ2600 – I’ve got a Toshiba Satellite P25-S607, and I recently spilled waterok, boubon and soda, on it. I immediately shut the power down, took it apart, dried it thoroughly with a hair dryer (not too close) and came back a couple days later to fire it up. First I should say that after I shut the power down, after the spill, I turned the in an upside down V on the table to help it drain. Thankfully, the computer runs fine, but the display is dim. External monitor works fine. Lid close switch does nothingno flickering. Is it possible when the machine was upside down, liquid shorted the FL inverter?

Or could I have shorted something on the system board? But, the external monitor works fine. Could it be a power issue to the inverter?

I poked around with a voltage meter on the board and was able to get some signal(not an expert, just poking around) Could you post a close up picture of the inverter, I have what looks like some black goo coming out of a white circular piece on the board, and I’m not sure if its just some kind of insulation on the board, or if something is fried. Great resource! Ivelina, Not sure what is going on with your computer. I think the next step would be reloading the Windows operating system. It is just a guess – may be the power management software is corrupted somehow. By the description you provided, it shouldn’t be the fl inverter board problem, even though everything is possible. Some problems are very weird!

I have a laptop that I haven’t been able to fix for over 30 days! Replaced almost every single part twice and it’s still doing the same! Just a nightmare. I’m here just to say ‘Thank you’. I tried to open my laptop for checking connector part, but I couldn’t. It’s too tight. I gave it up and decided to send computer to repair center.

Today I got back my computer. Fortunately my computer is under warranty. (Actually I didn’t know that.) I really thank you for your guide and advice even though I couldn’t fix it by myself.

They replaced and tested the Main System PCB, COROM and CPU cooling module. Is there any relationship between no signal on the screen and CDROM or Main system? I thought it was VGA proplem.

Anyway my laptop came back to me. I’m so happy. Hi CJ, I stumbled across this rather informative site on a Google search about laptop LCD troubleshooting, and was wondering if I could find an answer here. A bit of history. My Toshiba Satellite M-40 is less than a year old, but has encountered a fair share of problems. A moldy black smudge became a permanent fixture on the upper-right part of the screen.

Although things were pretty much viewable, the darkened part was rather unsightly. Since the notebook was still under warranty, I took it to the Toshiba Service Center for repairs. After the repair was done, the laptop came back with a clear screen, but with uneven lighting – there was a bit of backlight bleeding on the lower edge of the screen.

So back to the repair center it went, and now I got it back without moldy patch, dead pixels, or bleeding. However, there is something very slight that I noticed. My google searches don’t turn up anything definitive, so here goes: At a normal viewing angle, everything is fine. However, if I tilt the screen back, I start to see a lot of subtle vertical lines all across the screen.

These lines very faint, and are completely invisible at a full-on forward view. So a question – is there a problem, or am I being overly sensitive? Any assistance is greatly appreciated! Regards, Zergrinch •. Hello, I have read all of the entries in this section regarding LCD problems and I am currently having a problem with my Toshiba Satellite 3000 series laptop. The lcd screen is almost black but you can faintly see the display. When I hook it up to an external monitor it looks great and super clear.

I replaced the inverter thinking that might be it but with no luck. I am assuming that the only things left to check would be the lcd cable, lcd screen itself or the button to the top left could be stuck causing the backlight to not display. I took this laptop to a laptop repair shop and they previously told me that it was a mother board issue which would have been too costly for me to fix. I am assuming that was not correct since I have no problems seeing the display on an external monitor. Please let me know if you think that it could possibly be anything else. I would rather not trash my laptop since it works great except for the lcd screen. Heather, If I would get a laptop like yours for repair I would suspect the FL inverter board first.

OK, you have replaced it and it didn’t help. There are 2 more parts in the display assembly – the LCD screen and the video cable. There is only one way to test witch one is failing – to replace them one by one. By the way, a faint image on the LCD screen might be caused by a failed motherboard. It is not very common problem, but I have seen it before.

Most likely, technicians in the repair shop already tried to install a test LCD screen and video cable, that’s what I would do first. Hi cj, I’ve been looking over your site for a while now, seems like you might be the man to talk to. I have a Toshiba Satellite A75, and I have a similar problem to Guido from his posts in early April. I have a few thin vertical lines through my screen. When I press on the casing above the screen it goes away, but comes right back when I let go. Does that sound like maybe the casing is just loose somewhere?

Maybe it’s possible for me to tight something instead of having to buy an entirely new screen? Not trying to spend hundreds of dollars if I don’t have to of course. Thanks a lot. Craig, Connect the laptop to an external monitor. Check if you have the same lines on the external video. If you do then you have a problem with the system board or the video card, I’m not sure if the video card is a separate module in your laptop.

If the laptop displays lines only on the internal LCD screen then the problem is somewhere in the display assembly. The LCD screen is bad itself, the video cable is bad or the connection between the cable and the screen is loose. First step would be reseating the video cable on the back of the laptop screen. If it doesn’t help then you have to try to replace the video cable or the LCD screen. One more test. You can grasp the screen for top left and right corners and try to twist it a little bit, put some tension on the screen.

If lines go away when you twist the screen, then I would suspect the LCD screen itself. Hey, I am having a video problem on my Satellite A75. About an inch to the right of center there is an inch wide vertical stripe that is adding a significant blue tinge to any video displayed there and certain colors get streaked across it horizontally. It happened a couple months ago and I took it to a warranty center (it was still covered then) and they replaced the whole LCD assembly.

It has come back now and is no longer covered. I am thinking that there may be something simpler than a bad LCD given that it is happening in exactly the same place as last time.

I was wondering if it might be a loose video cable or something like that. I don’t think it can be a software issue because it happens whenever the screen is on (including during BIOS). Any ideas would be great. Thanks, Ed •. Hi Ed, The warranty center replaced the entire LCD assembly (screen, video cable, FL inverter) or just the LCD screen? If they replaced the entire LCD assembly then it is possible that the video connector on the system board is failing or loose. Try to reseat the cable on the system board.

If they replaced only the LCD screen then it is possible that the video cable is bad or the connection on the system board is loose. First, I would try to reconnect the video cable on the back of the screen and on the system board.

If it doesn’t fix the problem, the next step would be replacing the video cable. Finally, if a new video cable doesn’t help I would suspect that the video connector on the system board or the system board itself is bad. Peggy, Have you tried to start the laptop with an external monitor? What video do you have on the external monitor? BTW, I was troubleshooting IBM ThinkPad A31p notebook this morning. The laptop had a faint image on the screen, the external video was fine. At first I thought about a failed FL inverter board.

I took apart the display assembly and removed the screen. After that I connected my test screen and got the backlight!

So, I had to quote to the customer a new screen. Our price from IBM was over $600!!! He declined the repair. Pat, Do you see the vertical lines only in Windows? Do they appear right after you start the laptop and Winodws OS is not loaded yet? Have you tried to reinstall the video driver?

You can run a restore CDs (or DVD) to reload the laptop back to original factory settings. It will erase everything from your harddrive, so do not forget to backup or transfer all important data to another location before you reload the laptop. If you have a software issue, it would be fixed after you restore the laptop. Ed, I tried several times plugging into external monitor yesterday. Each time, the display was perfect. However, my laptop was behaving all day yesterday — until last night. I turned it on, got the garbaged display, and plugged the external monitor cord into the laptop without restarting laptop.

Didn’t know if that would work; I guess not. Nothing showed up on external monitor. So I restarted laptop and external monitor was perfect. Disconnected laptop from external monitor, restarted laptop, laptop screen was perfect. So it’s sure hard to troubleshoot when the problem is so intermittent, but I’ll keep on keepin’ on I called IBM, they said I am out of warrty, but to see if I have a loose cable.

I did pay by credit card, and it looks like I may have an extra year’s warranty (Hurray!) so I will call them. To be continued •. # 32 cj2600 Says: April 5th, 2006 at 9:57 pm IN RESPONSE TO THIS ANSWER.BELOW If the connections are fine, then I would try to replace the LCD video cable next.

It is the cheapest replacement part between the system board and the LCD screen. You have very good chances that the cable will fix your problem. There are 2 cables listed for Toshiba Satellite P25-S509: K000005950 for Samsung LCD screens K000005960 for LG Phillips screens Check on the back of the LCD screen who made it and try to find this part via ebay or google. Video cables in Toshiba Satellite P25 are not very reliable.

I repaired a lot of P25 laptops with problem like yours just by replacing the cable. But it also possible that the system board or the screen is causing the problem. Thank you cj for your response it was already replaced though.

So in your expert opinion would you think its the motherboard connection or a bad lcd? And if so is there anyway to test these without swapping them out since i don’t have either here? Thank you again for the only useful LCD Q&A site on the internet! Anderson, I have attempted to solve the problem, unsuccesfully.

I have completely disassembled the laptop (I was also going in to clean the heatsink) and display assemblies, disconnecting and reconnecting all of the connectors. This has had no effect on the display issue. I guess my next move is to start ordering replacement parts. It seems that the problem could be anywhere in the video system, from the video card, to the cable, to the inverter or the LCD itself. If anyone has any other suggestions, that would be greatly appreciated. Hey Ed, Before you start buying and replacing parts it would be a good idea to narrow down witch part is failing.

You mentioned that the laptop repair center replaced at least the LCD screen, so let’s trust them and exclude the screen from the list of suspected parts. I have never seen that a bad FL inverter is causing the problem like yours. Usually, if the FL inverter works, you have the backlight and if it doesn’t work you do not have the backlight. So, we have 2 parts left – the system board and the video cable. Start the laptop with an external monitor connected and check the video. If you see the same vertical stripe on the external monitor, then the system board is bad and has to be replaced. If the external video is fine, then most likely the video cable is bad (replace the cable) or the video connector on the system board is bad (replace the motherboard).

I can look up for part numbers for you. Please give me the model number for your laptop. You’ll find it on the bottom of the laptop, it would be something like this: PSA70U-09700E. i like to say this is a very very helpful and informative website. Thank you so much for some of the items here.

I have an ASUS W3V with ATi x600. Just recently my TFT LCD would dim or faint out. 98% happens during the startup of games (warcraft and counter-strike). For every other tasks such as photoshop, web browsing, MS office, it would be perfectly normal. When i alt-tab back to the desktop, re-plug AC power, or gentle tapping would get the LCD to come back. Sometimes nothing works and i have to restart and it comes back to normal.

I downloaded all the latest driver and it kept me trouble free for a couple of days then the problem came back again. There is no switch for the lid and its a hinge type. The LCD does turn off when the lid is almost shut (sensor inside hinge i believe). When i use an external monitor it works perfectly. From your expertise, do you think this is the faulty inverter? Hardware problem?

Or some software problem? Any imput would be highly appreciated, thank you everyone.

Hi, I have read around 30 posts, and didnt see a problem that was exactly like mine, but here it is: I get no backlight at all, i have checked the lid switch and taped and did every thing i can to it (i work with ps2s, and i know how them switches can be). Any way, it did work this morning, it just went out (just fixed the mother board:(, new security chip.

I have reseated the connections a few times and still nothing. I did not bend the lcd or any thing that i know of where the back pannel of the lcd would be broken (i cant see any cracks or any thing either). Of what i read, if there is a backlight for a bit, then goes out, its the inverter, can it just not work at all and be it? Also the backpannel bulb, its flourscent light, and normaly dont just blow like a bulb in a house, but can it durning power up? Also is there any kind of ways to test the inverter/backpannel to find what is the problem, or to actaully know that they are working right, but something is not connected? Such as reading the AC voltage on the inverter to the bulb (probley not but just a ex.) Also i have some older thinkpads here (mines a T30) and i know that they have working inverters and bulbs, can i use one of them (maybe some soldering) to just use as a test, maybe pernament. They are the 365XD model (both are).

* I might take the backpannel apart and check the wires to the bulb to see if it has any beaks, them are too small of wires for my likeing:(. But thats probley a few days later. Like i kind of metioned, i fix ps2s/xboxes and other small electonics just about every day, also modding them, so i have a pretty good hand at soldering/working with electronics. If you want, you can do a google serch for “cmd19872002” for some of my history:P. Thank you very much for your time (i use to help people online all the time and i know it kind of gets tiresome answering questions for nothing, but in the end its worth it:).

Cmd19872002 Email: PS2fixer(AT)Gmail.com •. Hey Cory, First of all, did you replace the motherboard?

Is it possible that you got a bad motherboard? If the FL inverter is bad then you can get the backlight working for a while on start up or it will not light up at all, not for a second. Both variants are possible. But you should have a faint image on the screen if it is the FL inverter problem.

Sometimes it’s very hard to see any image, but it still should be there. With IBM laptops you usually can see IBM logo on startup (very faint).

The video on an external monitor should be fine, hook it up and check the video just in case. Toshiba says that you can test the FL inverter with a multimeter. The voltage on the exit from the FL inverter board should be 200-600 VAC. I have never tried to measure it myself and I don’t know if this numbers are accurate. I guess you can measure the voltage on the exit from the FL inverter board to see if you have any output at all. For test I have 2 different backlight bulbs with different connectors, they were removed from cracked LCD screens.

If I see a problem with the backlight, I disconnect the LCD screen from the FL inverter and connect my test backlight lamp. If I still have no backlight then the LCD screen is not my problem and most likely the inverter is bad. If I was able to light up my test backlight lamp, them most likely the backlight on the LCD screen is bad.

You can open one of yours laptops to check if the connector for FL inverter board is the same as on the laptop you are trying to fix. If it is the same connector, you can try to connect your screen to the laptop you are fixing and see if you can get the backlight. It is not necessary to connect the data cable, only the cable for the FL inverter would be enough. If you still cannot get the backlight, them most likely the inverter is bad. I had a situation very similar to yours. I had to replace the LCD cover on IBM laptop because it was cracked around hinges.

After I replaced the cover, the laptop booted without any backlight, it even didn’t turn on for a millisecond. There was a very faint image on the screen. LEDs on the FL inverter board worked fine.

I connected my test backlight bulb and it didn’t light up. The problem was fixed by replacing the FL inverter board. Wow, I was thinking on the right path for Carlos’ laptop Maybe i should get into laptop repair also lol. Any way, the connector for the bulb is a little bit bigger, but i would think that i could solder wires directly on the junker one (just more stuff missing lol). I would think that most inverters would be the same voltage, also i will try to get a good reading on the inverter that might be bad, im hopeing its just that switch so i can just do a quick solder fix, but if i have to put more money into it i guess i should make it right. Thanks a lot for your help so far:). Also i forgot to tell you about the other things, it does have the very dim immage (ibm logo is about all i can ever make out, but i know it loads to windows).

I have another mother board here, but i got error 192 (fan error) with it and that was before the light went out (geting my $150 back from that thing). I might have to do some research on FLs and FL inverters, my dad has a ton of FL fixturs that i could “hack” apart and make it where the small bulb could plug into it (right polarity of course, if it matters). That is where my multimeter might come in handy:D. Im off to fix this and that so i will check back here later.

Cmd19872002 •. Wow my invertor is bad, i think im going to check that other laptop out (one i never said about, because it actually works lol, but its too slow to use really) Only thing is, if that lid switch is stuck, then i would get the same reading, so i will have to check that befor i can confirm it, but i have a feeling its the FL invertor. Oh ya, my ext monitor works just fine. Reading to FL0 vac im going to take a reading on the other one now Wow its a weird reading, around 4.1.0 (yes 2. In it) Thats on 600vac setting.

Other did read 0 so now its either the switch or invertor be back with more news lol. Maybe i should team up with you on this sight to help people:). New news, the button is “NOT” stuck down my invertor is acting up/bad:(. Time to price check on ebay lol, or maybe i will be lucky and be able to fix the one here:). Problem: All of a sudden the screen on my Toshiba Satellite M35X-S161 went out.

I turned the machine off and could hear it boot but the screen would not come on. I am out of my warranty since I have had the machine a little over a year so I brought it to a local shop. He held a flashlight up to the screen and couldn’t see anything. He also hooked it up to an external monitor-again nothing.

Just got the call that the motherboard is bad and a refurbished one is about 400-500 bucks. Have you seen anything similar with this model? Sadly, Lauren •. Hi all, I have the same problem as Guido in post 38. I own a Toshiba P35-S609. A couple of months ago two vertical lines appeared on each side of the screen.

Since then they have multiplied and I now have more than 20 lines of different colors in two groupings at each end. As in Guido’s case the lines do not show up on an external monitor. Did anyone manage to solve this problem without replacing the LCD (i.e. By replacing the video cable)? My computer is out of warranty and I am not keen to shell out $600 for a new screen. Any comments would be much appreciated.

Hey Kelly, Are you talking about small white 2 prong plastic connector with 2 wires coming out? If yes, them this connector is not a part of the FL inverter board. This connector is a part of the LCD screen. I’ve seen some cables with this small connectors already attached to it. This cables are used to extend the lengths of cabling from the LCD screen to the inverter board. I guess that’s what you need. When you find one, you can cut off the old connector and solder new cables with the plug already attached to it.

After that you just plug it back into the inverter board. I do not know the correct name for this cables, I would call it something like “LCD screen backlight cable extension kit”. I hope I understood you correctly. I have a Compaq Presario 1500 Laptop, with a 15″ LCD HSD150PX14-A When turning the laptop on the display light is ok and boot perfect. LCD’s Bright and Color Perfect. If I work for some time (1 hour, 4 hours, 15 minutes – the failing time is random) or when I move the LCD Assembly (to open or close) then the backlight goes dark, but I can see barely the desktop image. If I press the little “latch switch” that the screen frame hits when it closes then let that pin go again, nothing change.

If I put Windows XP in Standby (suspend) mode and resume to normal mode or turn off and turn on the laptop, the screen will light again with the brightness and color perfect. I think that the problem would be the Inverter, Inverter Cable or the CCFLs, so I decided to buy an Inverter and Inverter cable.

After replace them, the problem still happens. I read in other forums that if the CCFL goes bad, the Inverter detect it and turn off itself for safety, Is that true???

At that point I not sure if the new inverter is bad too, or the problem is inside the LCD. Any Ideas????? Thanks in advance! Luis, You’ve replaced the FL inverter and the cable, so the only part left is the screen itself. I do not think that inverter can turn itself off for safety. From my knowledge, the main function of the FL inverter board is to provide a necessary voltage and amperage to light up the backlight bulb. Correct me if I’m wrong.

I think that in your case the CCFL is bad itself (if your new inverter is OK of course). Also, there is a possibility that there is something wrong with the system board. The FL inverter is getting power from the board, right? What if the inverter is good, the cable is good and the screen is good but something wrong with a circuit that provides power for FL inverter? That is just a guess.

I think that’s would be nice if you can find a second (test) screen or just a bulb and connect it to your laptop. When we get a cracked screen with good backlight bulb, we always remove the bulb for testing purposes. That’s would be very useful in the case like yours. Thanks for your answer. I think too that the problem would be a bad CCFL. My only concern is to know how is the behavior of a bad CCFL? In my case, Always I cut energy to the lcd assembly (Turn-off and turn-on or Put XP in Standby and resume) the CCFLs always works fine, and after that, sometimes works fine for 3-4 hours!!!, but when the backlight turn off, I noticed that the lcd screen is hot, and if I press the “backlight turn off switch” (that supose cut the energy to the backlight too) the CCFLs not respond very weird!!!

Based on your experience, do you think that a bad CCFL could work for 4 hours before to fail (work intermittently)?, could be a bad solder joints?, CCFL Overheat?, CCFL Cracked?? Any sugestions will be apreciated Thanks again for your usefull help!!!! My lcd screen comes on sometimes when I start my computer with red letters while the computer boots up and then a very faint image once Windows is running. I also have a funky loose connection on my AC adapter and my battery is not charging.

I’m not sure if these are related issues or not. One time I fiddled with the AC charger and I turned on the laptop.

To my surprise the backlight came on pretty good. It was still a little reddish and flickering kind of but I could actually work through the LCD display pretty well. I stopped working and came back and it had gone back to being dim again. I think it is the FL inverter board based on what I’ve read here. I’m not sure how to reseat the cables and all of that or to install a new FL inverter board but maybe I’ll look into it. I’m not getting the red anymore on the lcd.

All I see is a very faint image. Another thing that is weird is that the battery says its 100% charged now but if I disconnect the AC adaptor then it starts to beep and it turns itself off. When I close the lid on the laptop I’ve set the alarm to go into standby and therefore I can rule out the stuck plastic switch problem. The only alarm that I have for the battery is a low battery text warning so I can’t understand why it shuts down unless it’s just a really bad battery.

If so then why is it now at 100% and originally it was at 6% when I got the computer? Owen, I’m almost positive that the battery is bad. A bad battery behaves exactly as you described below. You can charge it from 0% to 100% and it might take some time, but as soon as you unplug the AC power plug, the battery discharges very quickly, sometimes almost instantly. I still think that you have a problem with the LCD screen (reddish hue) and this problem might not be related to the backlight. If the reddish hue is gone now, it will appear later.

In most cases, when there is no backlight it the FL inverter board failure. If you really want to try to fix the backlight problem, I would go with the inverter board first, but be prepared that you can get a red color on the LCD later. Thanks for your help cj600. I removed the FL inverter board to take it to a computer shop and find that part. I wasn’t able to find one in the stores but I did find one on eBay that says it’s “NEW”.

Should I buy a new FL inverter before I get a new panel? One thing that I can not understand is why I still get a faint image on the Panel even though I’ve removed the FL inverter?

I see it mostly when the PC is starting up and the Windows Logo comes on with the little progress bar. I thought that by removing the FL inverter, I was severing any connections between the panel and motherboard. Hi, I bought a Compaq Presario R3000 about a year ago.

It ran great until two days ago when the screen suddenly “dimmed” in the middle of an application. One minute it was fine, the next the colors from the screen became really “washed out”–similar to when you turned the contrast all the way up, and you can only see faint images and colors in a whie haze. I was told that it may take up to $300 or more to fix it (depending on what the problem is). Can you give me an idea as to what the problem may be, and whether self repair is possible? Any comment would be appreciated! I recently got given a Compaq Presario 1200 model 12XL300. It has a 600mhz celeron with 128mb ram and a 6gb harddisk.

He told me the screen started playing up when he tried to install XP. The screen has an extremely slow response time, it is very blury.

If you could imagine dividing the screen into three colums the middle colum is washed out. I am not 100% sure if the screen is actually faulty as i havwe not seen it in action before it was formatted with XP. Using an external display it works fine. I have installed 98SE with the drivers from the HP Compaq website to no avail. The screen is slow also in the post and bootup. Is it worth checking the logic board and replugging the video cable/Backlight?

Julius, I think that’s a bad LCD screen. A bad video cable can cut off the video signal completely or you’ll get some garbaged video, but I doubt that a bad video cable can cause just the middle column to be washed out. It’s not the FL inverter board. The FL inverter provides power for the backlight bulb and if it’s bad you have no backlight at all. It will affect the entire screen and not the part of the screen. So, if the laptop works fine with an external monitor then it must be the LCD screen problem and the motherboard (video card) should be fine.

Pat, Start the laptop with an external monitor and wait until it goes to a standby mode. After that resume it from standby and see if you experience the same problem with an external monitor. If the laptop works fine with the external monitor, then the problem is somewhere inside the display assembly, possible the FL inverter is going bad. If you still having the same problem with the external monitor, then it’s not the display. Call to the manufacturer and ask them if there is a BIOS update for you laptop.

Maxell, First of all, confirm that the laptop is getting power when you plug the AC adapter. The power LED on the laptop should light up when you plug the adapter. Try to wiggle the power plug and see if the power LED flickers when you do that. If the LED flickers, then you might have a problem with the power jack of with the power plug on the adapter. If the power is stable, then I would try to reseat or replace the memory module.

If the memory module is bad, the laptop will not boot. By the way, the laptop will not boot into Windows or it will not start at all? Hi, cj2600 and All, In response to post 194, the right side of the screen is blank during BIOS info at startup, as well as durning the Dell and Windows start screens. Once the desktop is loaded, the right side of the screen (exactly from the middle to the right) is generally the same color as the desktop background but displays no other information. The mouse pointer just disappears if you go over there. Sometimes it is blank or contains colored verticle bars.

When booting in safe mode, I have the same problem. I have also installed the latest drivers for the ATI mobility card. But still the same problem. As you know, I had also replaced the cable and swapped in another video card. I have not updated the BIOS because I have heard it can mean trouble for the 7000. I don’t want any more trouble.

But I’ll probably do it anyway, because I am running out of options. Thanks for any advice, John •. I checked the power and it is ok.while i was doing it i came across with the cd mode in front panel and try to play some cd.it is working but when i press the power switch while playing a cd an amber light is flashing slowly from the power switch itself and the power LED. I tested the memory module with my friend’s laptop (same model) and it is working very fine.regarding the booting behavior of my laptop, when i did not use it for about 2-3 days it will boot fine but after shutting it down it will not boot anymore.not even bios.it is intermittent sometime after few hours it will boot again. mr.cj2600, thanks for every bit of little help youve given me.now, my laptop is working fine. Before i go to toshiba center to buy a new fl inverter, i try to remove the sensor switch magnet out of the main board just to make sure that it is not the source of my problem. After removing it, i test its continuity with my tester and it is always in close position.

The sensor switch magnet in my laptop(P10-792) should be in open position whenever a magnet is not present (lid is open) so when i assemble my laptop again without the sensor switch magnet, my laptop is back to life again.i found out also that this switch is preventing my laptop from booting. Thank you very mr.cj2600! Sent my Toshiba a75 s2292 into be repaired was told that the blue line and blue ribbon going up and down my lcd was from Tab separation.

I can not find any information on this. Recently it was repaired for overheating and also the motherboard was replaced. The claim from the repair facility is it must of been in a padded case and then dropped (Padded case because there aren’t any cracks or marks on the computer case). This computer was not dropped by me at anytime. Am I being taken for a ride?

Malia, By connecting another LCD screen and having the same problem, you proofed that it’s not the backlight bulb problem (if the spare LCD screen is good of course). Sometimes, when the FL inverter is bad, it’s very hard to see any image on the screen.

Usually you can see only a very faint Toshiba logo in the middle or a faint Intel logo in the lower right corner, and after that everything is very dark. I think that you have very good chances to fix the problem if you replace the FL inverter. Just in case I would reseat the video cable on the system board and the cable that entering the inverter before buying parts.

i have recieved a laptop which is ibm 600e ok lests ee its problem no ibm screen at startup on lcd but yes there is display on external monitor using fn +f? Alan Ford Svi Brojevi Download there. Does bring the ibm logo on lcd and the laptop starts to boot well when windows 2000 is booting the ccfl goes off tried the thing for aleast 20 times but ccfl goes of at the same point everytine boot up no lcd display have to use fn + f? To bring on display okay used the fn +f?

Andre, I don’t know why FL inverters break. I think it’s just like any electrical device fails without any reason.

Are you sure that your backlight problem is related to a bad FL inverter? Have you checked if the lid close switch moves freely? Did you install a new inverter board or it was an aftermarket part? It looks like Toshiba new about FL inverter board issue in this model for a while and even was replacing inverters on out of warranty laptops until May 4, 2006. I guess that original inverters for this model had a defect and Toshiba had to modify them somehow to prevent the backlight failure.

May be your second FL inverter comes from a not modified batch? That’s just my guess. I accidentally stepped on my laptop and now the colors are inverted (negative). For the rest it’s working fine. Reseating the connections did not help, it’s a Fujitsu P1120 with 8.9″ Toshiba screen. I installed Powerstrip and can reverse the colors, which almost look normal now. However, colors stay inverted during video playback and I would rate the screen quality 70% of original.

Can you tell me which component(s) may have been damaged, how I can test this and perhaps even if it can be fixed? Is it the inverter? I found refurbished inverters on the Web but want to be sure to make the right diagnosis. I have a Thinkpad T30 that I got after the owner dropped it and broke the LCD.

I replaced the LCD and I have learned that there is a problem where the front memory slot doesn’t work. I cannot be sure, but I think it hasn’t worked for some time. I have searched around and found that this is a common problem with this model, but that the “free Engineering change” from IBM is no longer available.

I figured out that if I put a spacer (2 thicknesses of cardboard) between the memory module and the cover, the memory seems to work. Do you think this is a situation where I could make a permanant fix by resoldering the connections between the MB and the slot? How and where should I apply the heat, assuming I use a heat gun. Heather: I have a Satellite 3000 with similar problem to yours external monitor works fine but LCD goes dark. In my case I notice the LCD image is fine for a while when I power up, but it goes dark or the whole system freezes, especially if I move or pick up the laptop a certain way. To me this suggests a problem with a bad solder joint or connector. I’ve replaced the FL inverter, the motherboard and still does the same.

The only thing I haven’t tried is replacing the graphics card. So I just bought a graphics card (part no. K000810990) and will post a message on here and let you know whether or not this fixes the problem when it arrives next week. Wow, great site. Good to see someone helping people. I was using my Compaq Presario x6000 tonight like normal, then all the sudden the screen is filled with thousands of vertical blue lines.

On a white background they change to yellow. I got in touch w/tech support, they had me do the external monitor test, which showed the lines on the external monitor. Based on what I’ve read above, that would mean my video card is bad? Should I remove and reinsert the card to see if that will fix it or just go ahead and try to order another card? I belive my notebook has a ATI Mobility Radeon x600. Thanks for your time!

Hi Luke, If you get the same lines on the internal LCD screen and the external monitor, then most likely the video card is bad. But I think that in this model the video card is integrated into the system board and you cannot reseat it.

If the video card is bad, you’ll have to replace the system board. The service manual will show how to remove the system board.

Navigate to “Removal and Replacement Procedures” entry in the left pane and go to line 5.16 – system board. There you’ll find a part number for your system board; it depends on how much video memory you have. Man, I googled for these boards and they are expensive. Great Website. Thank you for taking the time to help me and everybody else. I have an IBM thinkpad T22. Recently, When I turn it on the screen is very dark and I see a faint image of windows.Sometimes When I jiggle the screen back and forth the screen goes back to normal and stays that way till I shut down.

Now even the jiggling doesnt bring back the screen and all I see is a dark faint image. However, The display comes up perfectly using an external monitor.

Do you belive it is most likely an inverter problem? I am just not sure where to start.

Ricky, I still think that it could be a connection issue. You’ve mentioned in the comment 220 that sometimes you can get the screen back to normal when you jiggle the screen. At the next step I would probably reseat the video coble on the system board and on the back of the LCD screen, just in case. Also check the lid close switch, it should move freely. If the FL inverter goes bad, I don’t think that you can get it back to normal by jiggling the screen. BTW, very often when the inverter is going bad, you can get the backlight back to normal for a moment if you tap a few times on the lid close switch. Try it and see if you can get the backlight flashing.

If it flashes when you tap on the switch, then you might have a bad inverter board. Luke, Most modern laptops have a video card integrated into the system board. Some models have shared video memory (they use a part of the main memory), some models have a dedicated video memory. Laptops with dedicated video memory perform better then laptops with shared memory and they are more expensive. You should go with a dedicated video memory if you are looking for performance (gaming laptops). If you are going to use the laptop just for basic operations (Word, Excel, Internet, etc) then shared video memory would be good enough. I don’t know if there is any advantage to buy a laptop with a removable video card.

A laptop video card itself is pretty expensive and not a lot of models implement removable video cards, so you have a limited choice and if you need to buy a new video card it would cost you half price of a new motherboard. I too have the Fujitsu lifebook S6210 and have the exact same problem.

I can turn on the computer and hook it up to an external monitor and it works fine. As a matter of fact the screen flashes a little when I turn it on and also when switching it to external monitor and back. The image on the screen is feint. My question is kind of twofold. 1) Is there some sort of way to permenantly enable the backlight to always stay on so that the switch (you said its possibly magnetic) is disabled? (perhaps in bios) 2) If that is not possible are there any ways to possibly fix this problem without getting the switch replaced?

(I want to fix it but I am currently not making as much money as when i bought the laptop and do not have the cash to get it fixed) thanks for your help (if you have any) •. If thats the case are there any kind of precautions I need to take prior to ripping the LCD screen open to make sure the connections are sound?

Actually heck, looking at it I dont see any screws or anything like that holding the screen on. According to the previous diagram on the front page it looks like the connection you are talking about is behind the actual LCD screen itself, but how to I take that apart to take a look? I’m kind of a computer dummy so please excuse the question if it sounds stupid •. Anirban, I don’t think that your problem is related to BIOS. If the laptop was dropped and doesn’t work properly anymore, most likely the problem is related to a loose connection.

It’s necessary to open up the laptop and reseat loose connections. In your case I would check connectors on the FL inverter board, located inside the display assembly. After you reseat connectors (unplug cables and plug them back), you might get the backlight back. I hope you didn’t damage the backlight bulb, when you dropped the laptop. If the backlight is damaged, the repair would be more expensive. Also, I would check if the keyboard is properly connected to the motherboard. You’ll have to lift up the keyboard and reseat the keyboard cable on the motherboard.

This is a good service, thanks for keeping a free public access of useful information. I have a satellite P10-S409, out of blue, the screen went blan/black.

There is nothing that I can see on the screen, there is a tiny shad of backlght that increase and decrease little bit by clicking Fn+ F6 and F7. I tried all the function keey combination, thinking that the key board is messed up or accidently wrong keeys were pressed. Nothing happened, I conneceted to the extra monitor (my desktop), I have a perfect video and I am using my laptop conntected to the extra monitor. It is not comfortable, but for emergency, It is working now. What do you think would have happened, the inverter or LCD? Is there any other tips or troubleshooting I can do, before I take this to a repair center to be get ripped for the repair?

Thanks, SM •. SM, There is nothing that I can see on the screen, there is a tiny shad of backlight that increase and decrease little bit by clicking Fn+ F6 and F7. It tells me that there is nothing wrong with the FL inverter and the backlight bulb. I conneceted to the extra monitor (my desktop), I have a perfect video and I am using my laptop connected to the extra monitor. If the external monitor works fine, then most likely the system board (video card) is not damaged and the problem is somewhere inside the display assembly.

I think that you might have a bad screen, a bad video cable or a loose connection between the video cable and the screen or the motherboard. If I would get this laptop for repair, first of all I would open up the display and checked if the video cable is seated properly. It looks like the data is not coming from the system board to the screen. Check the video cable connection on the back of the screen first. Then check the connection on the motherboard. If all connections are fine, I would replace the video cable next and finally the screen.

You can find a link to my Toshiba disassembly guides in the “Links” on the right side. I don’t have a guide for Satellite P10, but I have created a few guides for other models. Taking apart LCD assembly is kinda similar for most Toshiba laptops. Mark, I think the labor charge would be somewhere between $100-$140. It will include the motherboard replacement and testing. Now about the motherboard itself. There are a few boards for ZV5000, it depends of the configuration of your laptop.

You can find all boards listed on the page 171 of the. In the same manual you’ll find instructions for replacing the main board, just in case you want to do it yourself.

To find out how much would it cost you to buy a replacement motherboard, I searched on eBay for “zv5000 motherboard” and found it on sale for about $300. If you buy the same motherboard through a repair shop, they will bump up the price and it would be around $500. So, if you take it to a repair shop, you are looking approximately at $600 -$700 plus tax. That’s a rough estimate, but you’ll get an idea.

Last week i open my laptop, since it was displaying vertical lines. But i made a critical error: i forgot to take out the battery. When i was testing the connections on the display cable, my screw driver touch on the top of the display cable (it’s made of metal) and the GFX cooler.

Then a big spark came out flying, and the lcd lights went off. Since the, they never turned on again. The lights in the lcd are ok, since i’ve tested with a power inverter from an desktop cumputer tunning kit.

On the DC part of the lcd power inverter there’s some Voltage (Tested with a Voltimeter), and the power inverter fuse its ok, but there’s no high voltage output. Other thing i’ve notice: when the computer restarts, the light turns on for almost a second, then come off.

So, on booting some of the power can reach the light. I’ve tested also switch who turnos of the ligth when you close the laptop lid. Can anyone help with these? Like I said before. I replaced the LCD first then the Inverter but still no backlight. If I use a flashlight and point it at the screen I do see windows barely, and the external monitor hookup works just fine too.

Should I use a voltmeter to see if the inverter is atleast working? I know it produces high voltage and the meter I have goes up to 1000 volts. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Use the email address provided. I’ll pay $ if someone can seriously help. Again it’s a Fujitsu Lifebook S6210. I have been very frustrated.

I have contacted Dell and Epson both. There tech people are not very helpful. This is the problem. We own an Epson PowerLite S1 LCD and a Dell Inspiron 9400. We previously owned a Dell Lattitude. When using the Dell Lattitude with the Epson LCD everything was fine. The image was clear but when using the Dell Inspiron the image is not clear.

The grid is magnified to the point that it distorts the image. I have messed with the focus, the tracking and whatever else I could think of on the projector.

I have changed the pixels on the laptop. It just changes the size of the picture not the quality of the image. We have the laptop set at 1280X768. The projector’s native resolution is fixed at 800X600. Can you help? Like I said Dell and Epson have been of no help.

This shows up both on the LCD and on an external monitor Its on an Compaq 1800 Notebook. I am assuming that the onboard video is likely dead *sigh*, but would love a second opinion. Sometimes everything loads great. Also, when it looks like this, I can sometimes move the mouse around and it will redraw properly behind the area where the mouse has moved. I don’t appear to have any issues when I have simply text displaying.

Any chance it could at lest be heat related? Memory passes Mem test. Doug, I think you are right. Looks like a video card problem. In most cases, when a bad video output appears on the external monitor too, the system board/ video card must be replaced. You mentioned that the laptop has an onboard video card, so you’ll have to replace the entire motherboard. I can sometimes move the mouse around and it will redraw properly behind the area where the mouse has moved.

Apparently you have a problem with the video memory. If you laptop uses a share video memory (a part of the main memory), I would probably try installing another memory stick. I would try it just in case, even though the main memory passed Memtest. You can do that only the main memory is not integrated into the motherboard and both memory slots are accessible. I must say that your page is one of the best i’ve seen yet. Very well laid out and comprehensive. Anyhow, I have a thinkpad t23 and dropped it by mistake.

Now the backlight comes on at first but then goes off after a few seconds but you can still see the faint windows logo. If i depress and release lid close switch the screen come back on but then goes back to faint after a few seconds again so i know the lid close switch seems to be working ok. I reseated the connectors from the lcd ribbon and the lcd inverter first but the problem persisted.

I then replaced the LCD inverter itself and still have the problem. I am considering replacing the LCD ribbon next and if that doesn’t work perhaps the LCD screen. I really have no clue what the problem is and I’d rather not spend the money to replace anything else (especially not the screen) if the problem lies elsewhere. Any thoughts? Osi, Can you check if the buzzing noise is coming from the FL inverter board? May be you installed a bad FL inverter? I don’t think that the video cable was damaged when you dropped the laptop.

Of course, it’s possible but very unlikely. If a new FL inverter will not fix the problem, I would probably blame the LCD screen. Apparently, the backlight bulb (part of the screen) has been damaged. I noticed that the bottom part of the LCD screen is brighter than the top part It’s normal.

The backlight bulb is located on the button of the screen, that’s why the bottom part of the screen seems to be brighter. On some screens you barely can see any difference between the top and bottom sides, on some screens the difference is very noticeable. Usually you can see the difference only on startup when the background is black, until the image appears.

Hi, T A million thanks for this great blog and all this useful info! I have read though most of the comments, but I did not seem to find a problem quite like mine, so here it is: The LCD of my IBM T21 is black quite often, you can see the images dimly and it works fine with an external monitor, just like for many other people here, what is strange is when and how it goes off. A few months ago it started coming back from hibernation / turn-off with a black screen. I can’t to anything to make it work, no shutting off/tapping the lid close button helps.

Then it comes back miraculously (sometimes I have the feeling that moving and bending the display back and forth helps, but I am not sure, most of the time it comes back without me touching it. I wanted to check the cables and the connections for months, I just couldn’t get myself round to take the whole thing apart yet), and it works fine for weeks, then again, I turn it on and it gives the black screen, and then it heals, etc it is getting worse, lately the screen flickered and then went off when the notebook was turned on (came back in a few minutes). Do you think it can be the inverter? Thanks again, and forgive me the lenghty description.:))) •. Orsi, When the screen goes black, can you see any image on the screen at all?

Take a closer look because it would be very dim. If you can see the image, then I would try replacing the inverter board. We also noticed that with Thinkpad T21 a video failure very often is related to the video cable, so if you decide to open up the laptop yourself you can swap the cable too. Replacing the video cable is more complicated then replacing the inverter board. I would go with the inverter first.

Luckily, both parts – the video cable and the inverter board are not expensive. After a quick search on eBay, I found the video cable for $35 and the inverter board for $10. Just a few days ago I opened my Compaq Presario R3000 after it sat in hibernate mode for about a week during a move. Bad idea leaving it in hibernate, I know. I turned on the laptop, received a clear screen with great color, than all of a sudden it went blank. I restarted the computer and could only see a very DIM view of the “windows” logon screen and the folders on my desktop once I logged in.

When I connect to an external monitor it looks beautiful! No color issues or anything. I tried everything with the hibernate button near the hinge, I reseatted the monitor cable to see if it was a bad connection and still nothing! The only thing driving me crazy is the fact that I am still able to see an image, but it is very dim and dull.

I am confused as to whether it is the LCD itself, the backlight, or the lcd inverter that needs to be replaced. Please help me! Greetings, I have a Toshiba M45-S331, about 15 months of use. It will not power off normally – every time I shut down, I get to the “Windows is shutting down” screen but ultimately have press and hold the power button to get it to power off. Further, unless I wait a period of time 15-30 mins before restarting, it gives me a narrowed (compressed) left-justified Toshiba logo screen and then halts. Wait a little longer, and she boots fine.

Finally, in Windows there is an intermittent “USB Device Not Recognized” error that comes and goes in spurts; the device manager lists “Unknown Device” in the USB Controllers section right below the Intel controllers (for Video??) and the Device Instance ID is: USB VID_0000&PID_0000 5&1D60131D&0&1. Does VID mean Video? There are NO peripherals or cables connected to the machine. In trying to identify the issue, I installed a new hard drive because I had some bad sectors showing. I loaded to that a known good backup image from several months ago and the problems didn’t change; so I concluded it is not a corrupt driver or hibernation/standby software. I was considering flashing the BIOS as a next step.

What do you think? Does it sound like this could be a video hardware related problem and if so what other tests can I try at home to determine the source? Thanks,this site is the tops!! Dawn, I don’t like this part: Further, unless I wait a period of time 15-30 mins before restarting, it gives me a narrowed (compressed) left-justified Toshiba logo screen and then halts. It sounds like a hardware problem. The laptop displays a narrowed logo even before the operating system is loaded, so it’s not related to the software. It indicates either a hardware problem (probably motherboard/video card) or there are some issues with the BIOS.

What about an external monitor, the Toshiba logo is displayed incorrectly too? I found that there are a lot of BIOS updates for Satellite M45-S331. Probably I would try reflashing/updating the BIOS first.

NOTE: there are a few different versions available for downloads, make sure to download the correct one. Version 1.90 says for Intel Display Adapter only, and version 2.00 says for Intel video. For me “Intel video” and “Intel Display Adapter” sounds the same but I have no idea why Toshiba wrote it differently. May be you should call Toshiba for more explanations because if you flash the BIOS with a wrong version, you might get BIG trouble. Sorry, I cannot recommend witch version to choose. The device manager lists “Unknown Device” in the USB Controllers section right below the Intel controllers (for Video??) VID is Vendor ID and PID is Product ID.

It’s not for video, it’s for USB ports. When you have issues with video, you usually listed in display adapters section. Im having a massive problem with my out of service Dell Inspiron 9300. About 2 months ago, it developed a 2″ strip from the top to the bottom of the screen, about 2/3’rds of the way over, when you boot the machine, this appears as a white strip, when you use the computer, if you use a white background you cant tell. Tonight, on the opposite side of the screen, there is a 2″ strip, and its flickers with lines in it I have reseated the video cable but it still does it, please help me I love my laptop and dont want to throw it away •. First of all, thank you for being so helpful. This is one of those places in which I feel people want to share the knowledge, and hardware is not something where this theory is usually applied much.

Now, on to my question. I have an HP zv5000 laptop computer whose LCD screen repeatedly turns off. It can be turned back on pushing the lid close switch. This happens whenever the notebook moves suddenly. For instance, laying it on a desk, hitting any keyboard keys just a little harder than “really soft”, or -more evidently-, (softly) tapping the lower center of the screen.

It looks like the FL inverter board is failing. What do you think? I disassembled the screen and tried to reconnect the cables in case they were loose, but the problem persists. Please tell me if I should check anything else before buying a new inverter board.

The repair manual says it needs a 354873-001 board. Am I really restricted to that specific model?

Is it manufactured by HP? Do you happen to know where one can usually get those in a non-first world country such as mine? (Argentina) Thanks in advance, and keep up the good work! George Hamilton, I disassembled the screen and tried to reconnect the cables in case they were loose, but the problem persists. Can you make the backlight to fail if you tap on the inverter, not on the keyboard or the lower center of the screen? This happens whenever the notebook moves suddenly. For instance, laying it on a desk, hitting any keyboard keys just a little harder than “really soft”, or -more evidently-, (softly) tapping the lower center of the screen.

It’s possible that the video cable connection to the motherboard is loose. I would try reseating the video cable on the motherboard before buying a new inverter. Just recently I had a similar issue with Satellite P25.

Here’s the problem. The backlight goes off when you move the display. I opened up the display and found that the cables that go from the screen to the inverter board were jammed between the screen and the hinge. The shielding on one cable was cracked, exposing the wire. Then the screen moves, the wire touches the hinge shortening the inverter and the backlight goes off.

The backlight comes back when you tap on the lid close switch. I put some electrical tape over the cracked cable and the problem was fixed. So, take a look on the cables inside the display assembly.

Thank you for hosting such a informative site. I had bought 2nd hand Panasonic CF-L2 laptop, which I accidently dropped, and since then there is only faint display. I taked it to repair guy and he told me the CCFT tube is broken and there is no spare parts available. As I went through ur website, there is no problem with LCD lid close switch. So, there must be problem with FL inverter. Please give me advise on how can I repair my laptop, or any other information, as I had spend a fortune on it.

I have a “Dell Inspiron 9300 Laptop” and the problem Im having is the screen is blank when booting Windows XP as well as when booting up the System but if I mess with the button which switches between external and internal display it works only when loading from outside of windows. The mean reason for the problem was because I bought a New TFT to plug into the external port. Then I installed the driver but for the wrong TFT which was the internal one and accidentally set the resolution higher then it supported and now it won’t reset back so Im unable to use the monitor but it is clearly lit. When I am able to get it to display stuff on screen out of windows the content showing is clearly visible, so if you could provide some incite as to fixing the problem it would be greatly appreciated.

I wanted to say a big thanks for saving me big bucks. I have the Satellite A70 and the screen all of a sudden went terribly dark. I saw your guide about checking the lid close switch and fl inverter cables. After pressing the switch a hundred times it came on stronger and stronger until it stayed on.

I took out the fl cables and put them back in and the two together have solved the problem. Now I can at least sell the stupid thing. I hate this laptop, it has caused more problems than anything I’ve ever owned. The grief was unbelievable. Hi, cj2600 I have a sony laptop pcg-v505bl, the 12.1″lcd shows partially flickering image (about 6″x2″ rectangular shape) in the low right corner. The other part of the lcd shows image fine.

I checked this forum, and did not find similar situation like mine, I did open the LCD cover, checked the LCD back connector(pull out and put back in), and I did a full harddrive reinstall from the recovery cds, but I did not solve the LCD problem. By the way, the LCD shows stable image sometimes(10% of the time) but with a partial horizontal line (about 6″) on the low right corner, also I found a few dead spot on low right corner on LCD if background is dark. I have a dell 700m. One day all the sudden the back light won’t turn on. I can see the image if I apply light onto the screen. The back light will turn on most of the time when I just start the computer or come back from standby. If I am lucky, it will stay on for a long time, else it will be black again.

I was quite sure it was the inverter. I can hear the sound of electic when it fail to turn up the light. So I went to ebay and bought a lcd inverter.

But the thing is, it is still not working! What are some other possbilities?

Or I got a broken one again?? Hi you seem to know all things laptop so maybe you can even help me. I have a dell 9300 and the backlight works but no image.

External digital and analog works fine, I checked the cable and both ends have been re-seated but still nothing. Is it the screen or maybe the cable? It’s never been dropped though I did have to replace the front speakers but that was weeks ago I’m at a loss I can’t afford a screen right now so please do so amazing wizard stuff and please make it an easy cheap fix! Thanks in advance, David •. David, I’m at a loss I can’t afford a screen right now so please do so amazing wizard stuff and please make it an easy cheap fix! I wish I could.

You went through basic troubleshooting steps already. The external video works fine, so most likely the problem is not related to the system board.

You reseated the video cable, so it’s not a loose connection. From here I can see only two things. Either a bad screen or a faulty video cable. Yeah, I’m not a wizard.

I would go with the cable first, you can find it on eBay for about $25. Weird Laptop Display problem: I’ve a HP NC6120 notebook which displayed strange behavior lately. When I start-up Windows XP Pro, I can logon and work for mostly 30 minutes or so. Sometimes this is longer, sometimes this period is shorter around 5 minutes. And then my display blacks out (still showing a faint image). So I thought the back light was broken. I called HP support and they told me my warranty had expired and replacing the display would cost me €550 ex tax.

Then I tried to figure out if it was really the back light. I noticed that whenever the back light turns off and I shut down my notebook. If I turn it on again the back light always lights up so I figured it may be some software problem.

So I decided to reinstall Windows XP Pro after reinstalling everything worked great again. And I used my notebook for a weekend. After this I decided to install auto updates. After installing the critical update my display started to black out again (still showing a faint image) I got really disappointed and decided to install UBUNTU 6.10.

After installing everything worked great. And still does.

I would rather use windows xp because of some programs but I don’t dare to because of the problem showing up again. My question is: Do you have any clue why my notebook display back light is falling out only when I use Windows? THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! Hi, I have a Toshiba Tecra S1 laptop. I turned the computer upside down to look at something on the back and when i turned it back around the screen has thin verticle lines going through it and even the mouse is followed has a small box around it depending on the colour of the page (on a white page, everything is normal except taskbar and top display).

I connected my laptop to an external monitor and it is just about the same as my laptop. I believe this means something is wrong with the system board or video card from reading other responses on this site. I was planning on selling this laptop before this happened and it sells for 600-800 AUD on ebay. It is out of warranty and not sure what can be done to fix it.

Is it worth taking it to a professional to fix it? I have an HP dv2020, this one is 3 weeks od. I’m experiencing monitor toggle problems.

This is my second laptop of the same model with the same problem, the first I returned for a replacement. HP tech support seems to not understand the problem, let alone be able to solve it, and claims this has not been an issue with other customers.

Perhaps it IS just me, but I wanted to get some more advanced thoughts before I take this laptop back. I use the function/f4 to goggle from my laptop screen to my monitor and have had no issues doing this on a regular basis. A houseguest disconnected my laptop to plug his into my monitor, and then when he was finished replaced my computer back where it was reconnecting the monitor.

I believe he did NOT toggle back to the laptop screen, as I do, when disconnecting. The bottom line is that now my toggle is stuck. I have a backlight on my laptop monitor that was not happening before as well.

When I press the function/f4, the monitor screen goes black, but then flashes back on. There is no change in my laptop displayI simply have a blank screen with the backlight running. Please help me!! I can’t find this issue anywhere online and HP has been NO help at all. Hi there, i have a toshiba satellite pro m10, and a couple of months ago it started doing the scrambled screen routine. It seems totally random, but happens after a while (sometimes after 2 minutes of booting up, sometimes after 4 hours of using the machine). All sorts of wierd noise appears on the screen, made of different colors.

It happens on an external screen too. Usually, it happens sooner if i use directx (play a dvd, it starts happening inside the directdraw window), and have resolution / hw acceleration at max. But that might be just my feeling, as i said, it is random. Tried swapping the memory modules (in case it’s a shared memory issue). Also tried cleaning the cable work for the lcd connection, but no help.

I installed linux on it, just to see what happens, and the first boot after i installed the nvidia drivers on it, it crashed the same way. The scrambled image usually instantly hangs the machine. Sometimes windows can recover, and set itself to safe mode (which, every now and then, carries the artifacts over). I suspect this is a gfx card issue. Would that mean a full board swap?

Thanks, laszlo •. I have a T30 that’s been acting up lately. Once in a while (at random times, but getting increasingly more periodic), the screen gets garbled and freezes.

At this point, the entire system is non-responsive. I can’t even use the keyboard to force it to hibernate or sleep. The only option is to hold down the power button till the computer shuts off. Often when i turn on the computer again, there is still no display (i.e.

The screen is completely black). It takes a few shots at turning it on before it actually gets a display. It’s not a matter of the computer overheating, as sometimes it’ll turn on right away, sometimes, i may leave it for an hour and try again and it still doesnt’ work.

I have a feeling that it MAY be the cable, but i’m wondering if anyone can confirm this before i go out and order the cable and spend the time to replace it. Thanks in advance. hey guys, my laptop is a hp pavilion zv5000 so here is my problem: the laptop was running and i got back after being away 15 oder 20 minutes i moved the mouse, the laptop switches out from the standby modus but suddenly the screen was getting black and i only could see a faint image so i rebooted and used the LCD lid switch by pressing it 2 or 3 times the lcd was no longer dim but i have to use this button everytime i turn the laptop on i’m only getting a faint image after a cold boot so, how i can fix this problem? It’s not my laptop warranty is over greetings •. Hi CJ, This has been an informative thread — perhaps you could help me as well: I have a Compaq Presario r3000z and it powers on, the fans start whirring, but the screen does not turn on –when I press the power button, powers on and fans whirr, and I see the lights saying that the wireless card and volume controls are on, and the DVD/CD drive opens, but I get THREE BEEPS: One long, then two short. Yesterday before this happened I noticed an occasional garbling of images, but it would fix itself within 3 to 5 seconds and be fine. The screen would go black every few hours, but then once again fix itself within a second or two.

I tried with only the AC adapter, and with only the battery, that is not the problem. I removed the 2nd RAM (I have 512 under the keyboard, where I haven’t touched it yet and 1GB in the 2nd slot that I am comfortable messing with) and it has the same problem. Any suggestions? Thank you, and merry christmas! Hello I got a laptop as a gift from my uncle which is Panasonic CF-L2 After someday I lost my motherboard software installations CD Now I reinstall my windows XP but its install all future automatically but not install VGA drivers and Wireless LAN driver so it can’t working VGA and Wireless LAN I also search from internet but not getting any support from internet.

I wan to download software from internet. Please provide me internet website so that I could download the required software and install in my laptop. Otherwise provide me solutions how I will solve this problems. My laptop model is: Let’s Note PRO PANASONIC CF-L2 Manufacturer: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Japan Thank you and regards Shahidul Islam •. I have a video problem with a Gateway 600YG2. Upon running for 10 minutes or so, the screen display tends to go “snowy.” I am able to rectify the problem (usually temporarily) by applying pressure to the button panel over the area of video cable plugin/ wiring harness channel to monitor. Unplugging/replugging cable seems to have no effect. External monitor display fine.

Would you care to venture an opinion on harness/ inverter possibilities? Local professional dignostics suggest inverter but my personal experience indicates cable short or grounding. Thanks, Chris •. Rod, the screen flickers and the ac-dc charging seems to be going back and forth I think that you might have a and it needs to be resoldered. Try wiggling the adapter plug or moving the power cord when it’s connected to the laptop and see if the power LED goes on and off (the laptop switches between the main power and battery power). If it happens when you move the adapter plug, most likely you have a loose power jack. Also you might have a bad power cord and there is a lose wire inside.

Find a multimeter and test voltage on the power plug. If the power cuts off when you move the cord, it’s necessary to replace the AC adapter. Chris Meymandi, I don’t think the problem is related to the inverter board. Acts as a power supply for the LCD backlight bulb. If the inverter board works fine the backlight works fine, if the inverter board fail the backlight fails too, but I doubt that a faulty inverter board can cause a snowy display.

I think it’s either a bad video harness, faulty video connector on the motherboard or bad LCD screen. Can you reproduce/get rid of the problem when you touch or wiggle the video harness itself, without applying any pressure on the motherboard connector or the LCD screen? If yes, then I would try replacing it first. I have many major problems with my A70! Hello, first of all i would like to really thank you for a great site with so much info.

I have an a70, and it has had so many problems, first it had the Jack problem, where i had to wiggle to cord to get it working, i also re soldered the points, but that didn’t help much. Next problem was that it always shut down because of overheating. And again i also read on you website that i should clean the heat sink, and so did. But after putting it back together, the screen didn’t work, when i pressed the power button, the fans went on for 3 secs and then nothing. So again on your website, it said that the CPU wasn’t seated properly, and i then reopened it and properly seated the CPU chip.

I checked to see if that worked, so i connected the HDD, connected the LCD and connected the battery to already disassemble unit. (it was all laying on the table i didn’t put it back) when i turned it on, everything was working fine, the computer was running, there was nothing wrong with the screen at this point. I was so happy, so i started putting the unit back together. After completely reassembling the unit i turned it on. And it had the screen problem. I mean it was perfect when i connected it before, when the unit was disassembled.

But after putting it back, i have no idea what happened. O and the video output works fine. Its perfect, please let me know what’s wrong with it. Thediddies2004, the laptop works fine apart from the screen. I get a very faint display. I can get a display by connecting to an external monitor.

If the laptop screen displays a very faint image but it works fine with an external monitor, then most likely you have a failed screen inverter. I would try replacing it first. IBM screen inverters are not expensive and you can find a new one for about $10-15 on eBay. Make sure to buy a correct one, you can search by the FRU number (find it on the old inverter). When I first turn on my Dell Inspiron 1000, the screen will flash on for a second and go off. I have attached an external monitor and it works fine. When I change the display size, the laptop screen flashes on for a second and then off.

It does the same when I press the small white screen switch. I purchased an inverter from eBay and changed the part but it still does the same thing. The eBay seller first sent the wrong part and then lied twice about when they re-shipped the right part so I don’t trust them. They claim the inverter was tested before shipment. It is a used inverter. Can the lamp or cable also cause this problem?

I’m working on a Compaq M2000 right now, and it’s having some video problems. The LCD is lit, and it flickers when it’s supposed to (ie: at boot, when Windows is about to load, etc), but it displays nothing. Having an external monitor connected, I’m able to see everything fine, so the video card is not the issue. This happened all of a sudden, it wasn’t even the issue I was originally repairing in this laptop. I can’t figure out what to do to get the screen working again now. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have an ACER Travelmate 2410 model. Within warranty period, the LCD screen became white, and so it was replaced. The replacement LCD screen (I think now that the replacement is a refurbished one and not new) started to work fine, but after 15-20 days after I noticed that in grey/light coloured areas in the screen, some greenish pixels are visible. Before this, I once reduced the brightness of the monitor. Now I have to adjust the brightness level (-20 ) and then only the phenomena is reduced.

Sometimes alphabets got garbled. Please suggest any solution •. Hello all, I have an IBM Thinkpad A30. The problem I have is that when I start up the computer I see the startup screen it then goes black.

The image is there but it is very dark and I can not see it. I replaced the inverter but I still have the same problem. Also I was using it on a monitor but it stopped showing the video and all I get with the monitor hooked up is check cable connection. The monitor works on a desktop computer but not the laptop. Anyone got a suggestion as to what the problem might be.

Frye, when I start up the computer I see the startup screen it then goes black. The image is there but it is very dark and I can not see it. I replaced the inverter but I still have the same problem. It’s hard to guess what is wrong. In cases like this I usually connect a test back light lamp and see if it lights up when I turn on the laptop. Most likely you have no test lamp so you’ll have to guess or take the laptop to a repair shop for a professional diagnostic. It could be: 1.

Defective video harness 2. Bad backlight lamp (located inside the screen) 3. Motherboard problem 4. The second inverter is bad too (not likely but possible) Just in case try reseating the video cable on the motherboard. Make sure it’s making a good connection with the motherboard. Replying to post 377 cj2600 Says: March 4th, 2007 at 1:09 pm David Askari, Could you provide more details regarding your failure?

When the LCD goes dark can you see any faint image on it? The external monitors works fine? Yes, I can see a faint image like one can see when the backlight is off. The external monitors continues to work after I bump the screen and it goes dark. A restart always fixes it for a while. This same exact issue was posted by luis for the same computer. I have the skill level of changing backlights in factory sealed lcds from a wallstreet and pismo mac laptops.

And I have changed inverters. The question is if mother board, inverter, backlight, and wiring harness are ruled out, then there are no repairable parts left? It is the oddest thing I ever encountered. Since there are no repairable parts left, only a specialized repair person can test the LCD,s chips and resistors and etc. So it is better to replace it. What I do not understand is how does a physical bump affect the chips, resistors, and stuff on the LCD board itself.

All that fine tiny stuff just does not seem to be affected by bumps. The closest I have seen where physical manipulation can affect the electronics is bashing a tv on the side to a video back because of bad cold solder joints. I have a p35-S605 Toshiba laptop, there was mt dew spilled on the keyboard. The keyboard was cleaned three times and still keys were sticking so I bought an USB external keyboard and it worked for awhile and quit. Everything except the internal keyboard was working fine, hardware etc. Until today it opened up to the setup/boot screen and it took 2 restarts from the power button and 30 minutes on the 3rd to get to the log on screen and to the desktop In the meantime I found irisvista.com and it showed how to take apart the laptop.

I followed each step and now the LCD screen wont work and when you hit the power button the hard drive runs then abruptly quit. Also now the CD drive wont open and the network slide on the side will not move and there is no red light indicating that the network is running. Hope you have some ideas.I would appreciate an answer Thanks Donna •.

I believe I have a loose connection. The screen starts up fine, but as I begin use the laptop (move the monitor or type), the screen goes blank, but the laptop is still on there is no faint image on the screen. I have started the computer and just let it sit there without touching it, and the monitor will stay on indefinitely. If anyone has had this problem and it is not a loose connection, please let me know the solution.

Otherwise, let’s assume that there is a loose connection somewhere–where should I look and what connections could I tighten. See comments 399, 401. External monitor goes blank with the laptop lcd(Reply to 401). Have taken the laptop apart, looked for loose connections, tried to reseat wires/connections, but no obvious signs of a problem. Closed up laptop and started it up.

Ran well for more than an hour (I used it as I normally would). Then I carried it to another location. Soon after screen blanked out again. It is now back on the operating table.

I started it up without closing it up (I don’t know if that is not recommended, but I made sure I was grounded). Anyway, I think I have narrowed it down–screen seems to die with the movement of the keyboard.

Could there be a short in the keyboard causing the lcd screen to die (but not the computer)? Does the keyboard need to be firmly set on the motherboard? Could the keyboard be drawing too much power? I’m not too familiar with the workings of a laptop, so is any of this possible or just a coincidence? Should I still be looking for something else (i.e video card wise)?

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your timely previous response. This is one of the most helpful sites I’ve found on the internet! I have a Toshiba Satellite A25-S207. After pressing the ‘ON’ button, to turn it on, the video output on the display, immediately begins blinking (flashing) at a fast rate and horizontal lines appear on the screen. The computer boots completely to the desktop and works normally, but, the video continues to flash on the laptop display. Occasionally the display will stop flashing and return to normal, but, returns to flashing after a few seconds.

When I connect an external monitor to the laptop, the video does not flash and appears completely normal. Could a bad inverter possibly be causing the flashing? OR since everything appears normal when using an external monitor, does this problem point more closely to a bad display? HI i have a big problem with a packard bell EASYNOTE_GN45-010 notebook starts up displays post screen, boots to windows xp Xp boots up screen appears with progress bar running.Then everything dissappears.After this point i can hear the xp logon sound but there is nothing on the display.

Here is what i tried. Safe mode last known good config enable vga mode used external crt monitor, the same results here. Checked in the bios for a setting, found nothing searched google, nothing tried the fn button together with the f3 button any help will be greatly apreciated. Mike McLain, After pressing the ‘ON’ button, to turn it on, the video output on the display, immediately begins blinking (flashing) at a fast rate and horizontal lines appear on the screen. It doesn’t sound like an inverter problem.

With a bad inverter the backlight might flash on and off but it shouldn’t cause any horizontal lines on the screen. How it’s flashing? The backlight is flashing but the image stays on the screen or both the backlight and image disappear? I would check the video cable first. Try reseating it on both ends, it might be just a loose cable. Hats off to this resource, before anything else. Now, for the rest.

I have a Acer travelmate c100 with a screen which is misbehaving. This is what actually happens – when the unit is powered on, horizontal bluish lines appear, which steadies to a pattern which has a hint of the shape of the windows login screen. On loggin in, I can hear normal disk activity and again, lines appear which vaguely resemble the graphic patterns to be expected, like predominanly blue lines interspersed with the white of the start menu when the windows start key is pressed.

I checked the output on an exernal monitor and its fine. I took apart the cable assembly, used contact cleaner and put it back again. Took apart the lcd housing, and put it back again, but to no avail. I suspect it is either the screen or the digitizer that has gone, not the inverter or the backlight (the reason I think this is because the brightness of the horizontal and vertical lines that appear on the screen can be controlled by the screen brightness feature.) Finally, finally, my question. How do you diagonize whether it is the lcd screen or the digitizer that has gone? Or is it the cable?

Also, any place where I could get cheap or used screens? My apologies for making this a mile long, and thanks again. I already posted this on the ‘bad video on lcd.’ forum – hope I’m not being redundant. cj, Now that I know the inverter controls the backlight, much like a ballast controls a flourescent light, I will try to explain the flashes. The images never disappear and the backlight appears to remain on. More precisely, it’s as if the same image is being re-drawn at a fast rate, which it is, but, there appears to be a small offset between the original and the re-drawn image (hence; flashing).

On occasion the image will stablize, but, within 30 seconds begins (flashing) again. I will try re-seating the video cable as per your suggestion. When using an external monitor, there are no symptomsI could provide a short video clip, if interested. Thanks again. Kaushik, Response to comment #419. Acer travelmate c100 with a screen which is misbehavingI suspect it is either the screen or the digitizer that has gone I don’t think this problem is related to the digitizer. The digitizer is located behind the screen and helps to locate the position of the tablet PC pen (stylus).

When you have a problem with the digitizer, it shouldn’t affect video on the screen. I think you have either a bad video cable or a problem with the screen. Unfortunately there is no way to find out witch one is causing the problem until you test your tablet PC with a known good screen (or cable).

Madde, I unplugged the cable from each end, plugged them back in and still nothing. Does this mean I need a new one? In the comment 423 you mentioned that the screen goes really dim when you lift it to a certain degree.

So you reseated the video cable and it didn’t help, right? At the next step I would try replacing the cable. It might not help, but at lease it’s not as expensive as a new LCD screen or motherboard. Check the lid close switch button, make sure it moves freely. It’s possible that when you move the display, it somehow pushes the lid close switch and the backlight goes off. It’s just a guess.

I am trying to diagnose a video LCD problem I have with a HP ZT1155 laptop. Video is perfect if I hook to an external monitor. If I use the laptop LCD. The top third of the screen is fine, has color, but is very bright and color is faint. The botton two thirds is garbled and objects seem to be jumping around on the screen. Sometimes i get darker colored vertical lines in this section of the screen.

I lose the mouse ponter in this section also. I have checked the video cable on the board and the back of the lcd.

They seem to be seated ok. Any ideas???? Thanks a lot for the help. Yogaraj, If you get the same unclear display on both internal and external screens, then most likely something is wrong with the graphics card. If the graphics card is a discrete module, try reseating it, make sure the card is making a good contact with the motherboard.

If the graphics card is integrated into the motherboard, you’ll have to replace it. Just in case. If the video card uses shared memory (part of the main memory), run the memory test. For testing memory you can use Memtest86+. If memory fails the test, replace it. Im haveing a problem with my toshiba satellite laptop.

When i play a online game called city of heroes, the graphics get slightly distorted and garbled during gameplay. It’s really weird, some graphics seem to be affected more seriously then others. For example, the characters don’t really distort too much, just the facial features. The in game txt seems to be affected the worst.

And it gets worse over time. The graphics are perfect when I start playing, but after about 10 min of play time it starts and after a few hours it’s horrible. I downloaded all recent drivers and still nothing. Any help with this problem? I have a IBM ThinkPad T40 which i use to play online games and recently when i was playing a game i picked up the laptop to move it and the screen went black, i moved it again then i got fuzzy colored vertical lines going down the screen the only way i was able to get around it was by shutting down the computer by holding the power button. This happens with all of my games and now if i move the laptop to much while doing anything it will go black then it will come back up with pixels that wont work, when this happens i just have to logout of the computer then log back in PLEASE HELP ME! Hi there, I have a HP nx9005.

At certain times the screen starts to fade to white red from the outside inwards. This is usually followed by a series of horizontal lines running from top to bottom. It seems to be triggered by certain screens(maybe higher definition images) but this is not always the case. If I adjust the screen(pull forward and backwards) the problem gos away but only briefly. This machine is about to go out the window! Just wondering if you feel this is an LCD issue or something else?

Thanks a million, Eoghan •. Vin, First of all I would try reconnecting the video cable on both ends – motherboard and back of the LCD screen. It’s possible the video cable connection got loose and not making a good contact with the motherboard or LCD screen. Reseat the cable first.

If reconnecting the video cable will not help, probably you have either a faulty video cable or bad LCD screen. I would say it’s probably a bad screen. You can try replacing the video cable, just in case. The cable is not expensive, I just found one for USD13, just search for “zv6000 video cable”.

I have laptop as in my sig. I had flex video cable between LCD and mobo with bad connection where it plugs into mobo. When you tug on that connector you might get it to work properly and I did a big mistake, I tried to use screwdriver to move it in place and that moment I felt smell of burning semiconductors. I might have touched mobo next to the connector and power was on. No video on LCD screen afterwards, only one white line on bottom (actually broken in 2 pieces) or u can get all screen grayish/whitish if u play with connector.

Hoping that smell came from broken connector on flex video cable I ordered new one and installed it. Same white line on black background. I connected to external LCD monitor and everything works normally, I can even get internal LCD to display single color red, green etc screens with good brightness and uniformity during diagnostics when I tell that I don’t see horizontal color stripes (that I can see only when I toggle to external LCD). I can take it to local repair shop, send it somewhere (it’s out of warranty) or replace parts myself. I had replaced LCD, flex video cable, memory, processor, HD on this laptop before so I most likely will be able to replace mobo by myself. I also own 640m and can switch parts from it temporary for diagnostics.

Sarah, If you have never repaired laptops before, probably you will not be able to fix the laptop yourself because it requires some disassembly work. First of all, I would try reseting the video cable on both ends to make sure it’s making a good solid contact with the motherboard and the LCD screen. One end of the video cable connects to the motherboard and you can access it after removing the hinge cover. The second end connects to the back of the LCD screen and for reseating it you’ll have to take apart the display assembly.

Fortunately you can download the maintenance manual for your model from Dell website. The manual has step-by-step disassembly instructions with pictures. If the LCD screen still has the same problem even after you reconnected the video cable, most likely you have a faulty screen. Hi, my brother’s laptop is a Toshiba Satellite M30, and he asked me to take a look at it, in short, the lcd screen and an external display will show garbled video, it looks as if the days of the first nintendo when the cartridge would pop out of the system and you would see those white vertical lines, except on a laptop. Paul K, Does the screen display garbled video even before Windows starts loading? I don’t think this is a software related problem but just in case you can try booting the laptop from any live Linux CD (I recommend Knoppix) and see if it makes any difference and the video works fine with Linux. If it does, try reinstalling Windows.

The lcd screen and an external display will show garbled video, it looks as if the days of the first nintendo when the cartridge would pop out of the system and you would see those white vertical lines If both screens show garbled video, most likely you have a problem with the video card. Toshiba Satellite M30 has a video card integrated into the motherboard. When the video card goes bad you have to replace the entire motherboard, you cannot fix it at home. Hi I have an prolblem with my toshiba Satellite M35 Series One night I was listing to music when i woke up the next moring There was no music and the lcd screen was white i closed the lid and open it up and it would not come on I had a nehibor of mine come and look at it he reset the ram had the notebook come and hooked it up to an exteranl montior and the computer was working Put the lcd screen was not working however when he switched sources you could see the back light come on but now image he says the screen is dead but i would like an secound opinon. Any help would be aprieated.

Also could some one tell me what is the fastes processor that i could use in this notebook?? It is now at 1.40 ghz i am hoping for anything between 1.70-2.20 ghz •. Marcellus hill, The laptop works find with an external monitor, so most likely there is nothing wrong with the motherboard/video card. It could be: 1.

Loose connection between the video cable and the LCD screen. It’s necessary to open up the display assembly and reseat the cable on the back of the LCD. It might help. It’s possible that you have a faulty LCD screen. There is a possibility of a bad video cable (doubt it).

Cannot help you with upgrading the processor. Toshiba doesn’t provide any information on upgrading processors. My Toshiba Satellite M60 was working fine up until recently. The first time, I was playing a MMORPG (one that I’ve been playing on this notebook for over a year and a half), and the screen flickered for a second, and then went blank (there was still a backlight, but nothing on the screen at all).

I alt+tabed out of the game, and the screen filled with my normal windows screen. So I went back into the game, and it worked for a few more minutes, then went blank again. The game was still running, as I could see my character in the game on my hubby’s comp, and could type in chat, and it came up on his computer.

So I alt+tabbed out again, and this time, the computer crashed. I restarted it, but when I restarted it, it didn’t seem to want to do anything. After a bit of trial and error (and two complete system reboots), the problem still persists.

It most of the time restarts, and can be used with an external monitor, and after the two reboots, it would work fine for a while (a few hours), then it would do it again. We are at wits end, as this laptop was not cheap, but it is out of its waranty, and we are not keen to pay out the ears for an expensive repair.

Any help, or suggestions you could give would be fantastic. The computer has been taken apart and put back together, with the fan being hoovered and everything jiggied to make sure it’s in properly.

Thanks for the great information here – it’s been a good resource. Question: I have a Toshiba Tecra A1 with a screen problem. Half of the screen is composed of wide black vertical stripes (which sometimes will appear as shades of gray/green.) I’ve tried: *reseating the connectors to the LCD / Mobo *external monitor test (works fine) But no luck. One suggestion has been that “the contacts on the display edge have separated, which means replacing the whole LCD unit” What do you think? Thanks in advance, Janos •.

Shavonne, Have you completely ruled out a software problem? Things I would try (if you haven’t already) 1. Check and make sure that the fan is working – restarting is sometimes known as a sympton of overheating. It’s outputting hot air, correct? Reinstall video card drivers (they usually come with the laptop) 3.

Use Windows Repair utility if that’s your OS 4. Use a temperature-monitoring utility to check the internal temperature (around the vid card, if possible) 5.

Check out the BIOS on the notebook to make sure nothing is set incorrectly somehowpower management or something like that I’m not an expert, but hopefully that will help. My screen is white (over bright) from the moment I turn it on, until I turn it off. The contrast wheel brings the image into a bit more viewable range. The colors are all right. The Toshibia comes up red, and the windows logo has the right colors and the blue screen of check diisk is a deep blue. To see this though, the LCD has to be bent back as far as it can be, and the contrast wheel must be turned all the way down.

I have the BIOS set to smii-bright too, which seemed to help a bit. Many years ago I had this laptop in for an issue similar to this (At least I thought so) and they said they replaced the inverter board and the contrast board. I just do not remember the symptons) That is why I suspeced one of those.

The contrast wheel does make a change so I figured it was not that. Couldnt the inverter make it to bright? I have seen somewhere that an all white screen could be the cause of a fualty wiring harnes what do you think?

I can provide pictures if need be. Thanks for the help. dalobo, I didn’t know that you have a separate contrast wheel. For me it is hard to guess what is wrong because I have never fixed laptops with a contrast wheel (contrast board), modern Toshiba laptops do not have it. I still doubt that your problem is related to the inverter board. The inverter board works as a power supply for the backlight lamp, it converts low voltage DC power into high voltage AC. From my experience, the inverter board either works or not, there is no intermediate state causing the screen to be too bright or half-bright.

When the inverter board works fine, you can see the backlight, when it doesn’t work, there is no backlight. I’ve fixed hundreds modern Toshiba laptops with backlight problems but I’ve never seen that a faulty inverter causes the screen to be over bright. I’m not sure how the contrast board works but it could be your problem or your problem is somehow related to the LCD screen. Sorry man, cannot give you more accurate guess. P J JONES, To switch the video signal from the internal screen to the external monitor, you can use the following key combination.

Press and hold down the Fn key and at the same time press on the F5 key until the video switches to the external monitor. Before you come to any conclusion, test the laptop with the external screen.

If the external video is not ghosting, most likely it’s not a software related problem. Do you think that because my system has a Celeron 399 processor ans 192mb ram while running windows XP pro might have something to do with the ‘Ghosting’ effect showing up in the video system? I don’t think so. Here are XP requirements. 300MHz or higher processor, 128MB or higher RAM, so you are good here. Yes, your laptop will run very slow with XP but you shouldn’t see any ghosting effect because of your CPU and memory.

Did you run XP before on this laptop or you just installed it? Check the video driver, make sure it’s a correct one. Heres goes nothing, My laptop just today has acquired a LCD problem. It all started with a purple vertical line on the left side of my screen and that would blink for 2 seconds and show up every 10 – 20 seconds or so. I ignored it, and then alot of little horizontal blue lines appeared on my screen.

And they resize and move with my screen when I changed resolution size. I was working with 1920 x 1200 resolution, and now I cant get to it because I had to unistall my graphics card driver. Seems that My screen goes all black when its installed.

So I either run my laptop in safe mode, or with a VGA regular driver in normal mode. I also cant get my laptop to hook up to my tv via S-video, or an old CRT I got via adapter. If I could I could test the other screens to see if it had horizontal lines or not. Anyways If anyone has any idea how to help me Plz tell me 😀 I’ll be around. If I cant fix the problem I’m just gonna go up to a compaq store and have them take a look at it. A while ago my dc jack on my Sony Vaio PCG-V505 was acting up, so I had it replaced.

Ever since then the video on my machine has been garbaged. So, I took it back to the repair place 4 times, and each time they found nothing.

Finally, they said it was the LCD. Then, since I was skeptical, I connected the computer to a monitor at my house using a docking station, and the picture was still messed up.

You say up there that the problem is probably the video card. Do you think they messed something up when they replaced the dc jack?