The LCD screen on my laptop has gone dull. I don’t mind using the external monitor. How long you think the laptop will last now?
I have a ThinkPad T20 (win98se) with an LCD screen that has gone dull (it has been flickering for a while, then yesterday it flickered non-stop and turned dull/dark) I can still use the laptop though the screen now is quite hard to read etc, since it is so dark. I hooked up an external monitor which interestingly enough only works as a mirror while I am not logged on as a user profile.
I don’t see the point in repairing it, since it’s 6 years old, I was just wondering how long you think the laptop will last now?, since I don’t mind using the external monitor.
I think that the laptop will work until anything else fails. Most likely the LCD screen has gone dull because of a failed FL inverter board. Neither a failed FL inverter board nor a failed LCD screen can prevent the laptop from working properly with an external monitor. The failed backlight will not harm the laptop itself. So, you definitely can use it with the external monitor.
January 13th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Lee,
Yep, sounds like a bad inverter board. Steps for taking apart the display assembly would be almost the same for all Toshiba laptops, you’ll find some examples here.
January 13th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Lawrence Chikonde,
I’m not familiar with this notebook at all, but from my experience I can say that the lid close switch is located on the laptop base, somewhere close to the hinges. Usually it looks like a small pin. If you cannot find it, probably your laptop has a magnetic lid close switch.
On most notebooks the screen inverter is located inside the display assembly, below the LCD screen. You can see an example here, on the step 9. Your inverter may look a little bit different. I think you might have loose connections or bad inverter. Make sure connectors on both sides of the inverter board are seated properly, reseat them. If it doesn’t help, I would go with replacing the inverter. You have a good chance fixing the backlight problem.
You might have a faulty backlight bulb or video cable, but from my experience, inverters fail more often.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
I have a QOSMIO G15 501R with display issues. When you turn the machine on the QOSMIO logo comes up fine then after (2)seconds it goes into a dark mode, but you can still see the screen if you look real close,when I do a switch (FN+F5) it comes on as it should, but goes back to that very very dim look. With an external monitor its just fine, when I spoke to TOSHIBA they told me it seems as if your INVERTER is bad….How do I open up that screen to replace the INVERTER?
January 13th, 2007 at 2:31 am
Hi
I have a Dialogue Flybook A33i. The problem is the dull screen, i connected to an external display device and it shows just fine. Following the trouble shooting tips on your site, i opened the lcd screen to search for the switch just in case it was stuck. Unfortunately i cannot tell where the switch is. At one point as i had it open and well pressing around the edge, the light came back on for a week and now its down again. I need help with where the inverter and switch for this dialogue flybook are located or any other helpful suggestions. Your help will be greatly appreciated
January 3rd, 2007 at 12:33 am
Barry,
Here are some disassembly guides I’ve created for Toshiba laptops; some of them have instructions for replacing the LCD screen. I don’t know your laptop model, but there shouldn’t be much difference. Read through two-three guides and you’ll get the idea.
January 2nd, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Hey,
I recently manhandled my laptop screen and it cracked. Since then the laptop will boot up but the screen is just full of ink blot looking obviously because it is cracked. How hard is it to replace the screen? Is it worth it or is it time for a new laptop? I saw some screens on Ebay for a decent price but I am not sure if it is worth it to attempt to replace the screen.
Any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Barry
December 23rd, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Alan,
That’s where the inverter board is located. If you remove the screen bezel, you’ll see that there are only 2 parts that can generate heat – the backlight bulb (inside the LCD screen) and the inverter board. I think you have a faulty inverter board and can fix the laptop by replacing the inverter. I hope it’s not time for a new laptop yet!
December 23rd, 2006 at 7:59 pm
Tim,
Here’s what I would do to troubleshoot the problem. Remove the screen bezel and check the connectors inside, make sure you don’t have loose connections. If the video on the screen goes back to normal only after you press on the edge of the screen then you might have a bad screen.
December 23rd, 2006 at 8:14 am
I just doscovered this site through google, looks great, hope you can help. The screen of ny daughters laptop has been going dim and then normal for some time and I see that this is probebly some kind of inverter / backlight problem. The output to a monitor is fine. Now the bottom right of the LCD (near the point the inverter-to-bulb output enters the screen) is getting really hot to touch, hot enough to distort the plastic case. How do I tell if this is an inverter problem (cheap) or an LCD problem (new laptop time!). Any advice much appreciated.
Cheers,
Alan.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:28 pm
I bought a new Dell B120 notebook about a year ago. A few weeks ago, we noticed the screen was dull and, as best as I can describe it, slightly pixelated. I noticed that if a press down very firmly on the bezel along top edge of the screen, the screen returns to its normal brilliance.
I’d appreciate any suggestions you could make. Thanks.
December 19th, 2006 at 8:14 am
Hellody, I’ve got an issue–
Years ago the hinges on my laptop were getting stuck, so a technician (where I live, here in Peru) for some reason had to drill in some screws on the corner of the screen. He probably announced “problem fixed”. The screen worked for a day, and never worked again. So for a couple years now, I have just connected my “laptop” to a monitor via the VGA port. However, the port is getting worn, and only when I press hard, does it not flick. Is there any other way to connect a laptop to an external monitor?
I think one solution is the PCMCIA VGA port cards. But are they all so expensive? I don’t need a card to go to multiple monitors, just one.
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
December 14th, 2006 at 12:25 am
Amir,
You had the same problem 6 months ago before you sent it for repair. What did they replace, do you have any receipts? I think you might have a faulty FL inverter board.
December 14th, 2006 at 12:16 am
Soone2,
It might be not enough just to hook up an external monitor. Probably you have to set up the laptop to output video on bouth screens or just on the external screen. For example on Toshiba you can do it with Fn+F5 key combination, on Dell laptops Fn+F8 combination. I’m not sure with key combination you have to use on Asus laptops.
December 14th, 2006 at 12:08 am
Abs,
I tried connecting my laptop (native resolution 1024×768 pixels) to an external LCD monitor (native resolution 1280×1024 pixels) and set the laptop output video on both screens. The maximum resolution I’m able to get on the external monitor with this setup is 1024×768.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:26 am
I have a gateway 7326gz and six months after i bought it the screen started lickering. i sent it back cause it was under warranty apperantly it work for another 6 months until my warranty ran out and the problem is back. I tried updating the drivers but it still flickers.moving the screen does not make it flicker. but it will flicker randomly. any ideas
December 10th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
I have an Acer 8104 that seems to have an FL inverter problem after seeing this site and countless others. The really weird difference is that the best solution for everything to return back to normal is to plug my notebook into an external monitor. When I unplug the monitor, the notebook monitor continues to run correctly. However, when I restart, the monitor flickers again and then ultimately goes black with the desktop being faintly seen. Does this still seem to be the inverter? I don’t want to open nor replace the inverter if its not the problem. Where else is a good place besides ebay to find inverters because my model isn’t there? Also what can cause inverters to fail like this (playing video games that change the resolution meaning the video card is more to blame, ect…)? Thanks, I really appreciate it.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
I have a New ASUS laptop, and love it. The external VGA port does not work when I try to hook it up to an external monitor or digital projector. Any solutions.
December 6th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Hi.
I figured I’d ask my question here rather than submitting a new one. Hopefully someone can help me out.
I’m looking to get an external TFT monitor and was wondering whether I’d be able to connect my laptop (Acer Aspire 1355XC) to it using the VGA port I think I have.
Since the monitor I’m thinking of getting is a widesceen, I wanted to check and see whether my laptop would have problems connecting and displaying on it properly. My laptop currently is 1024 x 768, the monitor res at native is 1440 x 900.
I’m not wanting to use it as a second screen like Matrix or whatever the correct term is. I want to project whatever I see on the laptop on to the monitor, and then also be able to close the laptop and continue to use the monitor as display for when I’m watching movies or something. Is that possible by the way?
I hope all that made sense. Waiting for your replies.
Cheers!
December 1st, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Ash,
The LCD screen has suddenly gone very dark but you still can see a faint image, correct? I would replace the FL inverter board first, most likely it’s your problem. You also might have a bad CCFL tube (backlight bulb) but tubes do not fail as often as inverters.
December 1st, 2006 at 8:22 am
I hope you can help. I have a Dell Inspiron 510m (English) and am living in Argentina. The laptop was purchased just under two years ago and the LCD screen has suddenly gone very dark. The computer works fine when connected to an external monitor. Do you know if replacing or repairing the LCD screen is likely to need specific (English) parts or is this a basic manuvere which someone in the know should be able to perform?
November 30th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Well, it’s something to hope for anyway, since that’s easier to fix than the backlight bulb itself. If it’s the bulb, that would probably warrant a screen replacement. I’m supposed to have a second one of these on the way (you know how shipping is during the holiday season) so hopefully I will have something to compare to.
Thank you for your reply, and for your further investigation.
November 30th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Tobia,
I don’t think that a new inverter board will make any difference. The inverter board works as a power supply for the backlight bulb (CCFL), it converts low voltage DC to high voltage AC. From my experience, if there is something wrong with the LCD inverter, the backlight bulb will not light up at all.
I guess it’s possible that the inverter board outputs lower voltage than needed and because of that the backlight bulb not as bright as it should be but I’m not sure 100%. I’ll ask my friend – LCD screen professional when I have some time, may be he can clarify this situation for me. I think you might have a failing backlight bulb.
November 30th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Chris,
Sounds like a bad LCD inverter card. Fortunately this part is very inexpensive and I believe you can find if for $10-15. Most likely a new inverter will fix the problem. If you decide to repair the laptop yourself, you’ll need a hardware maintenance manual for your model. LCD inverter card instructions are located on the page 128-129. BTW, it’s not necessary to remove the display from the laptop as it shown on the picture, you have to remove just the screen mask and replace the failed inverter card.
November 29th, 2006 at 6:43 am
I have recently acquired a Toshiba Portege 3500 (it’s a tablet pc) from a friend who has upgraded, and the screen has a couple of problems. First of all, it’s brighter at the bottom than the top (in laptop mode), and the top also has a few brown spots. I didn’t think LCD screens were susceptible to burn-in, but here seems to be some evidence. The brightness problem is probably related to the backlight, and after reading through your litany of “check the inverter board” I am going to do just that. Or at least beg my roomie to, he’s better at keeping track of screws.
I would appreciate any advice you could provide on this problem. :3
October 29th, 2006 at 10:52 am
The screen on my ibm thinkpad t20 seems to go into some odd state a few seconds after bootup. After looking fine for a bit, the image goes very, very dull (almost completely black).If I toggle the fn f7 buttons I can get the machine to cycle through to external output and back to the lcd screen, when again it looks normal for about 3 seconds and then becomes quite dark. Any idea what is going on?
Thanks!
October 25th, 2006 at 4:15 am
I will opening the laptop and taking a video or pictures of what I did . Will let you know.
Thanks for your help on this. I receive an email from a payied website , where they said that chips on the back of the LCD can be bad and needs to be replaced but cost is too high.
October 23rd, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Charlie,
The external monitor works fine, so it’s not a software issue. It could be a loose video cable. Unfortunately, in order to reseat the video cable you’ll have to open up the laptop. One connection is located under the LCD screen, the second connection on the motherboard.
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:46 am
Hello I really need your help! I have a Compaq Evo N800V Laptop, I was working just fine and suddently the screen went from full color to dimmer white color, freezed and I had to rebooted. When booting the image on the lcd is only horizontal lines crossing the screen . Then I turned it off. Put an External Monitor and it works great! So now I have a laptop working with an external monitor. I can send you a picture by mail. My email is porrascarlos80@hotmail.com
Thanks!
September 17th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Ashish,
Connect the laptop to an external monitor and check if the patch appears on the external monitor. If it doesn’t appear and the external video is fine, then it could be a hardware problem and related to the LCD screen.
September 10th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
I have a HP laptop which i bought from Australia, its one with the wide screen migt be its HP Dv9000 series .The problem starts last month when I reloaded the window in it. The screen showing a patch from top to botton in the left side, it is not visible when windows start but visible when I open any folder or file or internet explorer. I installed the latest VGA Driver. Can any one tell me how to rectify that?