My laptop screen has many white glitches blink all over the screen
I am writing to you in hopes that you might have a solution to my laptop problem. I have had my laptop for a little over 2 years and in the past it had a problem with a “defective dc in jack” while under warranty. But of course more problems conveniently arose after the warranty expired: it has shut down randomly before, so now I keep a fan behind it and it hasn’t shut down in a long time, but most recently my laptop screen has had many white glitches blink all over the screen. The first time it happened, after a few minutes of small white glitches, a big colorful glitch appeared and then my whole screen went black. So now I can use my computer for 45 minutes tops before the many white glitches blink all over my screen and I just turn off my computer before it goes black and turns off on its own. Do you know of any solutions to fix this? I am so disappointed and upset and don’t want the money I spent on this laptop to go down the drain. Thank You!
Most likely the laptop shut downs are related to a clogged heatsink and you would be able to fix the problem if you clean up the heatsink. You can blow off the heatsink using an air compressor or you can take the laptop apart (for people with laptop repair experiance) and remove the dust. I covered laptop overheating problem in more details here.
Now about white glitches on the screen. I think it might be a heat related issue because the white glitches appear after you run the laptop for some time (it’s getting hot). As you mentioned above, after that the laptop shuts down – it’s also an indication of overheating. Not sure though, it’s just a guess.
Connect an external monitor and start the laptop. Set the laptop to output video on both screens and wait for the white glitches to appear. Do you see the glitches on both screens or only on the laptop LCD? If both screens have glitches, then it might be a system board related problem.
If the glitches appear only on the internal LCD screen, then it’s not related to the heat and it might indicate the problem with the video cable or the screen itself.
One more thing. Access the BIOS setup screen and check if you are getting the white glitches even before Windows is loaded. If the laptop has normal video when you are in setup mode but malfunctions in Windows, then it might be just a software related issue. Let me know how it goes.
September 12th, 2007 at 1:24 am
HEllo i have a IBM Thinkpad and i have this problem with my screen. part of it turns into red dots and it drives me crazy. i smack the screen every now and then and the dots alternate sometimes blue, other green. but it always comes up, even if im not even touching the laptop. i dont know what to do.. or what this means.. please help
August 28th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
ok i have an Acer Aspire 5002 and as many of the posts above i see a glitched up screen with many white lines and its so distorted i cannot do anything and when i adjust my screen i can see it clearly until i move my hand off of the lcd screen and it moves back a bit then it glitches up again i dont have an external moniter to plug into my laptop to test so does anyone have any ideas ? (fyi while i was typing this im holding my lcd screen so i can read it)
since im computer illiterate i may need instructions if you guys want me to do anything to it
August 4th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite. I’m not sure if I have the same problem as you guys, but is it similar.
After opening the lid of my laptop, which in turn brings it out of sleep mode, the display is 100% glitched up. The same thing happens when the monitor turns off after 5 minutes. To solve this problem, I usually closed my laptop, waited for it to go to sleep and then opened it again. Usually it would go back to normal. I also tried doing Fn+F5 which changes the display output. After changing the display output, my screen would flicker off then go back to normal. BUT NOW, NO TRICKS WORK FOR THE PROBLEM ANYMORE! I’m using the laptop to type this message, but I have a desktop monitor hooked up to it.
Can someone help me solve my problem. My laptop is no longer under warranty.
Thanks,
~HenshinMijin
August 1st, 2007 at 12:59 am
hey bro, ummm yeah so anyways i am in year 12 atm and i have the excact same laptop as you and i know what your talking about, i got my laptop sent off to get it fixed, because it was doing the same things you were describing, anyways when i got it back i started playing a bit og WOW as i usally do, until the screen blurrs up with that white stuff, and yeah was playing at my desk and it did it again….so after my the rage flooded out of my system i sat down again restarted the laptop and it happened again, so i said fuck this and went to bed
anyways next day i got up tried it again but sat the laptop on my lap and i played wow all day without a problem
which then got me thinking, im guess because of how hot the laptop gets and where the exhausts are on the back how they are are positioned like right next to the screen is what is causing the screen to blurr, its just a thought, but maybe you should try it out and see how long it goes
July 12th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Matthew,
Check the video cable connectors on both ends – the motherboard and the LCD screen. Make sure both connectors are properly plugged. Reseat connectors just in case.
Sometimes this problem happens because of a loose video cable connection.
July 10th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
hello my i have a laptop computer and i first get black lines across the screen and after a little while of that it turns completely white!!! i have attached it to an external monitor and it works great!!! Please help me fix this problem!!!
February 13th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Okay, to update..
When I connect an external monitor, everything looks fine. Still crap on the laptop screen, but everythings working perfectly on the other.
Thanks!
February 13th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Mitchell, To get your dell to “trigger” between internal and external video you have to hold down the Fn key and hit the crt/lcd key (usually F8 on Dell) Usually. If its not set up in bios to automatically detect
Harry
February 13th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Dell Inspiron 1150
My problem seems like a combination of several I’ve found on the site. We’ve had it around 2 years and it’s always worked fine. Within the past several months it seemed like it was getting “hot” on our laps or what-not, and eventually it started shutting itself down – saying the vents were blocked. This would only occur a few times a week, and would be fine in between.
Finally, the last time it happened, our screen is shot. When you turn it on you can see the normal Dell graphics, then the Windows XP graphics, but you can’t tell what they are because they’re so garbled. There aren’t any white glitches per se, but the whole screen is moving in opposite directions and kind of ’shaking’. All except the upper right corner, where F12 and etc is perfectly clear. Touching or pulling on the screen does nothing, of course. The computer seems to load perfectly, and goes to the user selection page – I can’t pursue it any further because the screen is so distorted that I can’t find my mouse pointer!
I tried plugging my desktop monitor into the back, but I’m not sure I did it correctly because the picture continued to load on the notebook and the pc monitor was just black.
Any ideas?
February 9th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Ben,
Toshiba Tecra S1 notebook has a video card integrated into the motherboard. From the description you provided I’m almost positive that you have some kind of video card failure because the same failure appears on both internal LCD and external screen, probably the video RAM is bad. Unfortunately you cannot remove and replace just the video card, it’s necessary to replace the whole motherboard.
February 9th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
I’ve been reading the posts and I catch one or two things from several posts that’s happening to my laptop but there isn’t one that’s exactly the same. Suggestions about what the solution to my problem would be appreciated!
What’ I’ve got: Toshiba Tecra S1
Problem:
1. During startup (before Windows kicks in), the screen already has scattered fine lines in patches all over the screen. Odd characters (some greek – lamda, etc.) on the screen like Roger in post 18 also appears to show in singles.
2. When Windows loads up – coloured fine lines increase like digital noise everywhere and I can’t really see anything that i’m doing. There are certain moments when it clears up in certain areas like the toolbar icons but they eventually turn to gibberish again.
3. Same thing happens when I’m using both the LCD and external monitor, and also when I use only one or the other.
4. Not intermittent and it happens immediately.
5. I have the latest 2.50 BIOS upgrade.
6. This has happened before but not so persistently or consistent across the whole screen. It only happened in the past when the battery was critically low and i plugged it in to an outlet. It’s been a while since that’s happened though.
So other than needing a cleaning, possibly having a system board failure, loose connection – anything else it could be? I know a fair amount about computers but when it comes to repairing laptops… not so much. These solutions have varying cost implications so a best guess would really help (being as my warranty just ended a couple of months ago. Boo.)!
February 1st, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Roger,
It sounds like you have a problem with the video card, most likely the video memory is bad. I believe in this model the video card is integrated into the system board and cannot be replaced. If you want to fix the laptop you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
It’s very unlikely that your problem is related to the new hard drive, I think that’s a coincidence.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:36 am
Hi,
I have a similar problem like other people here but its unique in its own way. Anyone who might have solution, please help me get rid of this head ache.
I have a Toshiba satellite M30 laptop. Its off warranty now.
I changed the hard drive on it few weeks ago. Ever since, I have been facing the following problems.
When I start windows, all the characters in options such as safe mode/safe mode with networking/normal..etc are messed up. They appear as vegue characters such as pi lamda and so on.
Week 1 : Red dots appeared all over screen. Dint matter what application. They normally showed up while scrolling up and down. Initially everything would load fine.
While playing movies in full screen mode, The screen would go black/blank in less than a minute. In normal mode, red rain drops appeared and black screen appeared every once in a while for few seconds.
Week4: The screen went blank while windows was running. It dint start for couple of hours but then was okay for about 20-30 mins.
Things I have tried:
1) I tried setting bios to default. No use
2) Tried adding an external monitor but the glitche, dots appeared there also.
What could the problem be? Is it woth it to spend time on fixing this or should i hammer it to pieces to get rid of my frustration.
Cheers
January 29th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
H,
Try this. Remove the keyboard bezel so you can access the video connector on the motherboard. Turn on the laptop and wait until the video fails. Can you “fix” the video if you press on the connector? May be it’s a bad connector on the motherboard, I’ve seen that happening with Satellite P30 laptops before.
Your red lines look like bad image on the example 4?
January 29th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Hi have a toshiba satellite p30. sometimes the lcd works fine but most of the time after a few minutes it starts to put red lines that are kind of move. kind of like static. it does red on dark backgrounds and blue on lighter suchas white and when it goes to the screen saver (basic xp screen save) it does red. i have checked the video cable on the back of the lcd, the plug in on the inverter, and on the motherboard. all are in tightly and the video does not seem to be effected by movement of the video cable. the video is fine on an external monitor. any ideas?
January 20th, 2007 at 9:21 am
John Reynolds,
Sounds like a screen problem. BTW, check out comments 7 and 8 here.
January 17th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Description of problem:
Toshiba M35X S171ST, 15″ TFT active-matrix LCD.
The display shows everything in different shades of red and yellow, mostly red and of course white. No other colors.
I have tried adjusting the graphics properties and have reset everything back to factory defaults.
I can hook up an externaldesktop monitor and everthing displays fine.
December 19th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Yaourt,
Is it completely black or you still can see a very faint image if you look closely on the screen? What about video on an external screen. Does the external video work fine after the internal screen fails?
That’s where the CCFL (backlight) bulb and FL inverter are located. It’s possible that you have a faulty CCFL bulb, but I would say that most likely it’s just a bad inverter board, it’s a common problem. There is no way to find out until you replace at least the inverter. Inverters are not very expensive and replacing them will not take a lot of time. Unfortunately, HP doesn’t show how to replace the inverter board in their manuals. I’ve created some instructions for Toshiba laptops, read through display disassembly guides and you’ll get an idea.
December 18th, 2006 at 5:28 am
Hi,
I did notice that the LCD seems dimmer when displaying simultaneously with external CRT.
Have you tried turning the brightness down on the LCD? I have seen some Laptops with faulty inverters which flicker or die when too much power is being pulled, lowering the brightness often stops this.
December 11th, 2006 at 9:23 am
Hi,
It’s been more than a year that the screen of my laptop started to blink… but I managed somehow to fix it by moving it up and down… it doesn’t help anymore… in fact now my screen works properly for about 20 min after starting the notebook and then starts to blink and after goes completely black… I’ve noticed that it heats a lot at the base of the screen where the HP logo is situated… Please, do you have any suggestions? Could I fix the problem by myself because I already paid a new hard drive and a new Windows, so I don’t want to spend money anymore for this HP crap.. thanx
I have an HP Pavilion zv5112EA. It’s already 2.5 years old and it’s suffering from it’s age
November 30th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
Ankur,
Enter the BIOS setup screen and run the laptop with this screen for a while. Test if the problem occurs even before Windows is loaded. Move the screen up and down and see if you can reproduce the problem even without the operating system. If you can, the problem is not related to corrupted OS.
So you can get rid of the problem for a while by moving the screen, right? It’s possible that you have a loose video cable, it’s not connected properly to the screen. I’ve seen the same problem on some Toshiba laptops when the entire screen becomes completely white and I’ve been able to fix it by reseating the video cable on the back of the LCD screen. In some cases the “white screen” might be an indication of a failing motherboard or LCD screen.
November 30th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
Yasmin,
I think there are 2 separate channels for LCD and CRT. Check out the BIOS version installed on your laptop. I just checked the BIOS change history for Tecra S1 on the Toshiba website and it looks like there are 12 different revisions. The latest version 2.50 has a fix for display output to both the LCD and CRT. I’m not sure if it’s going to help, but I would try it.
November 29th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
Hi,
I have a Compaq presario 2128, its got an AMD Athlon processor, and thus heats up very fast. But the problem is that My screen keeps getting blurred and I get lines on it the moment i start up windows. In fact, once its up and running the lines seldom occur.
I jus adjust the position of the monitor and the blurryness seems to vanish, but then it re-appers and the whole screen turns white.
I was told that it could be a OS corruption issue (I have Win XP) but then a second opinion was that it could be due to the humid environment. I live on the equator, so its very hot & humid no doubt.
Pls help,
Ankur
November 26th, 2006 at 10:16 am
Thanks for the input. The reason I think its overheating is because the problem has gotten better since I cleaned the fan yesterday. Now the lines / flickering start appearing, the fan goes on for a while and the lines then go away for a while.
The CRT display throws everything off though — is there a separate channel through which the signal travels when hooked to the CRT? Could the signal then be traveling through the separate channel to both CRT and LCD? I did notice that the LCD seems dimmer when displaying simultaneously with external CRT.
Thanks so much for the quick turnaround — this has been driving me nuts for days, and I just found your site.
Yasmin
November 26th, 2006 at 12:47 am
Yasmin,
Looks like a faulty LCD screen ECXEPT this part:
May be just a coincidence?
I don’t think the video card is the problem because it would affect image on both screens. A faulty inverter would cause an issue with the backlight, so I don’t that inverter is the problem either.
I’m not really sure what’s wrong.
November 25th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
I have a Toshiba Tecra S1 purchased in 2003 (off warranty now). It is displaying the following symptoms:
* LCD display starts showing small lines and flickering after about 15 – 20 minutes of laptop being on
* If I put it to sleep for a while (20 minutes or so) and open it up, it is fine for the first 15-20 minutes then starts showing lines / flickering again
* If I hook it up to an external CRT, image is completely stable.
* If I set display to BOTH CRT and LCD, display is completely stable on BOTH for hours. Only when I switch to LCD-only does the image show lines / flicker.
* Just restarting doesn’t fix problem. Display shows lines / flickers even during Windows startup screen.
I’ve tried re-installing the video driver. I also opened up the computer and cleaned the dust out of the fan. Video driver re-install didn’t do anything. Cleaning the dust out of the fan seems to have helped. Display doesn’t go completely out of control anymore, though I can still see the lines, especially when the fan is going.
I’m pretty sure its an overheating problem. I just don’t know what part (video card, display, inverter) is causing the problem or how I can fix it.
Thanks.
November 25th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
James,
Sorry man, I’m not familiar with NEC laptops at all.
Probably the video card is integrated into the system board and if the video card goes bad you have to replace the system board.
November 23rd, 2006 at 7:34 pm
I currently have a NEC LaVie C LC700/4 that was a Japan model, and then converted into American.It was working fine, Now Im getting lines and a blurry screen, It also has a clicking in it. I hooked it up to another monitor and nothing happened so it made me think theres a problem with the video card. But I was told that I cant replace the video card in it. So if you got any Ideas please let me know. Thanks
October 16th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Raju,
If the external monitor has a normal video output even though the internal screen is green, then I think it’s not the motherboard/video card problem. The problem is somewhere inside the laptop display assembly. It could be a bad LCD screen, a bad video cable OR a loose video cable. I would definitely try reseating the video cable first. It might help. Here’s a link to Thinkpad 390E HMM. This manual has instructions for removal and replacement laptop parts. I would reseat the video cable on the motherboard first and if it doesn’t help, I would reseat the video cable on the screen.
If you still have the same problem after you reseat the video cable, I would try to replace the video cable itself.
By the way, the LCD screen is always green even before the operating system is loaded?
October 16th, 2006 at 9:15 am
i have a ibm thinlpad 390E.. model. it’s LCD screen color is changed to green….But woking good with external monitor when attached… please help some body.. what is it’s problem?????? Is it’s video cable is faulty???? my email id “cool00977@yahoo.com”