My laptop has green pixels where black pixels should be
My laptop has green pixels where black pixels should be, so in other words when the Windows XP splash screen comes up during bootup the screen is completely green except for the logo of course. Every “true black” pixel is green colored and the problem is there when Windows is running too. I can see they are not dead pixels because all the pixels do it when a black pixel should be there. I had a friend who is a Toshiba certified technician take a look at it and he said it looks like coffee was spilled on it but the LCD is fine so it seems to be something with the onboard video. I am great with making and repairing desktops, but not laptops, though I could if I needed to. Can anyone suggest anything besides getting a new laptop or a new motherboard. The MB sounds better than a whole new laptop.
One other thing I should add is that when I bought it on eBay it was sold because of the little green pixels but it was reported as showing up here and there, when I actually received the laptop the problem was completely gone. Then I sent it to UPS because i filed a claim since they damaged the power supply and also the CD-ROM and when they shipped it back the green pixels then showed up and much worse. Nothing helps, twisting the LCD , banging it a bit, nothing at all helps it. So its weird because after I bought it from eBay UPS delivered it and the so-called problem was non-existant, then I sent it back to UPS, then they shipped it back and the problem was there. Can anyone help please??
There is no simple solution for this problem. If the coffee went down to the motherboard, I think you’ll have to replace it.
By the way, what if you start the laptop with an external monitor? Do get the same bad video on the external screen (indicates a problem with onboard video) or the external screen works fine? If the external monitor displays normal video, may by you just have a bad video cable and there is nothing wrong with the motherboard? Test the external video before you make any conclusions.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Here is the link for a picture. It is not my own and you should IGNORE THE GREEN BOX!!!:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/images/OpenThinkPad.png
On the open part you can see a ‘rim’ of metal with screw holes in. This is the metal you would touch.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:13 am
The battery does not have be removed but when I did it the battery was in. The ‘frame-ish’ bit you were talking about sounds like the metal you are meant to touch. Hope all goes well. I will see if I can get a picture of the metal you are meant to touch and publish the link.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Gadget, thanks for responding, I appreciate it very much…I’m still having a bit of trouble though. I have a Toshiba Satellite A25-S307, is this what you were working with also? I am still not sure which panel I have to remove, I can remove the keyboard which gives me a view of some of the motherboard and access to the memory chips and the video cables as “paul” mentioned in one of the latest posts about making sure the video cable is seated properly. I can see parts that seem very metallic and appear to be “frame”-ish, in other words they appear to be solid pieces of metal that seem to serve no other purpose other than to hold up and provide support for the laptop. Still though I have had no luck getting the green pixels to go away. Also you mentioned the power cable should be disconnected, does this mean also that the battery should be removed? Thanks a bunch for the help and I’m sorry if I am asking too too many questions. Thanks again, to Gadget and to all who have tried to help, including this website’s webmaster and support group. Thanks!@:-)
May 8th, 2007 at 8:25 am
When you take off a panel of the case of the laptop (not the screen), with power cord out, touch the metal just underneath the plastic of the casing hold the power button for 10 seconds, then release the button. I don’t know why you have to press the power button but this is what I was told to do when I wanted the static to be the same in the laptop.
May 7th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Thnak you for the suggestions to both of you. However, I am still not able to get my issue to be solved, I tried both suggestions, but the one about touching the case I’m a bit confused about. Is the laptop supposed to be on first of all? Also, which part of the case is gadget3000 referring to? I tried touching the metal casing of the LCD screen after removing the plastic “frame” and also some of the metal frame that I could see after removing the keyboard, but still the green pixels are there. Can anyone clear up what gadget3000 means about the case, like where it is, am I supposed to be grounded to something else, and again is the laptop supposed to be turned on while grounding it, and I am a bit confused about holding down the power button for 210 secs thing also…Thanks for the help to all.
May 5th, 2007 at 7:23 am
The green pixel problem is very common in laptops and is normaly 1 of 2 things, 1st what gadget3000 said and the other being, that the connection has become loose.
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/7356/img0759lv1.jpg
(white connection with cable leading off to screen)
the link above shows the connection that i am talking about, (found under the caseing directly below the screen), all you need to do is push the connection in (with some force) on either side and then the pixels will fix,..
there a many ways that the connection can come loose – mainly bumps, and heat
May 1st, 2007 at 6:44 am
thanks gadget3000, i just tried that and it has fixed it!!!
May 1st, 2007 at 4:14 am
This kind of makes sense…because I bought my laptop knowing that it had the green-pixel problem, but after it got to my house after shipping, the screen had no problem. Then, I sent it back out to UPS because of issues in transit, after they sent it back to me, the problem was really, really bad. Suggesting that it may have been picking up static in transit and possibly lost some of it or got better at some point also.
I’ll give this suggestion a try, and thank you very much for posting your suggestion, I’ll let you annoyed laptop owners know if it is good after the procedure.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Hi, I have had the same problem. I was building a computer when my laptop was on and I put on the anti-static wristrap then I had this problem. Therefore it has something to do with static. !!!THE FIX!!!: Take off the cover and touch the metal of the case of the latop (not the bit you just took off) and press the power button for 10 seconds. Then close up the laptop and all should be sorted. What this does is make the amount of static in your body the same in the laptop.
March 3rd, 2007 at 4:01 am
Hello, I have a very similar probblem to the green pixles that you guys are getting, however not as bad (mine is only 45% of the black not 100%). I was fiddling around with it and came to a conclution that i will be investigating more into later. this is that, if i take the base of the laptop (not the screen) and attempt to “bend” is by applying preasureto middle and sides. every now and then i get a possition that makes the pixles go mad or compleatly dissapear, i think therefor that the probblem is in the conneciton from screen to gfx card.
Just for record i’m running a acer TravleMate4560, GeForce go 7600.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Elizabeth,
This problem will not be covered under warranty and any laptop repair shop will quote you a new LCD screen, they are not going to take it apart – too much risk to break the screen. Can you stop using the laptop for a while? It’s possible when the water dries out you will be able to use it again.
Do not take the screen apart yourself because you can easily damage it and make it completely unusable.
February 27th, 2007 at 4:48 am
Hi – and thanks for your responses. I put a little heat on the screen with a blowdryer an weirdly enough it made the globs somewhat ‘moveable’ so I can see that behind them my screen is perfect. They change size a bit and after the heat the black seems to have some small areas of multi color pixels in it. this is a new Toshiba Satellite with a 17″ screen so Im nervous to think about taking it apart myself. Any recomendations on where you would take it? I would really like to try and get rid of thse if its possible. I cant see my start button any more! Thanks for your help, Elizabth
February 26th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Elizabeth,
I think Mark is right, water got inside the screen.
Just recently I had to repair a Dell notebook with a water damaged LCD. Water got inside the screen, dried out and left dirty stains on the white background. The screen itself was working fine but these dirty stains were very irritating. Is it possible to take apart the LCD screen itself and clean it up inside? Yes it is but you can easily damage it during disassembly. I fixed my screen only because I had a spare one (cracked LCD).
Here’s my laptop screen disassembly adventure (www.laptoprepair101.com).
February 23rd, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I still have not been able to figure the issue out.
In regards to Elizabeth’s water issue: what most likely happened is that water seeped in behind the LCD and that might have caused some tpye of electrical issue that may or might not be fixable by letting the screen dry out. To get it to dry out I would think you need to take the LCD screen out which I beleive is somewhat sealed in a metal casing (but obviously has some holes where the water was able to get inside). I would not recommend applying heat directly to the casing or the LCD screen either in or out of the laptop, or at the most apply a little bit of heat with a blow dryer a few inches away. I am not sure what to suggest but drying out definitely seems like your best bet right now. So the screen still displays images fine, even where the globs are right? It’s just that there are globs that are visible but they do not affect the image that much correct? Or do pixels in the globs not even display?
In reagrds to the green screen issue, I’m thinking it is a bad seated video chip or it is the lcd itself.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:34 am
Sorry forgot to say when i go into the bios i can view that clearly aswell a curtain stuff on the desktop…this is so annoying it seems anything black the LCD hates.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 am
Has anybody figured this out yet? coz i have the same problem on my packard bell easynote.
February 23rd, 2007 at 7:48 am
Hi – I spilled a little water on the back part of my laptop which didnt damage to computer itself but noe I have black glob type things at the bottom of the screen. this ws several days ago and some of them still sem to be getting bigger. What can I do? should I have someone take the screen apart and fix it? Is it fixable? What about applying heat to dry it out? thanks for your help.
February 19th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I have not yet figured out the probem either, but I have the exact same problem. So do you see a green windows xp splash screen? And when you get into windows do you see like the image kind of fuzzy and off-colored in certain areas? For instance, on the right hand edges of some program’s windows there is pixelation and the pixels change color and there seems to be a band of like odd colors but only on the right hand edge of the window. It’s hard to explain if I can take a picture I will send it to you. If you want to discuss this through e-mail in case the moderator does not want this becoming a chat room, my e-mail is “cdt11372 at hotmail.com” Just replace the at with @, other wise I get spammed from the wrong people visiting this kewl site. The moderator has also been very helpful but I have yet to try the suggestion as I don’t have any spare LCDs. I’m experienced with desktops and computers in general so feel free to let me know what we can do, in tech terms. =)
-Mark
February 19th, 2007 at 11:06 am
I just started up my laptop after leaving it in its case for about an hour and a half. And its roughly 11 degrees out. Anyways, I turned it on to see the entire screen green where the black should be. I’m not sure if its from the cold, althought I don’t think so. I used it at my grandparents house, and it worked fine, so I don’t know why it is acting up. If anyone could suggest anything, that’d be great. I own a Toshiba Sattelite A105, if anyone needs to know that.
February 6th, 2007 at 3:07 am
HEY! I have the problem too (I think). I dont think it was caused by dropping it slightly (although I do carry it in a backpack to work which means it could’ve suffered similar damage). I think it happened after I upgraded the memory from 512mb to 1536mb. It is a HP pavillion with onboard ATI graphics processor, which shares the memory with the main cpu. That is the reason I suspect the memory. I remove the memory chip (leaving 256mb remaining) and the problem does’nt appear. This green pixel problem comes more than it goes away. It is not restricted to black pixels, but pixels of similar color. I procured the memory chip through a friend so I can’t exactly get it replaced. With respect to the first guy’s problem I suspect everyone has made the wrong judgement when an external monitor works, lcd screen is green… Well my opinion is that because the internal circuitry from the graphics processor to the lcd screen follows a different path than that to the crt connector, and they are different technologies, LCD is DIGITAL!!! – CRT is not, its ANALOG!!!
So there could be a bad connection to the LCD screen, hence why people try to twist the LCD screen to get it to dissapear. I think there is a problem with the signal path to the LCD screen. Especially when the problem is intermittent. (I could be wrong, how would I know, I’m typing this over the net…)
February 5th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I have the same problem with my Fujitsu C series Lifebook.
I experienced this problem a few years ago and took it to Best Buy to repair. They loaded some sortt of driver via floppy disk and it corrected the problem. When it happened again a few months later, I inserted the copy of the disk they gave me and it was ok.
However, I don’t have the disk anymore. The other day, when the monitor opened quite a bit back, the black to green problem showed up again. It went away after I restared, but it’s been coming up again. Haven’t been able to get rid of it since, but I’ve found many threads online with people experiencing the same thing.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:41 am
I’ve had a similar problem – I’ve had my laptop for 2 years now and have never had a display problem with it. However after a journey (in which I didn’t think it got knocked, but I guess you never know; I do know that it didn’t get any liquids in or even near it, so it’s not a coffee problem) it now has the same black-pixels-go-green problem – but only if I open the laptop screen further than about 110 degrees. If it’s any further back I get all my black pixels coming up bright green; any further closed and all pixels are normal. This implies that it’s a cable seating problem or something; it doesn’t have anything to do with the orientation of the machine itself, only the opening angle at the hinge. I’m going to go in and have a look around for loose or kinked connections if it’s tiresome enough, or otherwise hope that it’ll work itself out again through normal use…
January 22nd, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Hey! I have exactly the same problem, it all started when my laptop accidentally fell along with my backpack, after that the green problem. One friend recommended me to remove the battery and leave the laptop alone for a few days (to eliminate static I guess), after I did that, the problem persisted for a few days, after that it seemed to be fine, until yesterday that the green pixels came back again…
January 9th, 2007 at 3:48 am
Add me to the list. I just finished reloading XP media Centre in an attempt to clear this (and other problems up) but it’s back again. Not constantly though. I am running ATI’s X1600 on and ASUS Z96JS. Anyone else got the same laptop?
January 8th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
i cant believe my bad luck
i’ve recently just gotten this problem as well.
i launched a full screen program and the desktop popped back up and the screen became green.
everything is fine on an external screen.
google lead me to here.
anyone solved this yet?
January 8th, 2007 at 5:41 am
have the same problem on my laptop screen – doesn’t seem to be a common problem re search on google-did you resolve problem- be great to know how!!
January 8th, 2007 at 3:45 am
I have this too! It’s driving me insane!
The thing is though, it’s happened before, twice I think, but I can’t remember what I did to get rid of it. In fact, I’m not sure I did anything at all, it might have just gone on it’s own.
If it’s a bad LCD screen, can I do anything? Or will I have to get someone to fix it?
Any help is really appreciated!
Thanks!
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Hmmmm, very good point, ok I will see if I can ask him to try a test screen, though he does not actually have access to any parts he was certified when he used to work at CompUSA I believe. Thank you though, very much, for your help.
-Mark
January 2nd, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Mark,
You are getting green pixels only on the internal LCD screen but not on the external monitor, right? It tells me that most likely there is nothing wrong with the video card and problem is somewhere in the display assembly. So, it’s either a bad video cable or bad LCD screen. From my experience it doesn’t look like the video cable problem. A bad video cable might cause noise or cut off the video signal at all, but I’ve never seen that it causes black pixels change green (or any other color). Probably you have a bad LCD screen. I cannot guaranty it’s 100% right, nobody can, but that’s what I think.
Ask your friend to hook up a test LCD screen to your laptop, this test will help to narrow down the problem.
January 1st, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Hi, thank you very much for your time and response. I forgot to mention, that yup it sure does work with an external monitor, no issues at all, so in that case the video adapter would not be the issue. My friend, the Toshiba cert tech said he played with the cable and nothing came of it, but I’m not sure exactly what he tried. It seems like it was having the issue and then when I bought it and received the issue was gone, then I sent it out to UPS and when they sent it back the gren pixel issue was there again. So the issue seems to be in the cable(s) running to the LCD? Could the issue lie anywhere else? For instance could it be the LCD itself? Thanks again, i do appreciate your help with this matter.
Sincerely,
MarkC