I get very narrow Cyan vertical lines across the entire screen
I have a Toshiba Satellite P35-S6292 (a wide screen laptop) and this has been happening for a few months now. I get very narrow Cyan vertical lines across the entire screen. It comes and goes constantly. I thought it heat related but it does not appear to be.
It will come and go constantly. Tipping the laptop, twisting or otherwise pulling up on the screen. especially near the hinges will make it come and go, as will tapping anywhere on the keyboard surface of the case.
It would appear there is something loose somewhere, thought it does not appear to be due to broken hinges as the screen has no problem staying up.
I am frustrated beyond belief and cannot find anything else anywhere on the net.
Your lines look like in the example 2 here? Test the laptop with an external monitor. If the lines appear only on the internal LCD, most likely you have a bad LCD screen. By the way, you can find some disassembly instructions for Toshiba laptops here. There are no instructions for taking apart display assembly for a Satellite P35 notebook, but there are a lot of guides for other models, they all similar. I’ve added display disassembly instructions for this model.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:08 am
I am having a similar problem with a Compaq presario 1685. Everything works fine but the LCD only displays lines and blocks of color and changes with what is displayed on the screen. When hooked up to an external monitor it works fine. Was trying to figure out if it was the LCD or just the inverter. Also do you have a link for how to replace the inverter if need be.
January 10th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Amy,
The laptop LCD displays lines and blocks but it’s still as bright as before, right? If so, the inverter is not your problem. With a failed inverter the screen will not light up and it will be very dark.
I think you might have:
1. Loose video cable. It’s not connected properly either to the motherboard or to the LCD screen. It’s necessary to open up the laptop and reseat the video cable.
2. It might be a bad video cable. Replace it.
3. Bad LCD screen.
January 12th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Hey There, I have the exact same computer. I have had nothing but trouble. In fact, I made a post on some review website, and have over 100 people that have emailed me stating that they are having trouble with their p-35’s. The problems range from shutting down when burning cd/dvd’s, cursor jumping, over heating, screen problems (only half of mine now works)and many other problems. I have traced the problem down to design flaw that makes the laptop overheat. I mentioned that my wife is an attorney and I am considering a class action as I have over 100 peoples email addresses/names that have the exact laptop with the same problems. All of these people are really wanting me to do something, which I am considering due to Toshibas lack of admitting that there is a problem with this design. Amy, I hope that you do not have any other problems with your computer, and suspect that you do not use it much, or, you would be mentioning all of the other issues, which mostly are frustrating to those who burn dvd’s and try to multi-task. I am going to contact Toshiba today to see what they are willing to do for me/us. Laptop Freak, you of all people should see the trend with the p-35. Anyway, good luck to anyone that owns a p-35. By the way, my wife has a Toshiba laptop (different kind) and has NO problem with it. If you want, drop me a line at sungraphicsataoldotcom. Chris
January 12th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Tosh A75-S231 Screen in blocks
I have a problem where about the right third of the screen is changing colored blocks. No dimness in blocks. Problem started with the screen just being a little weird in coloration on a strip of cells, then it started to go into blocks. I put pressure on the top of the lcd by gently squeezing the frame and they would go away. That happened a couple of times then the blocks refused to go away. Same in safe mode. Replaced drivers, same. Tested it on an external monitor, displays great. Put a new LCD in there. Same problem. Put a new video cable on. Same problem. Anyone got a thought? Peace.
-jd
January 13th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
JD,
That is a very very weird problem.
Looking at this description I would say that you have a bad LCD screen.
This sentence confirms that there is nothing wrong with software drivers and apparently the motherboard works fine too.
So you replaced the LCD/video harness and the laptop still has the same problem? Weird!
May be some kind of grounding problem? Remove the LCD from the cover but do not disconnect it from the laptop. Test the LCD outside the box. Still same problem?
January 14th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Tried removing LCD from cover/frame. Same story.
-jd
January 16th, 2007 at 12:12 am
JD,
I have no idea what’s going on with your laptop. It must be a bad motherboard then?
BTW, if you purchased your laptop in USA, you might get a free repair from Toshiba even though the laptop is not under warranty anymore. Check out the Toshiba Settlement Website for more information. Here are a couple of quotes from the settlement:
One more:
January 16th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Yah, I am done messing with this thing. I contacted the attorney who is dealing with this case a couple of days ago. Here’s the deal for all you A70, A75, M30X, or M35X owners. Your warranty is extended until Nov. 7, 2007. This means ANY repair that needs to be done to your laptop will be at NO COST. You need to contact a Toshiba certified service center and take/ship you laptop to them and they have to repair anything that is wrong with it for any reason per the settlement agreement. The attoney informed me that she has had Toshiba owners whose dogs have literally ate apart their laptop and the service center had to replace it. You don’t have to have a proof of purchase, it doesn’t matter where you purchased you laptop, all you have to do is take the laptop in. I suggest anyone who has one do so as they will fix the heat/static discharge problems associated with these models with new hardware. Thanks for the kind help. Peace.
-jd
January 17th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Hello, I have a Toshiba Satellite M55 laptop, and I took it apart (well, I got my brother to do it and watched him throughout), because I was having an overheating problem (which is now fixed, and it turns out my fan was jammed), my brother followed Satellite M55 disassembly guide, and after we were done, he reassembled my laptop, and now, strangely enough, everything works -except- the LCD screen. When I turn on my laptop, my screen is black, with four vertical lines, with different colors ranging from grey to peach. Connecting an exterior monitor to my laptop does infact work, but I’m still curious of how I can fix my LCD screen, which was fine before my brother took apart my computer.
January 20th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Christine,
Make sure the video cable is properly connected to the motherboard, reseat the connection. When you (your brother) unplug the cable from the motherboard, take a look inside the video connector. Check if there are any bent pins inside the connector. I do not remember if the video connector on the motherboard has any pins inside, but check it anyway. If you can see bent pins, VERY VERY VERY carefully straighten them with a small flat screwdriver.
January 25th, 2007 at 7:31 am
I have a Dell Smartstep 200n and my screen looks Yellow. I can see everything but it’s yellow. I’m unable to enjoy the true colors of things as when it was new. I have been told the it could be the inverter? I recently installed vista and I can’t enjoy the transparency in Vista. This problem was present even before I installed Vita. Could someone please give me an idea? Thx in advance.
January 29th, 2007 at 6:15 am
I have a pavilion ze2000 by HP and this unit is barely a 1 year and a half old and it has two blue vertical lines running across the LCD screen.
Any suggestions on how to remove these lines will be greatly appreciated.
Best Regards,
EMoorhead
January 31st, 2007 at 2:51 am
They should have included the P-35 as well on the lawsuit! I have had nothing but problems, of course most after the warrantee expired…But…many of you have expressed that there are problems with your P-35’s (I have over 100 emails relating common problems) and as I have mentioned, will be seeking legal action on this matter and hope that we can get some type of settlement on this matter….For those of you who emailed me, hang in there…Chris
January 31st, 2007 at 3:24 am
ATTN: Chris
I too am having problems with the P-35. I however am located in Australia so I don’t know how I can be helped in anyway, although I would love any help on offer.
I have problems also with the overheating, and recently I have had trouble with the lines of pixels from top to bottom appearing.
It is a factory refurbished model which I purchased from an Australian seller, however, this still should not be happening. It is all of a year old and if someway you can help me out while helping yourself out, I would be very appreciative.
Let me know if there’s something that can be done,
Cheers mate!!
February 4th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
About the toshiba settlement, I’ve tried to have my Satellite A75-S2112 fixed by Toshiba, but I have no proof of purchase, and the sticker on the bottom with the serial model and part # is worn off. Toshiba won’t even touch it unless I give them a serial number. I don’t have it, I have none of the original documentation, and my computer is falling apart, I need a new computer. HELP!!!
Nick
nhudson@adrian.edu
email me ANY suggestions you may have!
February 5th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I own a a satellite P35 and i got the same problem with the vertical lines,overheating,not burning DVD’s,cursor jumping for no reason
February 6th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Nick,
Do you have any Toshiba authorized service center in your area?
Any Toshiba motherboard is programmed with a DMI string which has all information about the laptop (name, model number, serial number). It’s possible to read this information from the DMI string with a special utility available only for certified Toshiba technicians. If you bring your laptop to the authorized repair center, they can get the serial number from the DMI string. It takes just a few minutes.
February 9th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Hey,
My Qosmio G10-133 started experiencing display issues the other day. I was using it when out of nowhere this vertical bar about 7cm’s wide appeared on my screen.
Usually its a solid color, but it’ll change. Sometimes its black, other times white, even blue at other times. Theres even the odd occasion when there will be loads of multi coloured thinner vertical lines mixed in.
Sometimes the bar will start to go see through, and the whole screen will kinda make a high frequency noise, like when you turn a tv on and the screen will still be visible but go lighter for like a second and the bar will go solid again.
Its there from start up to shut down. Its even there if I go into the BIOS. So I know its not a driver issue. I dont have an external monitor to test with unfortunatly.
If I use the print sceen key and try to take a screen shot the bar wont show up in it.
So I took one with my digi cam. Which can be found here:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/lunchboxsa/SSA50183.jpg
Any insite will be appreciated.
February 9th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Rhys,
It’s a screen problem and you’ll have to replace the screen. Try this. Torque the screen a little bit. Hold the top left and right corners of the screen and move them into opposite directions, be careful and do not twist it too much or you can crack the screen. Sometimes the vertical bar can disappear for a while.
February 9th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Thanks for the help. Tried to torque it. But the bar remaind and my screen just made funny noises at me.
What Toshiba wants to fix it aint gonna be worth it. I’ll just have to try and find an external monitor somewhere.
February 13th, 2007 at 5:33 am
Today I was putting the charger into my laptop. I pressed the screen with my thumb on accident and heard a light crack. now. when i turn on my computer there is a black spot on the right side of my computer and vertical and horizontal lines on the right side. What can I do to fix this problem and how much will it cost?
February 14th, 2007 at 12:05 am
Crystal,
Replacing the LCD screen is the only way to fix the problem.
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Good Grief
From the above class action link:
“Sklar Law Offices will ask the Court for attorneys’ fees in the amount of $24,743,965.50, less whatever the Court awards Caddell & Chapman for its attorneys’ fees”
All I get is $25? Or a $50 coupon?!!!!!
My screen will cost 300-400 dollars to replace not
including labaor!
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:42 am
I’ve got the vertical line problem with my 1 year and 1 month old Toshiba Qosmio G20. Just after the international warrenty ran out, naturally. Took it in to Toshiba and they want about $1000 for a new LCD.
Anyone getting going on a new class action lawsuit to include the Qosmio’s please please please leave the info on how to join with this site. As it sounds like a design flaw, I want it fixed, ASAP, for free.
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:46 am
PS additionally, the folks at the Toshiba center seemed to be very familiar with the problem. I asked if they’d seem it before and they said yes. I’d like to know how many of us are paying an extra one-third of the retail cost, again — just to get our screens back to normal…???
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:06 am
I bought a Toshiba P35 a little over two years ago. This last fall I had to have the hard drive replaced, and now I am getting the vertical pinstripe lines on the display screen (5 so far). Please post anything about a lawsuit that may come up. I am so frustrated!
May 6th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I have the similar problem to my toshiba laptop within the one year international warranty..and i went to repair it.. but the techinician said there’s serious spyware/virus in my laptop..and took about 1 month to repair it! and when i took it back..after about 2 months the problem started again..the technician did not change my LCD at all!! now that the international warranty is off i have to pay for the repairment fee! i was so pissed off on the technician..
May 7th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
I have 45 colorful vertical lines on a Lenovo R52 LCD Screen now. It started with 1 line in Aug 2006 & progressively increased to 45. What really pissed me off was that it happened barely 1 month after the 1 yr warranty. Sent in personally to IBM Centre in Singapore & was told it would cost me $1000+++ to fix it. It’s a frustrating experience. Called IBM Singapore office, the call was routed to Lenovo center in Penang, Malaysia, then asked me to bring it to IBM Singapore. Wasted my hrs of time on the phone & pain in the…ears.
June 5th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Chris:
I own a Toshiba P-35 and I have a lot of problems, I can see only the left half of my screen, in the right half the only thing I see are vertical multicolor lines and i cant use that part of my screen !!! I dont know what to do, my guarantee is expired and I have no money to buy another brand new 17′ screen !! Can u help me to fix my problem ? Dammmn toshiba
August 30th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I have a problem with my laptop screen…
There’s a thin white horizontal line under the taskbar.
The line appears when I start the computer and never goes away. Can anyone here help me???
September 5th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Just fixed mine!
Sorry, you’re all wrong. For future reference, this can’t be a virus; viruses are software, and bending the laptop is not an interface maneuver. The computer has NO idea you’re bending it, so a virus cannot detect such a thing as an “event”, so to speak (I bet tons of ubergeeks are flying in a roflcopter right now)
This is what’s happening. There’s a contact in the back of your LCD that is being made that shouldn’t be. Remove the rubber things on your screen, those will reveal some screws. Unscrew the thing, and then slowly snap off the front cover, exposing the LCD screen.
(If you’re not careful you’ll break the screen, but hell, who cares the screen sucks anyway–buy a new one and leave your comp disassembled in a safe place and you can just plop the new one in)
Now, if you’re an expert with hardware, you can somehow figure out a way to relieve the offending area without doing something stupid like I did. What I did is jam a few business cards I had handy into the offending area.
Keep in mind that if the colored lines come back, you’re gonna have to do some more adjusting. If you tell your technician specifically this solution they might be able to take care of the problem at a lower cost by squeezing out some sort of glue in between the offending contacts
It should be a part of the circuitboard in the same place as your offending area(s), but if not, just poke around with a pencil and see what it does. YES, you will have to do this plugged in and turned on! But don’t worry, it’s just a screen, see above if you somehow are crazy enough to fry the screen!!! When doing this, you should be looking for areas that make it WORSE when you do this–this is because the offending areas will get worse when further contact is made, so you gotta try and force that to happen. if you make it “permanently” worse, don’t worry, you can always jam some more business cards, or improvise, come up with your own solution
Now if someone could only tell me why my old Acer gives me direct read/write errors on whatever hard drive I throw in!
September 9th, 2007 at 12:04 am
My Toshiba laptop has the same fauly as that of Chris. All the right hand side is covered by lines. Do you think that this is a manufatured error of Toshiba?
September 9th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I think this is just a faulty screen. This problem could happen with any other laptop from any other manufacturer.
September 10th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
hey i have a hp pavillion dv5000ea series i got a vertical 5cm transparent line on my screen when i press the top left of the lcd it dissappears and when i take my hand off i reapears what could be the problem do i have to replace the lcd and pay 300usd
Thanks regard ghassan
September 10th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Ghassan,
Sounds like a problem with the LCD screen. I think you’ll have to replace the screen.
September 12th, 2007 at 11:37 am
yes I know but where i live the screen costs about 300usd so its expensive and my warranty period has expired from may.before 2 days of this problem my screen was perfectly normal it was working really well but i decided to paint the front cover so i dissassembled the cover and finished the job, after i had painted it i put it back on, but, after five minutes the vertical line appeared,can there be something loose?like wires or cables.
Thanks for your help…
September 14th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Another P35-S6292 owner, with overheating and vertical lines on the screen. I did manage to cure the overheating with canned, clean air.
What a hunk of junk. First and last Toshiba.
Craig
September 20th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
I have a Toshiba P30-135. Same problems. Every few days another vertical line appears. They aren’t all the same color. The line that appeared yesterday is green. It flashed on and off at 2 second intervals before becoming permanent today.
I had the heating problem too: shooting compressed air into the fans at the bottom and the grilles at the back seems to have solved that one. For the time being…
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:24 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite P105 with 17″ display. 13 months old and I guess 1 month out of warranty and a line has appeared today from top of display to bottom, about 4 inches from left edge and probably 1 pixel wide.
Looks like $420 for a new display including shipping, if I replace it myself (from http://www.screentekinc.com/). Any suggestions for alternatives appreciated.
I don’t know for sure at the moment if it is the display, or maybe a connector or graphics card. I’ve restarted after allowing 2 hours to cool down and still present, so not likely to be a thermal problem. Will try connecting an external display in work tomorrow, and I expect it will be fine.
major bummer. No more Toshiba for me. Dell appears to have best value for money and best support.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Houston,
If you search here for “P105 screen” you can find one for about $165, I think it’s a good deal.
Sounds like a problem with the screen itself and it’s not related to the video card, connection or overheating. I would say this is the screen problem.
By the way, it might happen with any laptop not just Toshiba.
October 21st, 2007 at 1:43 am
hello 2 all,
probably i am late…
most unfortunately yesterday the cyan vertical line appeared on my toshiba p30 laptop (about 2/3 of the screen from the left side)
that line is currently not on my screen but when i turn on the computer it appears and dissapears randomly
when line is not present on that vertical monitor works as usual – fine. and when line is present monitor also works perfectly except that line on the screen.
is there any chance for me to fix anything
thanx
October 21st, 2007 at 1:48 am
also few things that might help the diagnostics…
randomness of appearance of that line is not connected with OS/s resolution of the screen etc… i am pretty sure that some hardware problem occurred – i am hope that there is the chance that monitor is fine but that there is some connection problems. when my lap is on for some time line does not show – at least for now.
November 10th, 2007 at 11:33 am
I had the same problem with my Qosmio G20 laptop which is now about a year and a half old.
About two months after I purchased it there were several black specks of dust in the monitor… I sent it back to Toshiba and they cleaned it but about a week later the dust reappeared. I couldn7t be bothered to send it back so lived with it.
About 4 weeks ago I noticed a thin blue cyan line on the right side of my monitor so I sent it back to Toshiba. they told me it was a result of the dust in the monitor (which was left there by them during the initial fix so repaired it at no charge.
Two days after getting the computer back the same line appeared again and with it another line on the left hand side. Quite irate and off to Toshiba for another week I just got it back this morning and seems to be working fine but given Toshiba’s track record so far I don’t know. I’m keeping my fingers crossed
December 12th, 2007 at 2:10 am
regarding Christopher p35
I also have a p35. At 10 months the inverter had to be replaced. It overheats, the dvd usually fails to recognize new dvd for recording, the battery, fully charged, lasts for around 10 minutes, counting the orginal lcd, I’m on my 4th lcd and this one has also developed vertical lines. This current lcd is less than 1 and 1/2 months old. I’ve had it with this Satellite. If you hear of any class action suit, let me know….thanks
December 15th, 2007 at 4:24 am
hello again,
I’m on my 4th lcd
December 27th, 2007 at 1:32 am
is there a way to be sure that lcd will work fine (eg replace this, this and this and it will work fine)
May 28th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I have an HP Pavilion dv9500 17″ monitor. I have been having cyan horizontal lines and also some other things that are hard to describe. This happens when the screen is open more than 85 degrees. It just started and we are not sure if we should take it to get looked at or try something here ourself.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 am
Hp has been having some problems with their screens….does is work when open less than 85 degrees? Is your machine under warranty? Send me an email to sungraphics@aol.com and I can give you some other guidance on this matter. Chris
August 17th, 2008 at 7:08 am
I have a Dell, XPS M1210 laptop. Recently we had one or two very thin, horizontal lines appear at the bottom of the screen above the task bar. It seems to be spreading as we now have about 10 horizontal thin white lines at the bottom.
Any idea what this is and how we can fix it? I worry that soon it’s going to take over the entire screen.
Thanks!
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite M60, and the same problem with a lot of people, vertical lines 1pixel wide appearing on my screen. First it was just a line then 2 ,3 , you get the point! Now, after about 10 months of use, 45 lines and going!!! External monitor works fine.
Is there a way, besides replacing the lcd screen, to fix this?
P.S. This thing with the vertical lines is a really common problem. Shouldn’t Toshiba deal with it accordingly?
Thank you in advance!
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Manos Var,
The only way I know is replacing the entire LCD screen.
Is it only 10 months old? Probably you still have warranty. LCD replacement should be covered.
February 21st, 2010 at 4:39 am
I have the same problem “Cyan line(s) on the screen”, the Machine is Dell so its not only Toshiba with these problems…however its manufactured by LG. Will someone please post a solution to this problem and not necessary replace the screen…. that would be really helpful
April 30th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
My Toshiba 17 laptop has had some issues lately. I took it to best buy and the geek squad didnt fix it. What they did do was sold me $791 worth of stuff and now my laptop looks like its on life support. It crashed (shutting off) while I was in Second Life. Now it over heats alot and shuts off allthe time even in simple games. Since Geek squad had it, Jr, (the lap tops name) Jr, weghed close to 18lbs when I got him back it was like he was on a diet. His optic drive doesnt work the sound card sputters, and now I have cyan (first started) then came red and now green then royal blue and now white & yellow and darker green vertical lines are on my screen its like looking at things thru a jail cell. Aggrivated isnt half of the words I would like to use. Its been swept for malware & viruses, and its continually doing the same thing. And it is getting the better of me I am SO ready to fling Jr acorss to the wall like a frisbee. BUT I love him, and I am attached to him. HOw can I fix him without going back to best buy’s geeks and wring that %^&*()(*& hard drive for ruining Jr ? Thank you Laptop Freak in advance, I appreciate any help
as I am almost in tears…… again ! knightsrose888