When the laptop is turned on the “VAIO” splash screen is flickering with a red tint
I have a client that is having problems with the display on their laptop. It is having the following symptoms:
***When the laptop is turned on the “VAIO” splash screen is flickering with a red tint.
***As soon as the “VAIO” splash screen goes away the backlight goes off.
***If I connect an external monitor the monitor shows the windows splash screen while windows is booting, but then as soon as windows comes to the “welcome” screen the external monitor turns off.
***When in Windows you can barely make out what is on the screen (backlight off)
***Once in windows hitting the “FN-F7? button does not redirect the display to the external monitor.
***I don’t know if the laptop screen is doing what it is doing because of the backlight, or the inverter board. Or if this is a problem with the video “card” because it won’t go to the external monitor via the “FN-F7? combo.
The laptop: Sony VAIO PCG-GRT100K. Please advice on how we can get this solved.
First of all, I don’t think it’s a video card problem. The logo is flickering with a red tint only on the laptop LCD but not on the external monitor, correct? The external monitor works fine until the “welcome” screen and it tells me the video card is fine. For some reason you cannot redirect the display to the external monitor (maybe just settings in the BIOS) but I doubt this is a problem with the video card.
I don’t think it’s an inverter problem either but I’m not sure 100%. From my experience, the inverter has only two states, it either works fine and provides high voltage AC power (backlight bulb lights up) or it doesn’t work (backlight is off). Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. To the best of my knowledge, a failed inverter board cannot cause a red tint on the screen. A red tint is an indicator of a faulty backlight bulb, here’s an example.
I think you have a faulty backlight bulb (CCFL tube). The best way to narrow down the problem is connecting a test backlight bulb. Maybe you have a cracked LCD screen with a good backlight bulb lying around? Disconnect the client’s screen from the inverter board and plug in the test bulb. If the test bulb light us, the client’s bulb is bad. You’ll have to replace the screen or replace the backlight bulb. If the test bulb will not light up either, then I would try replacing the inverter.
I usually keep all cracked LCDs just in case if I need a test backlight bulb.
February 18th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
NEED HELP REGARDING AN ACER TRAVELMATE LAPTOP.
My screen broke and since it is cheaper, I purchased an external 19″ screen. The problem is however that the moment I remove the internal cable for the broken screen, the Laptop does not want to start up giving an error “please check media cable” followed by the scandisk check on the C drive after which it re-boots itself over and over.
Once I connect it, it starts up perfectly on the external monitor.
I have tried the following:-
1.) Change the Bios settings although there are only the option of “automatic or both screens”
2.) I have changed it in windows under the screencard settings that I only want the external screen to work, but the same problem persists
I get the feeling that I will need a updated bios or something. How come ACER laptops wont boot up without their built in screens??
Help will truly be appreciated.
Regards
Hannes
South Africa
February 20th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Sorry Hannes, I cannot answer this question. I work mostly with Toshiba laptops and never seen problem like this. If a Toshiba laptop has a cracked screen, you can remove it and use the laptop with an external monitor attached. I cannot even guess why Acer will not allow this.
Maybe you should try reinstalling Windows just with the external monitor attached and laptop LCD disconnected? It’s just a guess.
Please let me know if you can figure it out.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Hi
I have done the whole windows reinstallation thing, but it still does not work. I have now downloaded the updated bios and hopefully this will give me an option of “External Screen Only”.
Will let you know.
February 28th, 2007 at 9:29 am
My Acer Aspire laptop has “pink screen syndrome”. You turn the computer on, and the screen is tinted w/ pink. When you open MS Word the document is fully pink. If the laptop is plugged to the external monitor the pink is gone. Could it be the back light bulb?
Regards,
m.
February 28th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Monica,
I think you are right. Sounds like a failing backlight bulb. Take a look here.
March 5th, 2007 at 4:27 am
Hi, i got a problem with my ibook.
I’ve looked at inverter cable and I saw that a wire was broken, I fixed it, but when I turn on the ibook the screen is totally black, and there are no backlights working.
Could this be an inverter or lcd problem?
I have to add that my pc is affected by logic board failure problem, and due to this problem I have no output on lcd and external video.
So i have many troubles to understand what’s the real problem, because I’m not so sure about the fact that the logic board failure on data lcd output could affect the backlight system too..
March 15th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
i was trying to change the screen on my laptop to make it brighter or darker and now its all blurry, how can i fix this?
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I have a gateway solo laptop that’s LCD screen is giving me problems. Currently the screen display is Gray/white with no picture showing at all. When connected to an exteral monitor all everthing appears as it should on the external monitor. I have replaced the inverter board and now the flexible LCD cable but no change. Previously with this laptop i had the screen issue with a faint black picture and thus replaced the LCD screen and that cleared things up fine. I’m running out of options and need some assistance please before i just toss this computer. Thanks for any help.
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:28 am
Hello!
First of all, I apologize for posting my request
in this thread, but I could not find the proper
way of doing it in a new thread anywhere else
(is there a page for posing new threads?).
My Toshiba Satellite L25-SP151′s screen started
to flicker all of a sudden, going from a brilliant
and perfect image to a dimmed, contrastless one,
and strangely split in two zones…
This question has been published here: The laptop screen started to flicker and split in two zones
September 4th, 2007 at 12:39 am
Hi… i have a fujitsu siemens laptop… the display screen is not displayed at all.. not even flickering… system boots.. the green lights show and also the DVD ROM boots… but there is nothing on the screen… also tried connecting to an external monitor but still there is no display… let me tell u the details… actually was trying to install windows and it installed only half way and rebooted.. then the system wouud not boot at all.. then removed the hard disk and it would enter into bios.. i put back the hard disk and it does not go to bios even… later somehow tried 3-4 times and it started booting with the hard disk also and was going into bios.. then suddenly there was no display on the screen.. and since then it is like that… i m not getting any display now… so can u tell me what the problem can be?? thanks a lot.. hope i have not taken much of ur time….
September 7th, 2007 at 8:31 am
I have a Toshiba M55 and I am trying to set an external monitor as the primary, but every time I apply the setting, it resets the laptop screen as the primary. Is there a way around this, so I can use my external monitor as the primary and my laptop screen as a secondary (extended windows)?
Thanks
March 9th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Dear Mr. Freak,
I have a Sony VAIO. The other day, as I was shutting down, the screen developed an odd hazy ‘jack frost’ kind of symptom that migrated across the whole screen. Think the train scene in Prisoner of Azkaban with the dementor, y’know? Anyway, when I powered on again a bit later, the monitor lit up white but did not show any information, no xp welcome or login screens, nada. I tried logging in by memory using keystrokes and was able to log in and power off successfully. The next morning I powered on again and this time I gently (emphasis on gently) squeezed the plastic frame around the lcd panel and lo! the screen appeared. The topmost half centimeter or so of the screen (about the width of one title bar) was not processing color properly, but the rest of the screen worked as normal. For a while , anyway. After about forty minutes or so, the screen went all milky white again and nothing would cause it to return. Any ideas?
March 10th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Max B,
I’ve seen laptops doing that because of loose connection between the video cable and the LCD screen. Reseating the video cable on the back of the LCD screen may help. Make sure the cable is seated correctly, all the way inside the connector on the screen.
Can you get external video? Connect an external monitor to the laptop and find out if external video works fine.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Thanks! Yes external video works just fine, I’m actually using my laptop and my desktop monitor to type this message. So the video card hasn’t bit the dust, right?
Any advice on how to proceed? I’ve never taken a laptop apart before…
March 30th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Hi,
I have a Sony Vaio and lately if I closed the lid and then lifted it the screen had a reddish tinge but after a few seconds it went ok until last week and when I went to boot it the screen just stayed black.
Would it be the bulbs that need replacing or the inverter, not even sure what an inverter does but reading reading other peoples messages its mentioned.
I don’t mind having a go at fixing it myself if I knew how.
Regards,
Lorraine