I have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ series laptop. The video stopped working but it didn’t fail in one day, it failed gradually. The laptop was working fine for the first 14 months. One day I turned it on and the screen had some strange characters all over. I restarted the laptop right away and after that the video worked fine for a few days. Later I got same characters on the screen again but this time I couldn’t get rid of them. Finally, today my laptop video failed completely. There is no video when I turn it on. The bad thing is the laptop is not covered by the warranty anymore. Is it expensive to fix it?

This might be a known NVIDIA graphics chip failure issue. Sony knows about this problem and you have a chance to fix your laptop at no charge. This offer from Sony is valid for 4 years since the purchase date, click here for more details.

Problem description:

Distorted video, random characters or blank screen issues due to failure of the NVIDIA graphics chip.

Affected Sony Vaio laptop models:

•    VGN-FZ11x, VGN-FZ18x, VGN-FZ21x, VGN-FZ31x, VGN-FZ38x
•    VGN-AR11x, VGN-AR21x, VGN-AR31x
•    VGN-C1Zx, VGN-C2Zx
•    VGC-LM1xx, VGC-LM2xx
•    VGC-LT1xx, VGC-LT2xx

I have my Nec Versa laptop which works perfect when turned on. However when I switch on the power, the front blue power light turns on but without anything on the screen. I have to force the blue light off by pressing down the power switch. I try the turn on/off process for quite a while until the screen finally starts. This process irritates me because sometimes i have to make so many trials or even give up. Any ideas about the causes and solutions?

First of all, I would check the memory modules. It’s possible that one of the memory modules is not making good contact with the slot or failing.

Try reconnecting both memory modules and test the laptop.

Try removing memory modules one by one and test the laptop with only one module installed. When the faulty module is removed, the laptop should start properly.

Try installing different memory module into different slots on the motherboard. It’s possible not the memory module but the slot itself going bad.

I have a broken LCD on a HP Pavilion DV6-2157 notebook. I don’t see any screws on the bezel. How do I replace the LCD on this model? Any info would be helpful.

You are correct, this model doesn’t have any screws on the screen bezel.
In order to remove and replace the LCD screen you’ll have to separate the display panel from the laptop base first. After that disassemble the display panel and remove the LCD screen.

All disassembly steps are shown in this service guide for HP Pavilion dv6 series notebooks. This is a 5.5MB pdf file and might take some time to download.  The display panel disassembly instructions are on the page 70.

My 1.5 year old laptops LCD screen after 6 month use started showing 1 horizontal white pixel line (well the line color kind of depends on what colors are above the line but usually it’s white) after 3 more months second appeared and today I spotted a third one now it’s one 3 pixel thick line at the near bottom of the screen. I found that it’s monitors fault because it always shows. However I found a trick to TEMPORALLY FIX IT: by easily pushing left top monitors corner forth and right top corner back the line disappears and appears again if I release the corners.

This description sounds like a problem with the LCD screen. Unfortunately, when the laptop screen starts showing lines like that, it cannot be fixed.

You’ll have to use the laptop as is with lines or get ready to replace the whole LCD screen.

Laptop screens used to be very expensive but these days you can find a brand new replacement screen for less than $100. Try eBay, there are some cheap LCD screens there.

My Toshiba Satellite’s LCD stopped working. I tested by attaching an external monitor to it and the display works. I couldn’t figure out if it was the back light, LCD, or inverter. I’ve shinned a flashlight on the LCD and cannot see anything. Though when I dim the lights, I see the LCD lite up. Does anyone have any ideas?

Your laptop works with an external monitor and that means the motherboard and video card work properly.

It’s possible that the video cable got disconnected from the motherboard. I’ve seen it happening before a few times in some Toshiba Satellites models.

You’ll have to remove the laptop keyboard (go to www.irisvista.com for disassembly help for Toshiba laptops) and take a look at the connection between the video cable and motherboard.

If the video cable connector is half way out, push it back into connector on the motherboard. This might help to fix your problem.

My Dell laptop has been giving me these strange horizontal and angular lines and dots on my screen with different characters on the text as well. Tried reloading fresh windows and drivers but still the same.

If reinstalling the operating system doesn’t help, it’s definitely a hardware related failure.

First of all, test your laptop with video output on the external monitor.

If both, the external monitor and laptop screen show exactly the same problem, this is the video card related failure. In most laptops the video card is integrated into the motherboard, it means the entire motherboard has to be replaced.

If strange lines appear only on the laptop screen and the external monitor works properly, the problem is somewhere inside the laptop display panel. It could be one of the following:

1. Poor connection between the video cable and motherboard or LCD screen. Try reconnecting the video cable on both ends.
2. Defective video cable. Try replacing it with a new one.
3. Failed LCD screen. In this case you’ll have to replace the screen.

I have Toshiba Satellite M305 laptop for past couple of months my laptop screen is giving me problems. Sometimes my screen would have like horizontal lines and after while screen will get blank but I can still see backlight is on. If i turn it off and turn right back on it will work fine for couple of hours and it will start flickering and go back to same thing. So I don’t know if this is inverter problem or lose connection with my LCD cables.

Most likely this problem is related to the video cable. In some Satellite M305 and Satellite M305D laptops Toshiba installed defective video cables made by CMI.

It is necessary to disassemble the laptop display panel and take a look at the video cable. If the cable part numbers starts with letters CMI, replace the cable.

I really doubt that your problem is related to the inverter failure. A bad inverter board wouldn’t cause horizontal lines on the screen. Also, you said the screen goes blank but the backlight stays on, it means the inverter works properly.

If your Satellite M305/M305D laptop is still under warranty, call Toshiba and they will fix it at no charge. I’m not sure if you have to pay for out-of-warranty laptop repair. Maybe not because it’s a known issue affecting many laptops. Try calling them even if your laptop is not under warranty anymore. Please let us know if Toshiba fix it for your at no charge.

About a couple weeks ago I started noticing a screen issue that’s different from anything described on this website. I now see several bright areas or blotches across the screen. One blotch is brighter than the others. Changing the brightness of the screen doesn’t help. The blotches are most noticeable when working an application with a white background, and barely noticeable when looking at photographs. Do these bright blotches mean my LCD screen is damaged? Should I have the LCD screen replaced? What causes these bright blotches?

This is LCD screen related problem. This cannot be fixed and the LCD screen has to be replaced.

I’ve seen a problem like that before and not sure 100% how these bright areas appear on the screen. I think it’s related to physical damage. Maybe you accidentally grabbed the LCD screen with your fingers or applied too much pressure while cleaning the screen? This is my best guess.

The laptop powers up and the screen illumination is ok, but instead of graphics I get horizontal and vertical lines on the screen, they are colorful and bright. Also if connected to external monitor I get a normal display, so I think the graphics chip is ok.. any ideas ?

If the laptop works fine with an external monitor, most likely the graphics chip is OK.

Here’s something you can try in order to fix the problem. It requires laptop disassembly so proceed on your own risk.

1. It’s possible that one of the connectors on the video cable got loose and the video cable doesn’t make good connection with the motherboard or LCD screen. Try reconnecting the video cable on both ends. Reseating the connectors might fix the problem.

2. It’s possible that the video cable is defective. Try replacing the cable.

3. Also, there is a chance this is the LCD screen failure. In this case you’ll have to replace the screen.

Recently I have been having problems with the LCD screen. When I turn on my laptop the bottom 1/3 of the screen will either freeze the image, turn black, or become fuzzy and look like a crazy barcode. The mouse pointer disappears when moved into this zone. The top 2/3 of the screen always works fine. If I jiggle and bend the monitor the bottom 1/3 can be fixed, but the problem seems to be getting worse everyday. It’s a Dell Inspiron 6000.

Most likely this is the laptop LCD screen failure.

Just in case, you can try reconnecting the video cable on the motherboard or video card. Maybe it’s not making good contact with the connector. Make sure the video cable plugged correctly, all the way into the connector.

If reconnecting the cable doesn’t help and the bottom part of the screen still fails, you have a bad LCD screen. Replace the screen.