Serious M1530 Issues

My sister's M1530 started acting up two months ago, the screen would flicker, shut off, or completely not turn on anymore. I figured out it was most likely the nVidia graphics card that had gone bad, since the computer would boot and load Windows, but the screen would never turn on.

Long story short, I replaced the motherboard, and the issues are continuing, yet they've become stranger. The screen turns on now, but whenever I do something specific in Windows or move the computer abruptly, the screen freezes, and there's nothing I can do except reboot it manually. Here are some examples:

1. Open up Firefox, and type "S" in the address bar and it freezes. At first I thought this was a fluke, but it's happened over and over again, and it only seems to work with the letter s...

2. Move the computer abruptly or remove/insert power cable, and the screen freezes.

3. It also randomly froze 3-5 times when I was copy-pasting folders from the HDD to an external drive.

There's probably nothing wrong with the OS, because I've swapped the HDDs with another computer.

What could be the problem? Is it another bad motherboard? Is there another component that might be causing such an issue?

 

When you say "the screen freezes" does it mean the whole computer is freezing or is it just a screen related problem?
To check this out, if you hit the caps lock button constantly when it freezes can you see the caps LED turning on and off?

 

Yea, just the screen froze, it didn't seem to be an OS issue. The problem I'm having now is that the screen refuses to turn on at all.

 

Could be 4 different components:

1) The inverter board: It's a small discrete board within the LCD panel.The inverter board works as a power supply for the backlight lamp mounted inside the LCD screen. The inverter board converts low voltage DC power (few volts) supplied by the motherboard to high voltage AC power (few hundred volts) needed for the backlight lamp.

2) The screen itself. Your screen could be messing aroud, but as you say that it works from time to time I doubt it is the screen.

3) The screen plugs: maybe the screen plugs are not connected properly, this includes the motherboard connector and the LCD connector, if you are out of warranty you can check them out by yourself.

4) The GPU. To check out if the GPU is the origin of the issue, try to connect an external LCD screen or a TV to the laptop. If the issues are also ocurring in the external screen it means the GPU is actually the problem OR the laptop screen itself. If not, it is probably an inverter or connector problem.

If your screen turns off, use a desk lamp or a big light and aim it directly to the screen, and check out if you can see windows or the program you were running before it turned off. If you can, it an inverter board problem. What I would try is to turn down the screen brightness level to the minimum level in order to reduce the power going thru it. Anyway it would need a replacement.

Try also to connect an external screen to the laptop and check out if the issues still happens.

Good luck!

 

Well it's not a GPU issue. I took off the keyboard and looked at the connections between the screen and the motherboard, made sure they were connected properly, and with the keyboard removed, the computer stayed on for 3-4 hours, while I transferred files to an external HDD, installed Windows 7, and all the extra files. I thought the computer was fixed, but when I reattached everything else, I get the same problems.

With the keyboard removed again, whenever I apply pressure to the area near the screen connection in the middle of the motherboard, the screen and computer automatically turn off. The connection to the left, whenever I touch that, the screen seems to freeze.

I don't know if the metal is touching something and shorting the video connection or w/e, but this is getting frustrating.

 

Then it might be the cable connector itself. I think the motherboard connector is somewhere under the "S" key, so there u got your issue. You say your motherboard was replaced, so there are high possibilities that the connector is causing this.

Try to inspect the connector to see if there is something that could be wrong... Did you try an external screen (with the laptop screen turned off)?

 

I haven't done that yet, because I figured the problem was gone. Is there any possibility that the cable is shorting due to direct contact with the motherboard? The original motherboard had a layer of black sticky tape attached to it, maybe an insulator or some sort? This newer motherboard never came with such tape.

 

Do you get the same symptoms on those 2 motherboards?
You gotta find somehow the source of the problem: motherboard connector or cable connector...

Anyway, if the cable connector is causing the issue, it is cheap and easily replacable. If the motherboard connector is causing shorting, use your warranty to replace it (as you just bought it).

 

Does anyone know if the black sticky plastic attached to the motherboard is available for purchase?
Here's what I'm talking about:

 

I'm 90% sure it comes with the motherboard and not as a spare part. You can look for it in ebay anyway.

What happened with your issue btw?

 

Computer works fine without the keyboard fully attached to the computer, and the screen doesn't turn on with it attached.

 

hey, my laptop screen stopped working. Actually one day i was working on it and suddenly the display went off.

but the laptop is working fine.i attached the monitor too. it was working fine

then i closed my laptop flap and opened it suddenly it show's display on laptop screen. Then the display went off again.

pls tell me whats wrong with my laptop m1530