Is this a dead screen or video cable?

Basically the machine works fine when plugged into an external monitor, but when it is being used as a laptop the screen display is garbled like in the picture.

The screen is fine when held at a certain angle but obviously this isn't practical. I just need to know whether a new cable would fix it, or whether it's a lost cause.

Somtimes the screen appears like this, other times it is as though half of the screen is working and the other half sticks.

I've unplugged and replugged the video cable at the laptop end, and at the screen end. Waggling the cable about makes no difference, so i'm leaning towards thinking it's the LCD itself that has a problem.

The machine has not been dropped or had anything spilled on it :s

Cheers

Joe

 

Welcome to nbr.
Since you have half of teh screen dismantled already, flip the panel over and you will see a very thin and wide cable which plugs into the back of the screen. You want to remove this cable. Than use a q-tip with a very small bit of rubbing alcohol, to clean the connector and the cable. Than reconnect. Once the ribbon cable is connected all of the way, use a piece of tape to hold the cable in place so that it does not come out again.
I dont think anything is wrong with the screen, I can almost guarantee its a loose cable.
Just reconnect the connections on the back of the screen and the one inside your laptop, and it should work good again

Good luck,
Just make sure to do this when the machine is off

K-TRON

 

I've tried reconnecting that one with no success but i'll grab some meths while i'm in town and try and clean it out, and report back

Cheers mate

Joe

 

Gregory, the moderator (green name) had similar lcd problems, and I recommended him the same advice, to clean and reconnect the cable, and it worked well for him.

Good luck, try and get at least 90% rubbing alcohol. It is much better than the 70% stuff.

K-TRON

 

please post back as I'm currious to see if cleanning the connector that plugs to the back will fix your problem

If cleaning and resetting the cable doesn't fix your problem, that means that you need a replacement LCD

 

I got some meths and cleaned it, then tried to reattach the screen cable as a tester before reassembly.

Unfortunately, it made no difference, not entirely sure why as it did seem a logical solution.

I then accidentally electrocuted myself while refitting the inverter board cable - thankfuly was only on battery and not mains, and it now works better than before, although still not perfect. I'm possibly going to get a new ribbon cable and see if that makes a difference.

The screen has always been fairly stiff, but it does seem that when it's resting at the midway point, the problem comes back. A quick movement back and forth until it rests happily again seems to fix it.

I reckon it may be a heat issue that has affected the video cable, just felt the bottom of the laptop and there's a lot of heat for the exhaust fan in the same area. (it's not my machine so not too familiar with it).



cheers

 

Thanks for posting back.

If your laptop is abit old than the display cable could have been damaged to the repetitive opening and closing of the lid. The only area that gets hot is the inverted. The LCD doesn't heat up.

Let's know if changing the screen solve your display problem.


N.B. Where you cleaning the cable while the laptop was ON?

 

Wasn't cleaning while it was on, but i was reconnecting stuff while it was still in pieces in order to test- wasn't prepared to reassemble the whole thing only to find it hadn't made a difference. Must have just left the battery in when i plugged the inverter back in, never mind did the trick lol

Am typing on it now so it seems to have made some difference, i may replace the cable at some point but i'm inclined to think from experience and the other comments on the thread, that the LCD itself is probably ok.

Might have just been the wait for the meths to completely evaporate?

 

I always thought that screen that looks like yours are faulty.

I guess I learned something new

 

I am glad it is working a bit better, would you care to upload an image of the screen now?

Also, you may want to check the ribbon cable which connects the graphics card to the screen. That may be a little loose, causing the unsteady stream of pixels.
Or what may be happening is some kind of electrical interference. I am not sure whta could be causing it, but some electronics nearby may not be grounded properly, causing your screen to show errors.

K-TRON

 

Well in all honesty mate it just looks like normal now, pretty much all fixed. One line accross the middle once in a while but nothing as severe as before.

It may have been the length of time it took to dry out, or shorting something provided an unlikely fix but cheers for the cleaning tip.

 

Just for future reference, this was a faulty LCD. Swapped it out for one from an Acer Aspire 1640, and the compaq is now fine, whereas the Acer has the same tempremental problem as the Compaq did

Also had to fit a new inverter