Laptop screen flickers- infrequent and for a split second

I am using Toshiba Satellite M 70 notebook, purchased about more than one year back and really like it( Pentium M70, 512MB Ram, 40 GB HD). So far it has been without major issues.

The only problem now I face is that some times the screen flickers for a second or a fraction of second. It happens randomly, once or twice in a day and the flicker is more prmonant in lower part of screen . Seems a minor issue but it irritates me as I think it,s too early for a laptop to show such an issue and it might progress with time. What u think of it? Is it an issue with the graphics chip( it has Mobile Intel 915 GM), Motherboard or any other hardware? Does not seem to be a software issue to me.

BTW I have seen such flicker in two of the Acer latops with my friends but in their case it was more frequent and very prominant, especially on one of those Acers, all the screen will flicker and shake for a second/ or a fraction of a second, a very very unpleasant feeling.

My problem is that I can,t even show it to a tech as I don,t know how I can reproduce this flicker to show him, it happens randomly and infrequently.

Any ideas about this? Thanks

 

Yes, it's your LCD Inverter causing this problem. They range in price from $20-$50 and can be easily replaced on most notebooks.

 

There have been several posts about this recently (mine included) that went basically unsolved. No one mentioned the inverter as the culprit, so many thanks to you Airman!

 

Thanks Airman, are u sure about this? I will be quite happy to pay $50 to get rid of it.
BTW does it indicate poor build quality by toshiba?

 

Hi R4000! can u give some links to these threads as well?
Thanks

 

Sorry, I have been outside more than I have been in, now that it is finally summer which means less time on NBR.

If you have tried updating to the latest drivers and whatnot then yes the inverter is the culprit. This however does not always indicate a poor build quality, it's a pretty common problem with every brand using CCFL backlighting. The new LED backlighting should hopefully eliminate this problem.

 

I have owned three Toshibas and of all of them the newest feels the most flimsey, however it is a budget machine. That said I have come across other budget machines that feel a lot more solid. I may well not buy another Toshiba.

My honest opinion is Toshiba build is not what it once was.

 

Yeh, it shouldn't really give up after a year. If you do pay the $50, get them to do it for you as it should still be covered on the warantee if you haven't opened it up!

If not can't you just cope with the flickering for the time being.

Cool! Something else I know about now - thanks airman dude!

 

No problems!
I have not tried to update drivers. Should I try it first, u mean?

Also somebody has suggested me to attach an external monitor and see if I get same flicker on that one or not( to pinpont the problem). What u think about this idea?

 

Yes, updating the drivers would be the first step, to make sure your drivers aren't old and or corrupted. Attatching an external monitor can also be done to ensure that it is indeed the LCD backlight inverter, but chances are that the monitor will not flicker which ofcourse would indicate a problem with your backlight. If the external monitor indeed does flicker then it would indicate a problem still with your drivers or the worse possible scenario which would be a faulty GPU.

 

Thanks. I will try this.