the LCD saga continues - want to cry now

Hi

Brief summary of the past:

1. Screen started displaying horizontal lines.But still worked after touching here and there. I therefor assumed that the screen is fine, and the cable is the problem.

2. Bought a new cable.

3. This didn't fix it.
so I assumed it was the top part of the screen, where the cable connects to the lcd.
So i bough a new screen.

4. this didn't fix it as well.
so now i have a new screen, and still ALL I SEE IS WHITE LIGHT coming out of it.

what now?

should I now assume it's this little part that the cable ALSO connects to?
i am talking about the part that sits under the screen, and there are 2 cables connected to it from each side: one from the lcd panel itself, and one from the video card (as the video cable has this intersection, where 1 becomes 2).







i am so sad
please help

thank you

 

NVidia defect maybe? Try toasting the systemboard to reflow the BGA balls that attach the 7300M.

 

Sorry my dear friend, this is Chinese to me. Despite being able to change the screen, i am very retarded when it comes to this.

Please explain

(by the way, i must mention that i don't think a graphics because..... well... i don't know actually.... maybe...)

 

The only screen part left would be the inverter. If that doesn't fix it, then it's got to be the board, either the GPU as Nando mentioned or something else.

 

how much is an inverter?
(going broke here)

and by the way - can i use a different laptop's inverter (i have this old Dell im not using)?

 

I'm guessing less than $10 on eBay.

 

Have you investigated this possibility? With your original equipment?

Lenovo Support & downloads - Visual corruption - ThinkPad R400, R500, T400, T400s, T500, W500, X200, X200s, X200 Tablet, X301

 

That seems unlikely since those are much newer machines, but try the latest driver if you like.

 

what if it's not the invertor?

 

@mike5065 that problem is only limited to Intel 4500 MHD gpu with win 7 OS. OP's system is bit older than that.

@o1d1e1d1, what happens if you connect the laptop to an external LCD? does the same visual corruption occurs? There is a good chance that the 7300m is responsible for the problem, in which case you would need a new laptop, as there is a chance that reflowing doesn't work so well.

 

When I connect the laptop to an external display, I DON'T GET A PICTURE at all. Black screen, can't see a thing.

BUT WAIT - i don't think it's the graphics card. And I will tell you why: at one point, where I still was able to see what's going on, I hooked up the laptop to an external monitor, and it worked fine.
So what changed? Call me stupid - cause i am - but while i was inside win7, i deleted the Linux partition. I did this so my computer won't use GRUB (that boot option menu) and will go straight to win7 (so i can continue using the external monitor).
Well... guess what - when I rebooted the machine, I didn't get win7 and i didn't get linux. NOTHING. THis is - im assuming here - because i massed up the GRUB boot menu, so now the machine is actually asking me something, but I DON"T KNOW WHAT. Maybe it's asking me which OS to boot, or maybe something else, but i can't see anything, and hooking it up to an external monitor does not help.

what do you think?

U know what - i have asked for the sequence of the BIOS so i can change the bios setting and make the default monitor the external one. But i couldn't figure it out, and one thread that did help, didn't bring any results (maybe im doing it wrong).

Now that i think of it - maybe the sequence of the Lenovo Care button will help? they do have a system restore option somewhere, and if WINDOWS will boot, than the graphics will KNOW to send the signal to the external monitor as well.

No ?

 

I think it's most likely the board/GPU, but it's hard to diagnose over the internet. The inverter is probably cheaper than a new board.

 

What do U recommend? Should I buy a new inverter and give it a try?

as to what lead_org said: I can tell you - I will NEVER buy a Lenovo again !

 

I don't recommend anything. I'm just telling you what I know. You may do with the information as you please. It's kind of hard to fault Lenovo on a four year old laptop that ran fine up until now. Stuff gets old, it's the nature of things.

 

Sounds like the motherboard. N100 motherboard's don't seem to be very expensive though.

n100 motherboard items - Get great deals on Computers Networking, Specialty Services items on eBay.com!

What happens when you put the old lcd back in? Do you get horizontal lines or white light? What's bizarre to me is that you're not getting consistent symptoms unless the issue is worsening with time.

 

"what if it's not the invertor?"

This is why I recommend to people that they purchase warranty.

Renee

 

that is bit old for extra warranty.

 

Hi
I have some news.
So here is what I thought of: I downloaded a LIVE CD of Linux Puppy (knowing it can fully run from the CD and boot from it).
I than managed to get the external monitor working (once puppy ran), BUT, here is what I get:
please see video:

YouTube - Lnovo N100 dispaly issue - continued even after new LCD installation


Please analyze - does this shade new light on the issue?

THANKS

 

Are you using the same cable & port for the external monitor tests?

If you are using VGA, the external monitor display quality can be dependent on the quality of the cable. As well, analog connections have other issues, such as vert / hor alignment, etc.

I have had bad problems with cheap VGA and DVI cables in the past (sparkles, pixel shifting, etc). One of the first things I trouble shoot / rule out.

 

this could be a faulty vga port, a low quality vga cable, or your GPU that is going out.

N100 is pretty low quality and it has a price to match.

 

U know whats funny - that I paid 1,500 bucks for it when it was new. I bought it in Europe though.

I give up.

Now the question is - what can be done with a good computer that has a bad GPU (assuming). Can I do something with it? ANYTHING?
The funny thing is that it's the strongest CPU I own (i have another really old Dell laptop and a 10 year old Vaio laptop).

 

You can buy a new (or used) motherboard and replace yours. Or buy a new laptop and sell your N100 for parts. Or you can do this trick where you put only your motherboard in an oven and try to heat it up, supposedly that's fixed some people's defective GPUs. Of course I haven't tried it and don't ever intend to.

 

What oven? The cooking oven? The one where I put my chicken and rice?
No - seriously.
How is cooking the motherboard help the GPU?

 

i am not sure whether the usb usb2vga device might work in this instance. I think the n100 and its associated series of laptop was made by ASUS if i remember correctly (could be wrong on that).

Anyway, after getting stung by cheap consumer grade notebooks (price is not cheap, just the quality), i became a Thinkpadder (i only buy classic thinkpads, so X, T, W, R series, no X100e) and i have never been happier. If there is any problem i could just get warranty to service it or do it myself following the myriads of Hardware Manual. I can also get most of the parts for fairly good price too.

While, the intial price maybe high, it does pay dividends after a few years.
-------------------------

There are myriads of motherboard or GPU reflow instructional video on Youtube, so you can watch this. Oven method is a cheap method, there is also the heat gun method which is more effective (provided that the GPU solder joint is the culprit of this problem).

 

Yeah the cooking oven. It can be used to reseat the soldier joints, but my guess is that it won't help because you apparently have a 7300 so it probably is unrelated to the G84/G86 fiasco. Has your GPU ever run especially hot?

If I were you I'd get a new or used laptop or a new motherboard. There's some nice netbooks out there for a not too high price.

 

Really good advice, I would add most business line laptops (Thinkpads, Elitebooks, Precisions & Latitudes, etc) and Macbooks have decent warranties.

 

After having several Macbook Pro, i find that Apple takes the form over function approach to their thermal system design to be quite annoying.

 

MAJOR UPDATE!

Ok - i don't know what's going on, but i have decided to take apart my laptop (at least i'll learn something i thought to myself), and I took apart all the screws, but the case won't leave the frame (maybe it shouldn't be open).

For some reason i have decided to put in the Live CD of Lubuntu. IT WORKS!! I am now writing to you from the external monitor display, and the picture is FINE.

what gives? What does this means than?

I want to try and install win7 and get back to normal, but at the same time I am worried that if i'll restart it again - all will go wrong.
Could I have accidentally fixed the computer?
Could it be that Lubuntu right now is not using the NVIDIA GPU, and maybe this fixes the issue?

I am attaching a file here - of the system information. I did this just now, and you can see all the info about my laptop - maybe you will know what to make of it.

 

have you tried the internal LCD and see whether it works now?

 

mmm...... no!
I should do this.
Keep you posted very soon - in an hour.

(what if it works? Does this means I can rely on my laptop once more?
The thing is - I have 2 weeks to get a refund on the new LCD panel i bought
so i need to make a decision. It cost me $100. )

ok - update soon

 

if the internal LCD works, then it may mean that one of the screw that is holding the laptop together were causing a short circuit somewhere, i have one seen one case of this in Acer laptop.

 

News:

Now I re-plugged the NEW internal monitor and the external one at the same time:

here are the results:

The internal LCD - still no picture, only white light.
The external display - works!

See pics and video please:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hptMujmlGoI

PICS:

 

well in which case you would have to use the laptop as a desktop replacement version with only the external LCD.