Strange CF-28 Monitor Issue

I hope someone has a fix for this. If not I'm screwed with this monitor.

I have one monitor that has a slight line through it on the lefthand side about 1.5 inches in. Is more than just a line though... It's like everything left of the line is slightly lighter than the rest of the screen. I used Pixel Buddy (Free download) to check for bad pixel.... None are bad. The ONLY color the line and lightness shows up is in medium grays and light blues. (Like the boot screen) after that... It disappears! It's not a driver issue... I unistalled/reinstalled. I used the hard drive in another laptop and it's fine there. The thing that has me stumped is the fact that Pixel Buddy shows ALL pixels strong.... Until I get to the grays/blues.

Oh... I tried reseating the monitor connections.

Anyone have an idea?

 

Possibly... I have 4 horizontal lines through my lcd on my Eurocom laptop. When I had it apart I powered it up and gently pressed / manipulated the foil/attachment point to the side of the line and presto....Lines went away.

I tried re-taping the foil/wires down, but my fix hasn't lasted more than a month. I have been meaning to fix it again, but I don't think I will have time now that I have my CF-28!!!

It may not be the actual connector but where the "rubber" / foil / transfer point to the lcd is! It may have come slightly out of alignment! I can take pictures of mine before / after I rip it apart again!

Gratefuldeadbolt!

 

I'm hoping that it is something that easy. I still have to take it all the way apart to check everything out.

 

gratefull.... is correct it is loose on the lcd part it must keep press, I don't know if some kind of adhesive can fix that but I recomment to put a rubber between the lcd and lid to keep it press and make contact to a place where its loose.

 

The connector on the CF-28 (on the monitor itself) plugs into a jack and is taped down. I'll check it tomorrow. It is a very fine connector and the foil tends to peel off when pulled out.

 

Not on that area, as you can see on the side of the lcd(Top portion) there are lot of cicuitry on some kind of a plastic like a board that are connected to the first plate/layer of lcd.The portion where the lines and the plate meet or connected must be secured.

 

id say check the cable, but you did all the troubleshooting i would do... time to look on ebay for a donor laptop lol or call heartland and pay big money

 

This is what the screen looks like... But like I said, only on grays and blues... Nothing else. This is a screen copy of the gray background in Pixel Buddy. The cursor at lower left was a mistake. I actually copied the picture over to Word and copied it from there.

I took off the cover and removed the connector where it plugs into the actual LCD. Everything looked fine. At this point I am ready to throw it in the boneyard and pull another one to make this work. I need to get this fixed now!

 

An LCD is basically 3 parts, right? A front liquid crystal membrane with the red-green-blue pixels, a rear backlight, and a middle LC membrane of pixels that is transparent at one voltage and opaque at another (different polarization). It looks as though the pixels behind the blue areas for that 1.5 in. area are not polarized corrrectly, blocking the light from coming through. No blue light coming through means the colors for blues and greys are off, but reds and greens look okay. A connector problem along the top edge perhaps?
Does the problem persist if you cycle through purples and yellows - changing the blue component?

 

Your the man!

 

Light grays and light blues is it. Any sold color and the screen is fine. This is really starting to tick me off. I've checked the connections... All of them. I'll do it one more time but I doubt it will help. I've never seen anything like it. Purples and yellows are okay. Medium grays are good too... As it gets lighter it starts to become apparent until it starts getting too light and then it fades out again! (White is not affected either.)

I hate to scrap the screen as it is really bright and should last a long time. I would think.

 

Does the error show up on an external display, or only on the LCD? Rule out video chip or memory issues?

 

Great idea... Let me check!

Edit... Hmmmm.... I just tried it on an old Dell 19" color monitor. I hooked it up and went into the BIOS. It was set to "Simultaneous"... I exited the BIOS... As soon as it got to the Win XP boot screen it just kicked over to the LCD... And it looks the same. I rebooted, went back into the BIOS and set it for "External" and it did the same thing! It kicked off the Dell CRT and reverted to the LCD... Even though the BIOS had it set to External!

Do you think it would make a difference if I tried it on my LCD upstairs? Heck... I'll try it... What do I have to lose?

 

It kicks off the LCD monitor too. Sounds like a video card problem, yes?

I'll swap LCDs out with another laptop to see what happens. I can't believe that that even the external monitor wouldn't work.

 

I'd say it sounds like a video card issue. Swapping the whole LCD over would clear up that question quick though...

I wonder how difficult it'd be to solder in a new chip

 

I would have said cables to, seems to be the video chip though. I'm guessing you have already given the mobo a blast from a compressor? Are there any ghost images on the screen?
cheers

 

It is the screen... I just swapped it over to another CF-28 and the same thing comes up. No ghost images. The thing that slays me is that there aren't any bad pixels. I'm thinking a bad wire or connection somewhere. Either that or a bad resistor or transistor on the pc board that is embedded in the back of the LCD. Who knows... I'll save it to put on a junker laptop I'll sell at a reduced price. The touchscreen itself is in flawless condition. I'll swap in another LCD to go with the good looking touchscreen.

 

ToughBook

I’m just pulling this out of my kester but why don’t you try to pull the back light out and check the light it’s self and the reflector to see if any strange is going on there.

 

I have tried to replace backlights on two monitors. They are actually cheap considering that they can possibly give new life to an otherwise spent screen. Anyway... I tried on both and failed. I'm not sure why they don't work. I'll need to play around with it when I have more time. The backlights go for only $9.99 online. They are as thin as the thin type spaghetti. (Only 1mm wide!) and are VERY fragile. I have ordered some super thin heatshrink tubing which I need to use when sealing the ends... Instead of using black tape.

 

Just for the fun of it, try swapping out both of the boards on the back of the LCD, as well as the cables.

I'm not sure if the 12" parts would do you any good, but if you need a new board I've got the ones from my cracked 12".

 

The strange thing is... One of the monitors worked. It was just dim. The backlight I pulled out had black ends going into the backlight by about 1/2 an inch. It was definitely shot. The pc boards huh? If I need to go to all that trouble I just as soon buy a new monitor. Because I'll then end up with a bunch of parts that I won't be sure of they even work or not.

I think I may have grounded something. Though I would think if I did I would see smoke... Which I haven't. I need to take everything back apart and see if everything is in there correctly.