Wierd screen problem - any advice appreciated

Toshiba P100-188

I have a strange problem which has just appeared in the last couple of days.

I am getting some cyan coloured vertical lines which appear in areas that are in a tonal range of mid-grey (so it appears).

Since I;ve never encountered this phenomena and can't find anything on the net about it I am hoping someone can tell me what might be causeing it.

Some information first:

1) The lines only appear on grey areas which are roughly mid-grey. eg. If I were to adjust gamma whilst lookng at a grey area the lines would move accordingly as the mid grey moves around.
2) I have connected to an external lcd screen and the problem isn't present.
Although this would appear to eliminate the graphic card , I am still unsure as the external circuit might be different to the internal one.

3) The lines are always vertical with gaps in between them and always a cyan colour (see photos)
4) Turning the laptop on / off does not cure the problem. It appears to be here to stay.


- see on the apple laptop the 's' shape

- a closeup of the above showing the defined vertical lines with gaps in between

- another example

- a closeup of above.

- just to illustrate a point, I've twiddled the gamma to make a whole area hit this mid grey and virtually cover the whole screen. Note that a slight change in the shade as in the outer areas of the page clear the problem completely!

There seems to be a sudden inability to cope with a particular grey on any part of the screen. For the most part under normal conditions it doesn't show too much but can be annoying when a grey bar hits the 'sweet spot' eg in the last example or when watching a video when the grey affected areas will be changing around contrast bands.

Can anyone tell shed any light on what this problem might be? I could get a new screen but if it's something else that could be a total waste of money. I'd also be interested in the technical reason for this as it's not something that I'd expect to happen when either graphics or screen go wrong.

 

Found this site: Laptop Repair Help » Laptop screen shows strange colors. What could be wrong?

Could be of some help. Has info on how to pinpoint the problem.

This also has some good info: Solved - Replaced inverter but.... | PC Help Forum
See post #8


Good luck

 

Thanks for those links I'll go through them in a bit. After having the laptop turned off over night I am now seeing a much larger band of tonal range affected so it's getting worse so I think the lcd is definitely the problem. I don't see anything that affects the level of this once it's like this but if I can get to the cables that might be revealing.



thanks for the heads up.

 

Success!! Thanks again for that link. I took the bezel off and one push on the cable solved the problem. Very pleased that I don't have to buy a new screen.

 

Glad to hear it worked