S13 Display Distortion

My S13 (about 5 months old) recently started having massive distortions its display. External monitors work fine and do not display the same issue,
so I assume it is the display itself and the the video card. I generally have the laptop closed and plugged in to an external monitor, so only noticed
this problem recently - it may have started before now. At first it was mild on the right hand side, and disappeared after the monitor had been on for a bit,
but now it has gotten significantly worse and does not seem to be going away (this change has taken place in the last 2 days, since first discovering the
distortions).

Attached are pictures of what the screen looks like - if anyone has seen something similar or knows what might be causing it, please let me know!
Hopefully I don't have to send it in to Sony, as I have user-replaced the hdd with an ssd (I believe this voids the warranty?).




Sorry about the bad quality - I can try get some better ones later.

 

appears to either be a bad LVDS cable (goes from motherboard to display) or a bad display as you stated. Not sure how you would narrow it down between the two without buying something you may not need.. . I'd probably send it in to sony if possible unfortunately, Do you still own the original HDD? you can always place it back in there; my understanding is that at least in the states, replacing the HDD does not void the warranty, however when you send it in, you are supposed to send it in with the original HDD so that they can eliminate any issues the use replaced parts may be causing.

On the bright side, if it is a bad display, now would be a good time to replace the display with one of those sexy IPS displays!

 

Thanks for the reply!
Yeah - I have heard that this is the case with the warranty, and it should be the same here in Japan. I do still have the old hdd which I can put back in. Unfortunately this is my main machine and has all my university
work/research - going without it for a few weeks while Sony repairs it will be a huge pain Which is why I would prefer to fix it myself if possible - although perhaps sending it in to Sony would be best, as a
malfunction this early does not bode well and it would be better to have everything properly fixed before it goes out of warranty... thoughts?

I did find this while browsing the forums: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gateway-emachines/334705-p-7811fx-screen-distortion-fix.html

which seems to be the same problem - if it is just a loose (LVDS?) cable it should be easy to fix, although I don't really know where to find it in this machine...
An IPS display would be nice, although I don't really have the money and use an external 80% of the time anyway ^^;

 

Sony may offer some kind of in house repair service. When I had an HP, they offered to send someone in house to do a repair for me because I was a student and could not give up my computer for weeks similar to you. It cost around 80 bucks if i recall.

 

Thanks, I'll look into it

Just an update: I noticed when then screen dimmed during loging (from login screen to desktop) the distortion would momentarily disappear.
I then went into the Intel graphics settings and played around with brightness and contrast, and toning these down a fair bit made the distortion completely disappear,
putting them up made it get much worse. Very strange, don't really see how a cable could be causing such symptoms - though anything is possible I guess.

 

That is strange. I would try reseating the cable but i agree, its starting to sound like another issue. May be a bad screen, where drawing too much current via cutting up the brightness is messing it up, but im reaching. A blown capacitor or something on the display board.

If reseating the cable does not help, the next step would probably be to purchase a new display or to send it in for repair. The display is very simple to switch out, theres just two screws under the rubber pads, and then about 10 points to pop loose; look at the display mod forum for instructions. From my experience, one tip that if i recall counteracts what is said in those steps, is to remove the display and bezel as one piece and then remove the bezel from the display. The display is crazy easy to break, and so the extra space to work them apart makes a big difference with the delicate work. if you can, heat up the glue or tape or whatever a bit to make it easier to come apart, otherwise slip a razor or thin knife from the bottom in between the bezel and bottom of the display and work it loose. Any presser on the screen will break it though.