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Aug 8th, 2003
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Horizontal lines across display

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I have a Toshiba Satelite laptop and a few days ago a single grey line appeared across the lower portion of my screen. Yesterday, another grey line appeared across the upper portion of my screen. Does anyone know what this is?
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Bubala is offline Offline
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Aug 10th, 2003
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Maybe problem..

ok....

You might have a bad power inverter board. This is the board that powers back light to the lcd.

Or....

This is what it sounds like.. Check your RAM. You might need to reseat it or it could be bad. If you have two sticks of ram in your machine you might want to try booting your machine with just one of the sticks and then swap it with the other if the problem persists. Remember that you can only touch the RAM when the machine is off... Otherwise you could damage you machine by shorting it.

Hope this helps!

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Aug 12th, 2003
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Re: Horizontal lines across display

Quote originally posted by Bubala ...
I have a Toshiba Satelite laptop and a few days ago a single grey line appeared across the lower portion of my screen. Yesterday, another grey line appeared across the upper portion of my screen. Does anyone know what this is?
It is probably a bad display. The LCD is addressed by rows and columns and it sounds like the drive contacts to the display itself have become dirty, or the display-drive electronics are going out. Is the display active or passive? The answer will provide more clues. You can probably find out on Google if you don't already know from the product literature.
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Apr 20th, 2004
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Re: Horizontal lines across display

I'm having a similar problem as well with our monitor
we have windows 2000 and recently a horizontal line
which keeps changing colour (usually it's red/pink/blue/yellow)
started to appear on the right side of the screen
it sometimes disappears but it always comes up again

could this possibly be a trouble with the RAM as you've mentioned?
Rin
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Apr 20th, 2004
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Re: Horizontal lines across display

Quote originally posted by Rin ...
I'm having a similar problem as well with our monitor
we have windows 2000 and recently a horizontal line
which keeps changing colour (usually it's red/pink/blue/yellow)
started to appear on the right side of the screen
it sometimes disappears but it always comes up again. Could this possibly be a trouble with the RAM as you've mentioned?
I assume you are talking about an LC display. If so, the problem is never RAM. Instead, it is usually a bad contact between the driver circuitry and the display panel itself. This happens because the contacts are secured by pressure, not gripping or soldering as is true with most other electronics; this is a major failure point for LCDs--and one of my biggest gripes about them.

Here's what I have suggested in the past, and it reportedly has helped in more than one case: monitor repairman that I am (or once was), it sounds like bad contacts between the driver electronics and the display itself. One relatively easy test for this problem is as follows:

With the unit on, gently grasp the left and right edges of the display. Gently twist the display (no more than a few ounces of pressure) as though you are wringing out a towel. See if the display flashes, changes, etc. This may even fix the problem by "wiping" the contacts of dirt or oxidation.
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Re: Horizontal lines across display

Quote originally posted by Rin ...
I'm having a similar problem as well with our monitor
we have windows 2000 and recently a horizontal line
which keeps changing colour (usually it's red/pink/blue/yellow)
started to appear on the right side of the screen
it sometimes disappears but it always comes up again

could this possibly be a trouble with the RAM as you've mentioned?
The first thing to do would be to narrow down the location of the problem by (assuming this isn't a laptop):

1. Trying a different (known to be working) monitor on the machine. If that monitor exhibits problems, you can start looking inside the computer for the cause.

2. Put the monitor with the display problem on another computer. Obviously, if the monitor still has the problem, it's the monitor that needs repair.

3. Make sure you don't have anything which throws a magnetic field sitting to close to the monitor (speakers, for example).
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May 4th, 2004
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Re: Horizontal lines across display

[QUOTE=TallCool1]I assume you are talking about an LC display.

I have the same problem with my Toshiba Laptop. It is an active LC display. The problem is not software related, as the gray line appears immediately anytime the display is on. It does not appear when using the laptop's external video output. The twisting and shaking method did not work; I also dismantled the screen frame looking for any sign of bad contacts, but found nothing. Could it be on the video board output cable? Were anyone lucky on solving the problem?

Tks!
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May 5th, 2004
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Re: Horizontal lines across display

If any of you are getting lines on your LCD display (like a horizontal or a vertical), it's usually a bad LCD display (the panel itself has a very "partial", or "localized" failure). Someone here mentioned twisting the display - which you can do on laptops - that might make the problem go away temporarily, but in my experience, it (the problem with the lines) will be here to stay. You can either replace the screen panel, or you can remove the screen panel and have it shipped to repair facilities that specialize in LCD repairs - both of which could entail considerable cost, effort, AND expertise.

A lot of folks will toss out the word "inverter" when there's an LCD problem, so let's get it straight once and for all: the inverter is just a power board that converts your laptop's DC power into high-voltage AC current, and this AC current is used to power the backlight tube (or tubes) of your LCD screen - to "light the screen up", if you will. The inverter is also responsible for the brightness adjustments in your LCD display. Hence... if your screen lights up and you can adjust the brightness on your screen, then the inverter is doing its job and you can rule it out completely.

Speaking of brightness in LCDs, some LCDs will give you a perfect image that's got a "pink" tint to it - that'll be, in the vast majority of the instances, due to a burnt-out backlight tube. It's just like a florescent tube that's on its last legs. You can either replace the LCD, or have the LCD delivered to a LCD repair facility that'll replace the dimming tube for you.

Now, if your computer's LCD is completely black (doesn't light up) but you can still hear the rest of it working, then it can be an inverter that's failed or, in the event that your computer has been impacted, it can also be a shattered backlight tube inside your LCD. Anyway, my point it: if the screen lights up, it ain't the inverter.
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May 9th, 2004
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vertical lines across display

I have compaq Evo N160.Laptop is just 1 year old & still in excellent condition.I got the vertical lines problem.My screen is full of colour lining from top to bottom as I start the laptop & it remains permanent.This lines changes colour at some stage when screen pic changes or when I run scan disk on HDD.Though the laptop works fine with external Vga monitor.
I would like to tell from when does this problem occurs......some days ago some ant(small insect) has entered my laptop through DSL cable(lan card).& very next day I got this problem
I have shown to 2 laptop tech person.One of the tech person diagonsis that inverter board is gone(which I knew now he was wrong).Second tech person says that either display ic or display cable is gone.Someone says that the whole display should be change.
I request to give right guidance to me...

Tks




Quote originally posted by bobchang ...
If any of you are getting lines on your LCD display (like a horizontal or a vertical), it's usually a bad LCD display (the panel itself has a very "partial", or "localized" failure). Someone here mentioned twisting the display - which you can do on laptops - that might make the problem go away temporarily, but in my experience, it (the problem with the lines) will be here to stay. You can either replace the screen panel, or you can remove the screen panel and have it shipped to repair facilities that specialize in LCD repairs - both of which could entail considerable cost, effort, AND expertise.

A lot of folks will toss out the word "inverter" when there's an LCD problem, so let's get it straight once and for all: the inverter is just a power board that converts your laptop's DC power into high-voltage AC current, and this AC current is used to power the backlight tube (or tubes) of your LCD screen - to "light the screen up", if you will. The inverter is also responsible for the brightness adjustments in your LCD display. Hence... if your screen lights up and you can adjust the brightness on your screen, then the inverter is doing its job and you can rule it out completely.

Speaking of brightness in LCDs, some LCDs will give you a perfect image that's got a "pink" tint to it - that'll be, in the vast majority of the instances, due to a burnt-out backlight tube. It's just like a florescent tube that's on its last legs. You can either replace the LCD, or have the LCD delivered to a LCD repair facility that'll replace the dimming tube for you.

Now, if your computer's LCD is completely black (doesn't light up) but you can still hear the rest of it working, then it can be an inverter that's failed or, in the event that your computer has been impacted, it can also be a shattered backlight tube inside your LCD. Anyway, my point it: if the screen lights up, it ain't the inverter.
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May 9th, 2004
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Re: Horizontal lines across display

Hmmm... did you capture, detain, and interrogate that ... ant? The ant could've sensed a pile of sugar inside your laptop, you know... Was there a spill involving soft drinks, Starbucks coffee, or HagenDaas ice cream?

If your screen is full of vertical lines (scrambled) , but external video is okay, then here's my take: my troubleshooting would start from the motherboard's video connector on up (including the motherboard's video connector, thru the video cabling, then to the LCD). If you haven't done laptop repair before, then I wouldn't advise you to start now - since it is unclear to us which part is bad: the LCD, the cabling, or the motherboard's connector. If you haven't spill anything onto your system, then the motherboard's video connector is probably okay, so I'll eliminate that. Video cables don't usually go bad, but hell, these things are assembled by folks who get paid $5/day to repeat the same process 200 times, so the slightest miscue or offset during the assembly process could cause premature wear (read: damage) down the road. So in general, the cabling must be inspected thoroughly. If the cables appear intact and solid, then it must be the LCD.

I would take it (or ship it) to a shop that knows CPQ laptops so they can narrow it down for me. The possibilities are: loose cable, bad cabling, and bad LCD. A CPQ shop should be able to get replacement cables for $20 - $30 (even though its only worth 50 cents), plus installation labor. If it is a bad LCD, then their prices could be outrageously high ($600 and up), plus labor.

Now you know (nah, you probably don't) and I know that 14.1" EVO LCDs can be found on eBay for a hun'erd some bucks - they're used, but I wouldn't even hesitate for one second if I can get a good, used one, or even a flawed one (like one with a couple of dead pixels) for less $$$. Anyway, ask your CPQ shop whether they'll install a part that you provide - some won't, but many will, and they'll charge you a bit extra to do that. I would think that if the LCD is really gone, then you can still limit the repair bill to around $300 (screen from eBay plus labor), which is very reasonable.

How's that sound?

Bob
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