hi, laptop display issue, component level

[nickBcap]

Hi...very nearly component level to me......its a bit of a long post but I included as many of the things I have done to repair and recall about the laptop so far.
From power On a Toshiba Satellite A500 display is filled with vertical multi coloured lines. Sometimes after boot the screen can sometimes begin to fill in very very slowly with what is like dark greyish patchy but appearing semi solid dark greyish colour and sometimes remains with the vertical multi coloured lines and in both case will go black within 1 or perhaps 2 minutes and not recover unless powered off then on.
The laptop is completely dismantled and the soldered on motherboard battery measures 2.72v for a 3volt battery.
When the laptop is apart I can press around the screen outer where the chrome is around the screen and the screen may change from some solid mainly darker blue colours to solid blue coloured lines almost like operating system colours and shapes and sometimes the word Tools appears in the mid left of the screen.
I can press the motherboard all around and when I press over the socket where the screen cable plugs into the motherboard the same block colours can appear and change when I press on and off there. The changing to the coloured blocks is most consistent when I press that socket.
This laptop had been dropped and the display cable had one broken wire in it so I replaced the cable and this problem persists. I also bent and place a piece of tin around the power socket and covered it with electrical tape because the plastic power socket surround inside the side of the laptop broke.
So what could the problem be? I have replaced capacitors and may be prepared to replace a mother chipset at this point in my experience of computer and electronic repairs.
Also just thinking now, it may be the new cable is broken near the motherboard socket plug, but the cable did appear to be brand new. I will inspect it closely, but also the fit into the socket is a little loose. The pins in the socket are all ok and I could not see any solder cracks and the joints all appear to be soldered ok.
Also I inspected the whole display screen after dismantling but got a little scared to go on any further at the point where you might take the heatshrink off the ends of the ccl? fluorescent tube to look for broken solder there < the pimp looks so cool .....

[hamsterball27]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

mightbe an lcd issue from when you repalced the cable you could have broke the little chip on film tab things or you could have damaged the LVDS slot when inserting the cable. remove the cable and check the slots... does the laptop work when connected to external monitor or tv

[Mad_Professor]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

sounds like you broke the t-con board for the LCD or have a micro fracture running through the motherboard severing critical traces from when it was dropped.

Does the laptop come with a vga/dvi/hdmi/display port out? Have you tried connecting an external monitor and see if the issue persists on that monitor as well, if not then it could be the cable or bad LCD.

[nickBcap]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

hi, I forgot the most important detail - yes the laptop display works perfectly connected to an external monitor by the laptop VGA port. I checked the board screen display cable socket and the solder joints and saw no cracks and the pins inside the socket were all ok. But the quick on and off finger pressure I apply to that socket has the most instant and the most display changing effect on the laptop screen although the display will not restore completely by doing this.
The vertical multi coloured lines are the same with the old cable that was broken, but fewer multi coloured lines than with the new screen cable.
Ok, and while I am sitting here I get a little laptop revelation - and yes I do believe in Jesus - the problem must be from the display port on the motherboard to the display......and my 0c's worth - it could be backwards from the display port on the motherboard to somewhere else on the motherboard. But think the best guess is going to be something to with the drop that happened.
btw, what is the little round part on the top of the screen where the long Tab is across the top of the monitor. It looks like it might be a battery in a battery holder.

[Uranium-235]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

btw, what is the little round part on the top of the screen where the long Tab is across the top of the monitor. It looks like it might be a battery in a battery holder.

probably the microphone (if the laptop does likely have a built-in webcam). Does this little round thing have a tiny hole where the plastic cover is? Likely

there is a chance one smd component or two was broken off cutting that part of the signal to the FPD-L

[rievax_60]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

I repaired a Dell which had intermittent video on its screen. I found open circuited LVDS tracks by checking the continuity of all track pairs going to the connector.

[nickBcap]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

probably the microphone (if the laptop does likely have a built-in webcam). Does this little round thing have a tiny hole where the plastic cover is? Likely

there is a chance one smd component or two was broken off cutting that part of the signal to the FPD-L

The part I was trying to describe is not the microphone. I already punched a tiny hole through that. This thing I thought may have been a battery, I can post a picture later but I thought to try to pick it out thinking it may have been a battery - well, not all that funny because it looked like a thing that was in a battery holder, but it cracked. Just hoping it isn't important and fingers crossed there. Battery huh?

[nickBcap]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

I repaired a Dell which had intermittent video on its screen. I found open circuited LVDS tracks by checking the continuity of all track pairs going to the connector.

Love...oops. I like pictures showing things like that, super. I think I find the pictures rather motivating.
I will check the board carefully. I bought an endoscope on ebay for things like this but it only seems to want to work in XP so will try to crack that mystery for Windows7 if I can.
The multi-coloured display colours are no different after I cracked the small round part in the "battery holder".

[Uranium-235]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

The part I was trying to describe is not the microphone. I already punched a tiny hole through that. This thing I thought may have been a battery, I can post a picture later but I thought to try to pick it out thinking it may have been a battery - well, not all that funny because it looked like a thing that was in a battery holder, but it cracked. Just hoping it isn't important and fingers crossed there. Battery huh?

I get the impression this is around the screen, I can't imagine any round looking thing other than the mic around the screen

[nickBcap]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

sounds like you broke the t-con board for the LCD or have a micro fracture running through the motherboard severing critical traces from when it was dropped.

Does the laptop come with a vga/dvi/hdmi/display port out? Have you tried connecting an external monitor and see if the issue persists on that monitor as well, if not then it could be the cable or bad LCD.

I didn't know what a T-Con board is in an lcd monitor, but it seems it is the board at the top of the display that has the plastic cables that run across the top of the display connect to. I checked the ribbons more so than I checked the board itself and did not notice any damage, and I can check that board again closely with the endoscope.
What I thought was, the pull on the cable that broke the one single tiny cable from the screen to the motherboard that passes through the hinge may have pulled on the socket on the motherboard that left the fit a little loose but I found no solder cracks there.
Also considered power loss because at one point the screen would begin to very very slowly fill with dark shadowy colours. The power cable does not appear to have any breaks but the power socket was one thing that got dislodged during the drop.

EDITED: Just now I checked on YouTube and saw some videos about vertical lines on lcd screens, and not necessarily only on laptop lcd screens. It seem the ribbons on the top of the screens to the T-Con board can pull away from at their joints. This may be the problem after the drop. I have a second laptop here that was also dropped with a very similar problem.
It is odd however to see that putting pressure on the screen itself and on the motherboard when the laptop was powered on, both produce changes in the display appearance. Two breaks somewhere I guess.
The owner told me when he put pressure on the screen from behind the screen top left the whole display picture would return, but not when I tried that. And now it is definitely worse and this was before I cracked the little round part on the T-Con? board.

[nickBcap]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

I get the impression this is around the screen, I can't imagine any round looking thing other than the mic around the screen

The little round part in the battery holder looking thing is on the T-Con board just right of center and near the bottom edge.

[nickBcap]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

Anyhow, the laptop motherboard must be ok because external display is perfect. So I guess I am trying to solve a definite problem with the screen itself.
Problem solved....and a here is that chuckle.
And I don't think I can repair it myself. I think the ribbons are pulled from the screen somehow and I see the guys who post videos on YouTube about problems like this are also looking for repair solutions.
The solution may be something like a special type of heating resoldering process like reballing but for the ribbons to the display somehow.

[nickBcap]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

If this is the problem, the ccl? bulb can be retrieved...here is a link to YouTube and a rather musically entertaining and informative video about how by physically twisting an lcd screen the display restores to normal revealing loose ribbons to connectors are responsible for a vertical line display problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P_i-JIsrYA

EDITED: And, the last idea I think I may try is, to put something behind the ribbons between the inside of the top of the laptop and the ribbons to press the ribbons onto their respective connections to the T-Con board and hope this forces the connections to make contact and see what happens.

[newtothis]

Re: hi, laptop display issue, component level

I have many times tried repairing broken ribbons to an LCD and failed every time, I have tried a hell of a lot of times as I'm a comp tech...

There is nothing to lose in trying but my advice would be to replace the LCD if its cost effective.