Laptop screen lines

[stevo1210]

I saw an ad in the paper for a faulty Dell Latitude D505 laptop. It says it has lines on the screen?

As quoted from the ad: "Recently there are lines running on the screen and now it is being sold as it / for spareparts only !!"

Since it's going for like $60 or whatever, I am wondering what could be wrong? I haven't had a look yet...

So is it worth it or is it gonna end up costing me more than the lappy itself for a fix?

Thanks.

[washu]

Re: Laptop screen lines

One of three possibilities:

1) The LCD panel is shot.

2) The connecting cable is shot.

3) The Video RAM is shot.

If it's 1 or 2 then it's a pretty easy fix if you can get the part cheap. Look around and see what the prices on new screens and cables are and see if it's worth it to you. You also could just use it with an external monitor all the time if you don't care.

If it's 3 then you have to replace the MB and that's probably not worth it.

If you can, plug in an external monitor and set it to display the same thing on both the internal and external. If the external is fine then it's 1 or 2. If not then it's 3 and I wouldn't buy it.

[NxB]

Re: Laptop screen lines

The laptop is worth <$150 USD fully loaded. The screen is either a defective cable or a bad panel, likely the panel.

If it comes with everything else you can try to get a panel on ebay or buy another parts unit. See below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=170485943119

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=140408575886

[yyonline]

Re: Laptop screen lines

D505 uses integrated graphics, so there is no video ram to speak of. So you can cross that one off the list. I suppose bad system ram is possible...

I'd like to add one more possibility to the list- a bad connector on the motherboard. I ran across that once. It seemed like a bad cable at first, but replacing the cable didn't fix it. I knew it was the connector b/c if you wiggled it, it'd come back again. Unfortunately, the connector had very fine solder points, and my soldering skills weren't the best at the time, so that one never got repaired.

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop screen lines

im a bit weary of this laptop model because apparently this series has some power related problems where it wont run off the AC mains?

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop screen lines

Here's a picture the seller sent me if that helps...

[Topcat]

Re: Laptop screen lines

^
I have an IBM LCD 17" monitor doing the same thing. I scrapped it out. I narrowed the problem down to the video processing board.

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop screen lines

Basically this one's a no-go isn't it?

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop screen lines

So from that picture do you guys think it'd be viable if I buy it? Or are the costs of fixing that screen gonna end up more than the laptop itself?

[93daytona]

Re: Laptop screen lines

You should be able to go to dell's website and get the service manual for that laptop. Flip through it and find the part numbers for the motherboard and the LCD panel. Check ebay to see how much parts will cost. Worst case scenerio would be replacing the entire mobo. Best case scenerio it's just the screen or connector. If you can get the entire mobo cheap enough from ebay, I'd say it would be worth picking up.

[NxB]

Re: Laptop screen lines

Why not ebay a working one. You are saving like 30-50 over one without problems. If you can find an LCD for less than $40 go for it.

[AudioCraZ]

Re: Laptop screen lines

I have seen many screens that do that, and it is the conroller board behind the screen that was going out.

Ask the seller if the lines change, appear random, are always the same lines. If the lines are always in the same spot, it is most likely that the screen just needs replaced.

When the screen does random stuff, and lines jump all over the place, typically that is bad GPU, or GPU ram. If that is the case, majority of the time that means you have to replace the Mobo, and it just isn't worth it.

You also want to consider how much a replacement screen is going to cost, and see if it is worth it.

LCD4Less <-- found via google search.

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop screen lines

If you can get the entire mobo cheap enough from ebay, I'd say it would be worth picking up.

Motherboard costs $120 on ebay. A new panel is about the same price.

At the moment, I just wanna look for a laptop thats bigger than my Toshiba NB100 8.9" Netbook cause that thing is straining my eyes to hell due to its size... and I have to use this for 3-4 hours straight at uni.

[Wizard]

Re: Laptop screen lines

That's almost a T-CON but more intergerated into small panels (smaller than 24"). Once that fails, it's scrap since due to cost reasons the "T-CON" is bonded to the column drivers.

Cheers, Wizard

[NxB]

Re: Laptop screen lines

Its funny, motherboard $120 on ebay, working laptop is less.

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop screen lines

My friend has a spare LCD for this laptop lying around... so I'm gonna go pick it up tomorrow. I've contacted the seller and he says that the screen is the only problem and that everything else is working A-OK.

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop screen lines

Okay... and so I bought it.

It works fine from what I can see... just some screen lines (not really annoying).

But...

OMFG the internals are soooo dirty. I can't even find the words to describe it. I'm parting it now to clean it out. There are a variety of insects and roaches in there (all dead of course). But I'm gonna exterminate the chassis to make sure there aren't any breeding roach eggs in there....

As for the board... it's littered in roach shit. I'm gonna get compressed air and blow off whatever I can... and then use isopropyl alcohol to clean the bad bits.

[AudioCraZ]

Re: Laptop screen lines

You may want to go to radio shack, and gets some "contact cleaner" and spray some of the areas of the board, to really clean it. Just don't spray the screen with it. They even have a "contact cleaner pen" that really comes in hand for those hard places.

You can also use rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush if you want to do it on the cheap, just takes more effort.

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop screen lines

I think i'll just opt for the toothbrush and isopropyl alcohol option... I'll be very careful with the brush to ensure I don't jab something delicate lol.

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop screen lines

Okay it's all done now. Every bit of that laptop has been cleaned...

I just put the whole thing back together again... and it works!

But.. I decided to run Memtest 86+ and there's one faulty RAM module. So instead of 512MB, I'm down to 256MB until I spend $10 on another 256MB module.