lcd screen vertical lines made in china

We have a lot of different supplyers. The latest batch of iphone 4s LCD"s all have this problem. Iphone5/5s/6(+)/6s(+) are all fine. We are now testing all the LCD"s out of the batch. All have the dark lines. It looks fine at first. But when you get a pop-up or get the shutdown screen, that is when you see the dark lines.

We repair in an ESD space, having ESD wristbands and heelbands. We are testing the lcd"s using a disassembled iphone. So this issue (we have here) has nothing to do with the metal plate.

One of the people here said something about static getting in the screen when they get referbrished. But is there any way to get this charge out? Someone told us to put the connectors on the table so it could discharge. But this does exactly nothing. Does anyone have a solution?

And what i found is; White lines mean it"s not properly connected or the flex is damaged. This is a different problem then the dark lines i was talking about. Stripes (more then 3) are also a result of a bad connection.

Watching your mobile screen with those white or black vertical/horizontal lines is annoying. In short, it’s tough to use a phone with these lines appearing on the screen. Typically, this issue is associated with the LCD, caused by a faulty hardware component in your device due to some accidental fall or water damage. Phones with such damages can only be fixed at a phone repair center.

If you are itel, TECNO or Infinix phone user and is troubled with vertical and horizontal line issues, make a reservation now without waiting time at the service shop. Carlcare Service will fix your phones easily. If your phone is under warranty, Carlcare can also save you repair costs. Check warranty now>>

Before you head on to the fixes, let’s make your phone data safe. Sometimes, these lines are irreversible, and even the solutions you’re up to try may be followed by some sort of data loss. Therefore, the first thing you should do is make a backup of important files and apps on your device. Some popular ways for data back in Android devices are via:

If there’re white lines on the screen, this solution may prove effective. A battery cycle is when you charge a mobile to 100% and let it drain to 0% again. Usually, the lines will disappear soon as you charge the battery fully.

If the above methods don’t work, it’s time to try this masterstroke. Using your phone in a safe mode will confirm if the lines are because of some faulty app or software.

Check if the lines are gone! If yes (hopefully), then a third-party app is the culprit. Now uninstall the latest downloaded applications until the issue is gone. OR you should try the Solution:4

Suppose the lines are still visible. Then the issue is most likely due to some hardware failure- and the best option for you is to take your device to a reliable repair center.

If the horizontal or vertical lines still appear on your phone screen after trying all the above methods, you better take your device to a reliable mobile repair store near you. Most likely, it’s a faulty hardware component that needs to be repaired or replaced. Here, we would suggest you opt for only an authorized service center, as this will ensure flawless repair at a reasonable cost. Besides, if any of the components have to be replaced, they will be genuine and as per your specific requirements.

After getting the newly released iPhone SE, we did a thorough study in which parts that the iPhone 5S and iPhone SE share in common (Check for more detailed information with iPhone SE Full Tear down Comparison with iPhone 5S by ETrade Supply). Not surprisingly, many replacements parts of iPhone SE are compatible with iPhone 5S, their internal structure are almost the same. What excited us most is that they can totally share the same LCD screen and digitizer assembly, which with no doubts will reduce the inventory and supply chain integration pressures of repair shops. However, with the original LCD screen is getting more and more difficult to be obtained, most repair shops are using more replacements parts produced by third party manufacturer in China.

After getting the newly released iPhone SE, we did a thorough study in which parts that the iPhone 5S and iPhone SE share in common (Check for more detailed information withiPhone SE Full Tear down Comparison with iPhone 5S by ETrade Supply). Not surprisingly, many replacements parts of iPhone SE are compatible with iPhone 5S, their internal structure are almost the same. What excited us most is that they can totally share the sameLCD screen and digitizer assembly, which with no doubts will reduce the inventory and supply chain integration pressures of repair shops. However, with the original LCD screen is getting more and more difficult to be obtained, most repair shops are usingmore replacements parts produced by third party manufacturer in China.

In order to figure out whether the iPhone 5S LCD screens produced by the third party manufacturer are compatible with iPhone SE or not, we did the following experiment in iPhone SE:

What beyond our imagination is that all of the China made LCDs can act well whether on display or touch function in iPhone 5S, however, when being used in iPhone SE, there are serious problems like shaking screen, black screen, Vertical lines on display (which just like you didn"t connect the LCD screen connectors well).

First thing we need to know is the sources and production process of the China made LCDs. The TM/LT/JDF/In-cell LCDs assemblies in the market are not completely produced by the manufacturers themselves, they just provide the cut LCD screens, the rest processes are finished by the other third party manufacturers which also provide assemble theglass lens,digitizer frame, theLCD back plate shieldand the LCD drive IC and other related small parts. It is not only the LCD itself which influences the display function, the compatibility between LCD drive IC and the motherboard is also another important involving factor. In order to save costs, pursue higher profits, these third party manufacturers are using OEM-compliant LCD drive IC, which just debugged with the compatibility of 5S"s motherboard, not with SE"s.

Most China made LCDs are using the OEM-Compliant LCD driving IC at present. When replacing iPhone SE LCD screen with it, there is a big chance to encounter the phenomenon of shaking screen, black screen and vertical lines on display.

1.Original and brand new LCD screenwould be your best choice when replacing iPhone SE LCD screen, if not, the assembled original screen and original-refurbished screen are second choices.

If you have a cracked or broken LCD screen, please use one of the following options to repair or replace it. Self-repair is not recommended.LCD display screens on notebook computers are made of two thin layers of glass with dark liquid crystal material in between. The glass is covered on the outside by a layer of plastic. Customers often feel that there cannot be a broken LCD display because they cannot feel the break. However, cracks in the glass usually cannot be felt because the plastic covering rarely breaks or fractures.

Black “spots” might also appear. This can be liquid crystal material spilling out of a crack. A crack might be present which causes lines to appear but no liquid crystal spots are apparent. The spots might be small or might appear later or grow larger in time. Customers often say that there were no black spot(s) when the unit was sent for repair, so it must have occurred during or after shipment.

It is important to understand that lines on the LCD can also be caused by video driver issues or a problem with the media you are using. Video driver issues can normally be resolved by downloading and installing a new video driver. However, if the damage is due to a broken LCD, you should understand the following policies.

Customer Induced Damage is not covered under standard warranty. It is included only in Accidental Damage Protection. Most damaged or broken LCDs will be considered as CID.

Diagonal or jagged lines (white area in 1) and both horizontal and vertical lines indicate panel damage. One set of either horizontal or vertical lines might be a damaged panel, but can also be caused by graphics system failure or a loose internal video cable.

White spots or lightened localized areas-Lighter areas or white spots are visible on the screen. This typically happens when a sharp object or edge forcefully contacts the display screen.

Dark spots in localized areas, an example of Mura defects-Dark spots are on the screen. These wide-area pixel defects are typically caused by a sharp object hitting the screen.

Black splotches cutting through the screen-The internal glass has cracked and liquid crystal is leaking (sometimes call bleeding) inside the display panel along the crack.

If you do not have an ADP policy and do not want to pay for the repair of a damaged LCD, you can connect an external monitor and use the notebook as-is. Or you could purchase a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and use the notebook as if it were a desktop tower. LCD screen damage usually doesn"t affect the operation of the notebook computer. You can also remove the hard drive and use it in an external enclosure on another computer.

I am regretting the purchase as the product has problems of vertical lines appearing in my LCD monitor towards the centre of the screen due to poor quality control or manufacturing defects and the response from DELL India is poor.

If the screen abnormality is not present in the built-in self-test mode, see the Dell knowledge base article How to Troubleshoot Display or Video Issues on a Dell Monitor.

If the LCD built-in self-test (BIST) diagnostic test passed, the laptop LCD screen is working correctly. The display problem could be due to an outdated graphics driver or incorrect video settings. Follow the troubleshooting instructions in the Dell knowledge base article How to Troubleshoot Display or Video Issues on a Dell Laptop.

So the endgame is that even confronted with images that clearly show the defective LCD, the company still asserts it"s my fault. They kind of suck, but dumb on me for getting the knockoff one. I didn"t want to mention it immediately in case they decided to make good. They told me to tear out the defective one and send it back and they would consider giving me a refund. Feel free to disagree, but I was not interested in de-soldering and leaving a giant gap in my cluster while relying on their goodwill.

Yes, you can get new LCD screens. The ENVY touchscreens are expensive, though. Use HP Partsurfer to look up the HP Part #. I picked up a used FHD ENVY touchscreen about 8 months ago on ebay for considerably less than new. When it comes to touchscreens, be careful of Chinese knockoffs. Your clue is that the digitizers will say they aren"t Pen compatible. If you don"t have a touchscreen version, you might be able to just replace the LCD assuming there isn"t a dummy glass glued to the LCD. If there is, you"ll need the whole assembly as it is basically impossible to separate the two without damaging them.

I’ve owned a Toshiba M55-S3294 since October, 2005. I’ve seen your first example on my own laptop only once and it went away when I rebooted the machine and has never appeared again but it’s nice to know replacing the LCD isn’t to hard after reading around your site.

I do have another question about the same laptop. Can the lid over (mine is copper) be removed without taking the LCD out? I’ve read you can change the color, so before I go looking for one on eBay, I wanted to know what I was getting myself into.

I have a Satellite P30 and today a vertical strip approximately 1 inch wide down the left hand side of the screen turned white. I can move my mouse cursor over to where the “Start” button is in Windows, and activate the “Start” button, however, I can’t see the button or the mouse cursor. Any ideas what might be the cause and solution to this problem?

Most likely it’s the LCD screen problem. Just in case try to connect an external monitor and check out the video output. If you see the same vertical strip (very unlikely), then it’s onboard video problem – the motherboard problem. If the external video is fine, then I would suspect the LCD screen itself. Try to twist the screen, apply some tension to it. Does the vertical strip changes location, color or width?

my screen is dim, it flickers but no lines like in these exampes. the external monitor works fine. i have a m35x-s111 sometimes i can make out whats on the screen but most of the time its to dim. please help. great site

i have a prob that i don’t see discussed yet…..i’m in dire need of help….my toshiba a70 has a prob..it only displays about 11 inches of video on the screen…the right side 3 or 4 inches are black…it works well on an external monitor…no luck updating drivers… also it does the same thing in safe mode…..please gimme a holla on where to go and what to do.i heard you were the best out there

Turn on the laptop and go into BIOS setup. I believe you’ll have to hit ESC key on start up for this laptop to enter the setup. Do you see the same lines when you are in BIOS? If not, then I would say that’s software issue and re-imaging the drive will fix the problem. If the lines are still there, even when you are in BIOS, then it would be a hardware related problem, most likely a bad screen.

I have a Pro-Star 8790. Everything was running fine until a couple months ago. My video distorts at random and forces me to restart my laptop. But I’ve noticed that it only does it when the laptop is plugged in. I listened and heard a quiet clicking noise coming from my power supply (like small sparks) and decided that that was the problem. Now, I’ve bought a brand new AC adapter and it didn’t solve the problem at all. My screen still distorts forcing a restart. I know it’s not a driver problem either. My video card is integrated into my system. I now think it is a video card problem. Does this mean my video card/laptop is fried?

Have you tried to connect an external monitor to the laptop? What about external video, is it bad too? If both screens – internal LCD and external monitor display the same distorted video, then I would suspect the system board. Let me know how it goes with the external video output.

hi, there i have slight problem with my lcd unfortunately the top 8 cm of my screen are gray and do not work, i assume it is completely broken a therefore wish to replace it however my warranty has run out. so i plan on doing it myself, i have two questions relating to this and would really appreciate if you could help me answer them. First of all the laptop in question is a fujitsu-siemens Amilo m7400 and i was wondering if i could replace my lcd with my friends Amilo m7405, in terms of resolution and size they seem identical, however i would appreciate if you could tell me whether or not i am barking up the right tree, my thoughts were that since they were the same model basically that fujitsu would probably have used the same lcd. secondly could you possibly tell me were i could get hold of some sort of manual or instructions. thanks.

It has gotten progressively worse over time. If you apply some pressure to the screen frame, the display will return to normal and the small vertical line will go away. I would assume that this is a loose connection? I intend to remove the frame and re-seat the inverter, LCD cable and do some cleaning. Does this seem like a failing LCD screen? The computer is slightly over a year old.

I would try removing the LCD and putting it back and hope for a miracle. Last month it helped me to “fix” a bad LCD on IBM ThinkPad. The screen was bad, it had some horizontal lines on it. Reseating cables and replacing the video cable didn’t help. But, after I removed the screen and put it back I got a perfect video. I think that when I put all screws on sides back in place, they stretched the screen somehow and made it work fine. I’ve never seen the customer again. I don’t know if it’s going to help you, but I think it worth trying.

I forgot to mention that the screen goes dim every couple of minutes as well. If you give the back of the screen a light tap, it will return to normal. Can you give me any ideas of where to look for a replacement LCD if that is the problem?

With backlight it could be a loose connection problem, try reseating cables on the inverter board. To find a replacement screen, you’ll have to search by the part number. You can find the part number on the back of the LCD screen and it looks like: A000002050 (you might have different part number). Try searching through Google or on eBay. LCD screens are very expensive and very often it doesn’t make any sense to replace the screen, it’s better to buy a new laptop.

If you cannot find the part number for the LCD, give me more info about your laptop: model number and part number from the bottom and I’ll look up a part number for you.

just an update, but disassembling the LCD and re-seating the connections as well as the inverter seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks for your advice.

hello sir, i have a compaq armada M700 laptop…since yesterday i am getting a horizontal line exactly at the middle of the screen. every thing is working absolutely fine. the line is about half a milimitre thick. what should i do…take it to a techician or can i repair it myself

I woke up this morning, turn on my Dell Inspiron 6000 and theres a vertical line. Reboot, Reboot in safe mode and line still there and everything runs fine. After reading the great info on this site it seems a my screen has gone bad. Below is a link to my screen while XP is booting. I need a new screen right? Just wanted to get some feedback before I go spending on one. Thanks in advance.

It looks like a bad screen. From my experience, this kind of failure (thin vertical line across the screen) is not related to a failed video cable, bad connection or bad video card.

I have blue and purple vertical lines along the bottom 40% of my laptop screen and absolutely no image (entirely lines). The top 60% of the screen works great! I tried contacting Gateway but they won’t even answer me as to what it could possibly be without me paying them $3 per minute for cusomter support! Argh! Any advice on why only part of the screen is on the fritz? Thank you.

Start laptop troubleshooting with connecting an external monitor. That’s the first thing to do when you have a bad image on the LCD screen. If the same blue and purple vertical lines occur on the external monitor, then it’s the motherboard (video card) problem. If the external video is fine, then I would say that you might have a bad LCD screen.

Hi I have a Satellite p35-s605,which has developed a red horizontal line on the display,when connected to an ext monitor there is no line,guess Lcd problem also have reinstaled the os and drivers,

I have a gateway m500 that fell off a desk and crack the LCD. I couldnt use the external monitor so we sent it in for warranty to use the external display. I bought another lcd, put it in, replaced the cables,and now I get color with vertical lines but no picture. Now that I have replaced all of this, my external monitor no longer works. Do you have any ideas on what needs to be replaced next? please let me know. Thank you

I have a Gateway 400SD4. When you first turn on the laptop you can see data on the screen but just for s second then the screen goes white, quite brite too! You cannot see any data on the screen. The external monitor looks great. Any ideas? Thanks!

Have you tested if the laptop works fine with an external screen before you replaced the internal LCD? Disconnect the internal video cable from the motherboard and test it again with an external screen. If you still get the same lines on the external video, even when internal LCD is disconnected, then I would say that’s a bad motherboard (video card if it’s a separate module).

If the external monitor works fine after you disconnect the video cable from the motherboard, connect the cable back and test it again. It might be just a loose connection. If you still have the same bad video, then you might have a bad screen.

It’s hard to guess. First of all, I would check if the video cable on the back of the LCD screen makes a good connection with the screen. I’m not sure if it’s going to help you, but I know that on some Toshiba laptop the same white screen appears when the video cable is not seated properly.

If reseating cables doesn’t help, then it could be either the motherboard or the screen problem. I would say most likely it’s a bad screen but I’m not 100% confident.

Thanks for your response. I took the laptop apart and checked every wire in the cable going to the display and could not find any problems with the cable. Even found there is a fuse on the circuit board but that was OK. I put the unit back together and now it’s working! I think you were right, probably just a loose cable as the connection to the LCD itself does not feel that secure.

I was a laptop technician in a company that only uses Dell, IBM and Compaq. I just recently started my own business in a Flea Market and have come across Toshiba laptops that recently needed screen replacements due to accidents and dc-inline jacks that need to be replaced. Your website is a life saver for a tech that is new to the Toshiba brand. I will continue to contribute what I can as I use your website.

I have a dell 9400 with a wuxga true life display. Recently the video card was changed and then the lcd had a blueish tint and no blacks whatsoever. When plugged into a crt all the colors are fine and the video card works good as well. Dell is sending someone out to replace the motherboard and video card, i was wondering if you have ever run into this problem and the cause…Before the lcd was replaced it was wavy and the windows logo during start up was shadowing.. along with distortions to the color. The wavy ness is pretty much gone but no blacks color distortion and a blue tint remaiins… any ideas? why would they change the motherboard?

I haven’t seen a laptop screen with bluish tint yet, but I’ve seen a reddish tint many times. In most cases, if the reddish tint appears on both screens – internal LCD and external monitor, it’s the system board/video card problem. If the reddish screen appears only on the internal LCD screen but not on the external monitor, then I would suspect the screen itself first. I guess the same would apply to a bluish tint.

you problem could possibly be the vga cable, or connection of the vga cable. when you check this problem please make sure that your laptop in completely turn off the battery is removed, whit screen is signe of fauly cable or disconnected cable, that is the case if the laptop works on external monitor, else check you video memory. this sort of problem could also couse by dry joint, at mother board chip, or cable connection area.

Thank you for providing all of the laptop lcd tips. I have 2 laptops with pretty much the same issue with a very dim screen or no backlight. Both laptops are fine on external monitor.

The first laptop is an Acer Aspire 3000 that is dim throughout the boot process but a Toshiba M45 has a good screen for about 10 seconds, flickers and then goes dim. I am suspecting both laptops to have a bad FL inverter that needs replacing. Do you have any other suggestions to try? Thanks.

I have reseated cable hardness from lcd to mothe board so many time. My question is…is it the inverter i have ordered and replaced is bad. I think the invert board is to convert small dc voltage into high RMS voltage to ignite the backligh and control

I recently purchased a toshiba satellite p35-s609 from ebay, my problem is similar to bernie’s in which when booting up there will be a couple red lines on the left side of the screen, while installing windows xp I noticed that there is a reddish hue and diminished color (the white sunburst gradient cirles on the background of the windows turn into reddish circles), this problem is not duplicated on an external monitor. I found that if I tilt the laptop a little will reset the color and brightness to its normal display and stay like that as long as it is kept in that position (which is a little awkward at times). Could this hopefully just be a loose connection from the LCD to the motherboard? I have yet to open it up and wondering what my current options are.

I’ve never seen that FL inverter causes such a problem. You a right, the inverter convert voltage for the backlight bulb, but from my knowledge it cannot affect colors on the screen. I guess you might have a failed video cable, but most likely it’s a bad screen.

BTW, look inside the video connector on the motherboard and video connector on the back of the LCD screen. Check if there are any bent pins. Last week I had to repair Toshiba Satellite P30 with a backlight problem. After 15 minutes of testing I discovered that couple pins inside the connector on the motherboard were bent and the video cable didn’t seat properly. The problem was fixed after I carefully straightened the pins.

In the top navigation bar there is a tab “Laptop Parts”. In there I listed 2-3 companies who sell LCD screens for Toshiba. We worked with Spare Parts Warehouse and AG Parts (used to be ID parts) and don’t have any complaints. Man, screens are expensive.

What does work though is if I leave the lcd screen connected but remove it from the case (so it’s not touching the laptop) the lines go away. Is this a grounding issue. It seems like I am close to fixing it but can’t figure it out…

Hi! I just got a new laptop: the HP Pavilion DV8333EA and I’m already facing problems! It’s not a major issue but there seems to be a strong pink tint between text on my lcd screen; particularly between vertical characters such as ‘t’, ‘l’ and ‘i’. It’s quite distracting and I didn’t expect such from a brand new laptop. How can I resolve this?

Is your laptop still under warranty? It could be a major issue with the LCD screen or with the video card. A new computer shouldn’t have any pink tint between characters.

Connect an external monitor and turn on the laptop. If you can see the same pink tint on the external monitor, then it could be related to the motherboard (video card). If the external monitor displays characters fine and the problem appears only on the internal LCD screen, then it could be the screen problem.

Test the laptop with an external monitor attached. If the external video as bad as the internal, then it could be the motherboard (or video card) failure. If the external video is fine, and you have a problem only with the internal LCD, then I would check if the video cable got loose. Probably you’ll have to reseat both connections – one on the motherboard and one on the back of the LCD screen. If reseating the cable will not help, probably it’s a hardware issue.

How about this one. Toshiba A105-S2716 Laptop and everything is working fine. Then the screen goes grey with a few white lines running horizontal across it. The external monitor is working fine, and if I cycle through the Fn-F5 key, the LCD starts working again for awhile. Also, if I reboot it starts to work again for awhile. The time it takes to go to the grey screen is intermittent though. It could be 2 minutes or 20. I’m not sure which component may be bad. Thanks for a great site.

Yeah that’s a weird one. I’ve seen a few Satellite 105 laptops with a problem like that. It works fine for 10-15 minutes and then the screen goes gray with a few horizontal white lines.

When I got a Satellite A105 laptop with this problem for the first time it took me just 10 minutes to troubleshoot it. I connected an external monitor and set the video output on both screens. After 10-15 minutes the internal LCD screen failed but the external video was fine. I just ordered a new screen and video cable (as a precaution) because it looked like 100% LCD issue. BUT replacing the screen with video cable DIDN’T fix the problem. The same gray screen appeared after about 10 minutes. Reflashing the BIOS didn’t help either. After that I ordered a new system board and the problem was fixed.

I don’t want you to encourage buying a new system board right away, because in your case it could be just a bad screen. That’s would be nice if you can find a spare LCD screen and test it for a while. But from my experience this kind of failure on Satellite A105 laptops is caused by faulty system board. As I said before, that’s a wired one.

Hi, i have a prob similar to the 1st one that has been discussed. There r lot of horizontal lines that appear on the lcd and the whole display looks inverted and out of focus. Is the problem very common with M55s?

Hi there. I’ve recently inherited an Inspiron 8000 which works perfectly apart from one thing. When the display resolution is set to the lowest setting the windows desktop is off centre, to the bottom right of the screen.When the resolution is set to the highest setting the right and bottom 3 inches of the desktop are off the screen! I have updated bios,drivers,reformatted the hard drive and re-installed windows. Any help would be much appreciated.

I have installed the latest nvidia driver for the graphics card to no avail. The screen is offset in any resolution. I should mention that the bios and bios splash screen are also off centre. When the laptop is connected to an external monitor everything is fine. I have checked that the graphics card and connectors are all seated correctly.Any other thoughts would be gratefully received.

So it’s not software failure at all, because the screen is off center even before the operating system starts loading. You’ve already updated the BIOS, so it’s not the BIOS issue.

I afraid that it could be either the video card failure or the LCD failure. I cannot narrow it down without test LCD. I don’t think that the video cable can cause such problem.

My notebook’s screen has blue background colour even then it should be black, for example at startup or in DOS command prompt window, so the colours of the screen are distorted. I can send photo to email. External monitor working absolutely OK, even then I replaced the LCD panel the problem persisted. What do you recommend to check?

So you’ve replaced the LCD screen and still have the same problem? Man, that’s was an expensive one, but at least you know that’s not the screen problem.

If you experience a problem with the video output on the laptop LCD screen but not on the external monitor, then in most cases it would indicate a display related issue. If onboard video card is bad, the same video problem usually appears on both screens, internal and external. It’s not a rule, but from my experience it’s correct most of the time. I think that you have a problem with the LCD screen but after you mentioned this:

Hey thanks for your reply. It’s got me stumped. I changed the inverter and cable and no difference. The diagnostics clearly say that LCD, inverter, cable are all fine. Problem with adaptor…go figure. The most annoying thing is that it was only 1 year and 9 months old when it had this problem. The laptop is absolutely mint condition, I have used it as a ‘desktop’, not even taken it out more than 5 ocassions! If I need a laptop I’m gonna use my girlfriend’s Intel Macbook. Gonna build my own desktop, that way I can fix it easily.

I have an old 5105-S901 which, within a few minutes of running, shows an increasing amount of random pixel trash on the screen – similar to some of your screenshots (both on LCD and external monitor; shows as corrupted ASCII characters during boot-up). In 640×480 (safe mode) it works relatively stable for a while, but it crashes with ‘unknown hardware failure’ within minutes if it’s running in higher resolutions. After spending countless hours of testing, cleaning, replacing memory and experimenting, I found out that it’s a temperature issue with the video card. The Nvidia chip is getting extremely hot (burnt my finger twice) and if I spray liquid ice on it, the pixel trash immediately goes away. The video card has no active cooling, so I guess it became defective from permanent overheating over the years. I’m not quite sure what to do now – I can’t leave the laptop open all the time and spray stuff on it every 5 minutes. A new video card is ridiculously expensive ($350 – Walmart has a complete laptop for that price) and I wonder if and for how long it would solve the problem. I already force the CPU fan to run permantently at 100%, but that doesn’t help the video card. Is there a way to improve the video card’s cooling in my laptop model ? Have others experienced similar problems?

I have a used ThinkPad T40. I’ve noticed that if direct sunlight hits the back of the screen (the cover), the screen gets multi-colored lines all over. The couple of times that my roommate left the computer in the sun, the lines would disappear after we’d let it cool down. I can only blame myself for this, but the other day I left the laptop near the window, and the sun attacked it once again. Now it’s been two days and many reboots, and I only get picture (on the top half of the screen) when I first turn the laptop on, then it goes to colored or grey lines. I haven’t found any info on the net about screens overheating in sunlight – but is this possible? Is something permanently fried, or can it be tweaked?

I’ve never ever seen or heard about laptop screen overheating in sunlight. Probably I should sacrifice one of my laptops and leave it in the sun to see if I can reproduce the problem.