Laptop with graphics/display issue, interesting symptoms

[mikeymikec]

I was given a laptop recently. I wiped it and set Vista up again on it without any problems, and over a few days (possibly a week, it was a job that was very much on the backburner) it worked fine.

My wife started to use the laptop, first day fine, but after taking it out of the house and back again (it worked fine while away), the display showed massive graphics corruptions. When booting up, the BIOS screen was mostly an off-shade of green with a line going down the side, as well as the first Vista booting screen.

I tested the memory in case dodgy memory might be causing graphics corruptions, but no problems there apparently. My suspicion was along the lines of dodgy hardware (graphics chipset) or the screen, perhaps a loose connection.

The interesting thing occurred this morning. On the off-chance I started it up again, same dodgy screen BIOS screen, but then I went into the BIOS options and it was fine. I exited the BIOS, and the first Vista boot screen was fine, but then it screwed up again on the Welcome screen.

Thoughts? IMO this blows the idea of a dodgy screen connection out of the water.

 

[mikeymikec]

I should add that when I connect a monitor, the output on it is fine, including while running a Windows session.

 

[Fardringle]

Check the cable that connects the LCD to the laptop's motherboard. It's not terribly uncommon for those to become loose over time. And yes, it could work sometimes and not at others with a loose connection. It could be a bad inverter as well, but the cable is a lot easier (and cheaper) to check first.

 

[paul878]

the a picture of the screen, if external is working then the video chip is ok.

 

[mikeymikec]

It'll be a while before I try to open up the laptop, partly to pluck up the courage (and find the time) and partly to find information on how to dismantle it, but thanks for the info. Would you check the monitor's connection first (I've done that before), or do you think that's an unlikely possibility?

the a picture of the screen, if external is working then the video chip is ok.

That was my feeling as well, but my confidence in that diagnosis was initially thrown when going into the BIOS looked fine the first time. Of course it has screwed up since then (but not with the external monitor connection), though.

 

[paul878]

sorry, can you take a picture of the corrupted display.

 

[mikeymikec]

Bloody computer! I finally got around to taking a picture of how it is acting up, and it's working fine at the moment 🙂

I'll leave it on for a while to see if heat might play a role.

 

[pitonsharp]

Check the cable that connects the LCD to the laptop's motherboard. It's not terribly uncommon for those to become loose over time. And yes, it could work sometimes and not at others with a loose connection. It could be a bad inverter as well, but the cable is a lot easier (and cheaper) to check first.

no doubt it's only the connection to the display

 

[Matt1970]

Lines in the picture are almost always a bad screen. They can come and go at first but usually become permanent. They aren't the most difficult thing in the world to replace but they are a bit tedious and you can break the bezel plastic if you aren't careful. A computer shop shouldn’t charge you more than $100 to replace most screens.

 

[mikeymikec]

I've replaced screens before but I'm not so confident with laptops to the point of stripping them down to the board, so in a way I hope it's the screen that's at fault 🙂

 

[Steltek]

Out of curiosity, what brand and model is the laptop?

 

[mikeymikec]

HP Compaq Presario A900. And the screen still seems to be ok...

 

[Steltek]

HP Compaq Presario A900. And the screen still seems to be ok...

It will probably turn out to be a loose connection. You'll probably eventually bump it the wrong way and it will start messing up again, or if the screen is failing it will just eventually begin to malfunction again.

This should be the HP Service and Maintenance guide for this model, which will give you detailed instructions on how to disassemble the laptop (including removal of the screen assembly).

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/CoreRedirect.jsp?redirectReason=DocIndexPDF&prodSeriesId=3641174&targetPage=http%3A%2F%2Fbizsupport1.austin.hp.com%2Fbc%2Fdocs%2Fsupport%2FSupportManual%2Fc01295803%2Fc01295803.pdf

At least, it should give you an idea of how to properly disassemble the laptop down to where you can inspect the cable connections or replace the screen if you ever need to.