Old laptop screen problem...

taisingera

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2005
1,141
35
91
I have an almost 10 year old Dell XPS L702X that a friend gave me for free almost 5 years ago. The last couple of weeks I have seen this screen problem but it usually cleared up right after the computer came out of sleep. Now it is staying on the screen. I have attached the laptop to a monitor and it is not on the monitor, so I know it is a problem with the screen. Just posting here to confirm it is the screen.

I guess the wheels finally fell off of this laptop. When I first received it, I put a new battery in, then I bought an SSD for it, the feet dried up and I took them off recently, the keyboard had to be replaced, and now the screen is shot.

XD9KM3Z.jpg
 

taisingera

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2005
1,141
35
91
This screen problem came back and now happens even when the screen is on and I am doing something on the laptop.
 

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,630
1,689
126
I'd unplug and plug back in the cable to the screen. If it looks corroded like liquid got in, then I'd also liberally spray it with residue-free contact cleaner. You may need some disassembly to get to it like removing the top bezel and keyboard.
 

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,630
1,689
126
^ Wouldn't it just stay dim then, instead of coming back on?

Might not be the cable connector, could be a bad solder joint, or a damaged wire.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
98,886
17,339
126
^ Wouldn't it just stay dim then, instead of coming back on?

Might not be the cable connector, could be a bad solder joint, or a damaged wire.

It could just be the caps in the power supply for the backlight. But I am not sure it is worth the time to check.
 

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,630
1,689
126
^ But that seems like another fault that wouldn't return to normal operation again and again. Transistors, sometimes they get hot and leaky, or heat can make a CFL inverter solder joint go intermittent, but caps would tend to just get worse and worse, plus it is probably the same bank of caps for both the top and bottom half of the screen and the impression from the supplied pic is that only half the screen is failing to backlight.

The pic does look a bit strange though, like there is a color shift instead of just lack of light, but since the icons are there, we can see those seem to have all the appropriate RGB subpixels working?
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
98,886
17,339
126

before you buy the replacement screen, hook it up to a monitor and see if the picture is correct. If it looks right on monitor, then check ribbon cable connection.

It looks like the upper light is toast, but I don't see an easy way to just replace that.

I would say it is not worth fixing.
 
Last edited:

taisingera

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2005
1,141
35
91
I opened the laptop up and put it on while I had access to the display cable, and lightly touched it and moved the hinge around and I couldn't get it to do this. After I put the laptop back together, I wanted to test the hard drive in it. I booted to a WinPE environment to use HDDScan, and for the two hours the screen was on for, I didn't see it shift and flicker (of course I didn't stare at it the whole time).

Today though something new happened. The bottom half where this happens, instead of turning whitish, I saw a very rapid flicker (something an epileptic would not want to see) that lasted for several seconds, but cleared up. This happened 2 or 3 times.

Certainly if the screen decides to die fully, I am not replacing it on a nearly 10 year old laptop. Rather get something lighter and newer. I can always sell off for parts as the motherboard, socketed quad i7 cpu, ram and trackpad part are still in working order.
 

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,630
1,689
126
The bottom half where this happens, instead of turning whitish I saw a very rapid flicker (something an epileptic would not want to see) that lasted for several seconds, but cleared up. This happened 2 or 3 times.

... I can always sell off for parts as the motherboard, socketed quad i7 cpu, ram and trackpad part are still in working order.

Hmm, when I looked at your picture, I (and apparently sdifox too) had assumed the bottom half of the screen was correct and it was the top half that was too dark, but since you are now clarifying that it is the bottom half too light, this is not a backlighting fault.

It could still be the screen itself, or the cable/connection to it, but there is also a chance that the iGP or GPU has a problem, even if the external output for a separate monitor works. This means it is not a sure thing that the motherboard is 100% functional.
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,309
1,046
136
Here is the service manual for the laptop, which has instructions for dissassembly. You might check the screen cabling for damage where it runs through the hinges to the display panel.
 

taisingera

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2005
1,141
35
91
Here's an update, yesterday the screen was fine. Today, the screen instead of what happened in the picture, it was actually glitching in Linux as well as in bios screen. I took a video and attached a freeze frame from the video. I opened the laptop up to take out the secondary clicking hard drive, but now the screen looks okay.

Screenshot_20201104-124536.png
 

taisingera

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2005
1,141
35
91
I determined it wasn't the hard drive causing it. So, I opened up the laptop and took the screen apart (first time ever for me, pretty stressful) and had both ends of the display cable unplugged then put it back together. Good news, everything still works normally, bad news, the screen is still flickering and flashing. Now I will try a display cable from ebay for cheap. If that doesn't work then the laptop gets parted for anything useful (SSD, RAM, and cpu). Everything else is iffy whether it works or not like the mobo, and screen.
 

Rameshkumar

Junior Member
Oct 16, 2020
10
1
6
You have changed the battery, and keyboard is also replaced then you need to change screen. this final step you need to take .
 

taisingera

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2005
1,141
35
91
An update, the screen didn't glitch for about 10 days, then today the glitching/flashing was worse than ever for the entire day, which rules out the screen having to warm up. I finally installed the new display cable and I am still getting a lot of glitching similar to what I have seen all day. I guess it's time to retire this laptop, or part out the few things I know aren't the issue.

I watched a few videos, this could be the LCD panel going bad, inverter perhaps, the voltages being sent from the motherboard, or even possibly the nvidia graphics chip.