stephmward

Hi there. I've had this laptop 2-3 years now (plus I bought it used) and it's been a very good system to me. Aside from small things I've never had a major issue until now. Recently (within the last month) I have started having issues with the LCD screen.

At first, small wiggly lines (imagine something akin to a power surge line/audio monitoring lines) would flash horizontally across the screen. Generally this would happen on high-colour images/websites (less frequent when on pages that were mostly white). After a few times of that happening, the lines would get more frequent and appear on more of the screen. This led to the screen going completely white. After a restart everything was fine again, but then it would happen again within 24 hours.

At this point in time, the issue is nearly all the time. Sometimes the screen will work, but most of the time it's white.

Under the guidance of tech support I hooked the laptop up to an external monitor and found that the external monitor worked perfectly without any troubles no matter how long I used the computer. Apparently this is evidence that the issue is not likely with the video card, but with the LCD or cables itself.

I am certainly not a laptop expert. I attempted taking it apart and having a look inside, but lost my nerve after I had managed to get the keyboard out...I'm not terribly familiar with where everything is, and I don't want to create anymore problems while I'm in there.

Should the problem prove to be with the actual LCD screen, or an inverter of some sort (although discussion has indicated the screen would be black if it were inverter problems) I doubt I'll be able to fix it.

My quandry is that this may simply be an issue where there is a bad connection/loose cable, which I imagine either I or my boyfriend could fix. I am hoping someone might have some experience with such a problem and might be able to guide me with some advice. In any case, I would greatly appreciate any help.

Laptop Model: Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100
OS: Windows XP Pro (Service Pack 2, updated regularly)

Please let me know if I can provide you with any further details.

Picture of how far I got with disassembly (following online instructions @ http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...mantle_1.htm):

TheMatt

Hi,

A white screen usually indicates a problem with the LCD itself and not the inverter or backlight.

If you have never done this kind of repair, I would recommend taking it to a shop for the repair. It should be a fairly standard repair for an experienced depot technician.

stephmward

Hi, thanks for the reply. I'm really trying to look to save money on repair costs, as they could total enough to warrant just replacing the unit. I don't have much experience with laptops, but I generally pick things up.

As I was curious, I figured out how to pull the screen off and examine the video cable that goes into the LCD. It appears that one of the small wires on the video cable entering the LCD (pardon my lack of tech-savvy lingo) is not tightly in place due to a broken 'tab' that is supposed to hold it in place. I hope that anyone who reads this can understand what I mean. Anyhow, since that one (of many) little wire is not in place in the overall cable, does that seem like it could be causing the malfunction? I'd really appreciate anyone's opinion. I will call the local tech shop this week however to confer.

Thanks in advance!

TheMatt

It could be. Have you tried pushing it back into place to see if it fixes it?

stephmward

Well, I did use a set of tweezers to push it in, but it just slides back out of position, and I don't think I'm supposed to start my laptop with the LCD half apart...at least the disassembly instructions said to remove all power sources first...