Laptop screen broken, or maybe something more?

[large banana]

Gooday folks

laptop in question: Dell latitude D820

I am writing because my laptop has come down with a serious problem regarding my display on my computer. The appearance of the colours is distorted, there are horizontal lines accross the screen from top to bottom, and now if i leave the screen inactive for more than 5 seconds the screen goes bright and evntually black with the odd few green blobs remaining...odd.
This strange behaviour is present on the dell start up screen and there onwards.

fearing it is something more i hooked up an external monitor and enabled the screen. no problems. the external monitor does not present the above problems. no obvious slow downs in the compputers running behaviour.


so, the answer to this question may seem obvious but im not a technical person on laptop...but.
is my laptop screen toast in your opinion, or, could it be maybe the wiring? or something else?

i am writing this on the laptop with the external monitor.

Regards

 

[MindoverMaster]

Yea, you can get a new LCD off eBay for your model. I replaced several of them for different manufacturer models, its not hard, just need to know what you are doing.

 

[large banana]

well as additional information, i can tap the screen, shake it gently, to no change.

When I close the screen to turn the back light off, it sometimes comes back on from its black outs the the horizontal line and messed up coloured state...

So you think its defo the screen?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Well, it's not the graphics card. You say it works with a external monitor. Before you go get a new LCD, check the connections of it. You'd have to open your laptop to do that. Can you do that?

 

[PP Mguire]

I have a Gateway that started doing this crap little over a year ago. Blue bouncy lines in the white areas and red lines in black areas. Best Buy quoted me upwards of 700 bucks to fix it, and Staples (with best friend employee discount) quoted me 350. My room mates old room mate works in the repair area of Frys and said it was "The LCD inverter".....w/e that means. The other day, i was able to fix it real simple. Not saying this could fix your laptop but its a possibility (because external screen worked for me to). Find a way to get to where the cable from the LCD plugs into the laptop itself on the inside. Unplug it, and plug it back in. Thats all i had to do to fix my laptop and it still works. If this works then awesome, if not then you might need to consider replacing the LCD itself.

 

[large banana]

Ok so if i was to buy a new screen, do they come with the back light inverter? or is there not much chance of the inverter being broken...also if i was to fit it myself, how simple is this task?

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

If your current screen still lights up then the inverter is fine. The inverter powers the fluorescent light bulb that lights up the screen. If the screen lights up but displays lines and defects the inverter is fine and the problem is either the LCD panel itself or the wiring to the panel. Try moving the cable that goes through the hinge, often times the hinge will press on the LCD cable and break it causing the screen to display garbage even though the LCD panel itself is fine. I had something like this on my laptop (no lines but the colors would get messed up and occasionally the screen would go black) and traced it down to the cable being pinched by the hinge. Re-adjusted the cable and secured the broken part with tape and it works fine now.

If you can't get the cable to work you may need either a new cable or screen. If you're seeing individual lines this could be the panel itself as each row and column have a wire in a ribbon cable that will cause lines if damaged. Don't handle the screen by the edges if these ribbon cables are exposed as they are very delicate and can't be repaired if damaged.

 

[large banana]

Ok an update

I bought a new screen which came with a new inverter in it

Long story short, I fitted it and the same problem is occuring. the exact same problem.

Now...any suggestions? wiring maybe?

Edit. had the wiring out and found the smallest of exposed wires through the insulation. All though when the laptop was running i moved these wires round to see if the signal would hange, but didn't get anything. Still, it may be so far damged it can't be adjusted this way?