laptop screen problem. suggestions?
category: offtopic [glöplog]
I have a 3 or 4 year old sony laptop with a problem on the screen. Sometimes it gets all grey/white for weeks. When I connect it to an external screen I can change the resolution a few times and the screen eventually comes to life. Any idea on what's happening? It's not the inverter.
go make a demo about it
lol
Could be dry joints on the GPU, seems to be a common problem. I managed to fix that on an old/broken powerbook I got for free - issue there was the screen corrupting badly (plus the screen had a tiny crack, which makes the bottom 50% pure grey).
If it's the GPU, you need a heat gun for solder. You have to move it slowly round the chip to melt the joints under it, while pressing the chip down, and without melting too much and bridging stuff. Not actually as hard as it sounds ;)
That fixed the corruption for me, which was enough, because I can now remote in to it (I didn't think a bad GPU would cause even remote display corruption!) Which leads me to...
If it's really fucked, take the screen off completely. You now have a perfect server - it's near silent, small, and very energy efficient. I have mine in a drawer where a computer keyboard + mouse is supposed to go, with an external HDD. It does file, print and backup perfectly. It even looks pretty cool with the lid removed (you want to remove the lid, because it helps heat flow and ventillation).
If it's the GPU, you need a heat gun for solder. You have to move it slowly round the chip to melt the joints under it, while pressing the chip down, and without melting too much and bridging stuff. Not actually as hard as it sounds ;)
That fixed the corruption for me, which was enough, because I can now remote in to it (I didn't think a bad GPU would cause even remote display corruption!) Which leads me to...
If it's really fucked, take the screen off completely. You now have a perfect server - it's near silent, small, and very energy efficient. I have mine in a drawer where a computer keyboard + mouse is supposed to go, with an external HDD. It does file, print and backup perfectly. It even looks pretty cool with the lid removed (you want to remove the lid, because it helps heat flow and ventillation).
Might also make sense to check the cable connectors of the screen...
Headless server ftw!
Also
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Might also make sense to check the cable connectors of the screen...
This turned out to be the problem on my mums old thinkpad.
The connectors thing doesn't make sense because the image is stable when it works... I had a problem with a hair dryer once when I melted the keyboard keys :D
With computers it mustn't necessarly make sense...
I worked in a computer store for over 2 years building and reparing PCs. I've seen some strange stuff happening.
I worked in a computer store for over 2 years building and reparing PCs. I've seen some strange stuff happening.
Yeah, I think "computer's aren't logical" should be about the first thing you learn in IT :)
Try this laptop cleaning device. You may already have one in your kitchen:
what happens when you plug an external monitor? Is it B/W too?
Quote:
Try this laptop cleaning device. You may already have one in your kitchen:
ISA cards tended to fare worse than PCI in the dishwasher for some reason. That was before the "powerball" though - maybe not enough rinse aid. Still fucking good for cleaning cds & dvds tho. Thanks Fred!
External monitor is fine.
go into your graphics card configuration dialog and toggle the black&white effect.
There is no black, only white ;)
have you tried pressing around the edges of the screen? Mine goes grey/white on the bottom half of the screen, it's because there's a crack in the screen (actually I can't see the crack, but if I press in just the right place sometimes the screen works ok.. a guy at work insists there's a tiny crack). Might be the same thing?
If the external screen works fine then you have a problem with the internal LCD cable. Replace it.