Member Avatar for Matrinka

Hello! I have a laptop and it is acting crazy. I'm hoping that some of you can assist me in fixing it! I have a Compaq Presario v5000 with a 15.4" screen.

Every now and then my laptop's LCD screen turns into a vertically striped mess (all color, no black). It looks somewhat like this:

http://www.laptoprepair101.com/wp-images/LCD-screen-no-image.jpg

My warranty is up and I don't feel like paying the expensive rates to have someone repair this for me. When I use an external monitor, my picture is fine. If I unplug my computer and shut it down it is fine upon start-up about 40% of the time. Things do not repair themselves if I press on the screen, but things WERE working as normal if I flicked it up until last night. When the stripes appear their colors reflect the black screen of booting, blue screen of the window start up, and my desktop wallpaper colors. Unfortunately, all I see are colors. If I'm patient and keep trying to reboot, eventually I'll turn the computer on and everything will look perfect again. There is no hint of there being anything wrong with the LCD - everything looks good. However, if I leave the laptop on long enough it will degrade into the stripey colored mess and not restart prefectly until I play with it (ie, shake, flick, flip upside-down, remove the power and battery... ) Eventually, it will start up and look good again.

Do I have a loose connection somewhere in the cables? Do I need a whole new LCD or can I just replace something like the screen inverter part? Do I need new cables? I believe that I can replace any of these on my own.

I shopped around for a new LCD screen, but they are around $150+ with shipping. Considering that I can buy a new laptop for around $500, it feels just wrong to pay that much.

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Member Avatar for UHCoog05

I can tell you a few things:

1) It's not your inverter. The inverter simply powers the backlight.
2) Yes, it could be a loose connection. For example, the video cable that plugs into the back of the LCD screen.
3) If the laptop displays fine on an external monitor, it typically means you need a new LCD screen. If you don't find a loose connection, chances are you need a new LCD screen.

What you should do:

1) Follow these instructions to get to your video cable and make sure it's in the slot securely.
http://www.screentekinc.com/lcd-removal-instructions_en,compaq.shtml

2) If the cable is not loose, write down the screen part number on the back of the screen (LTN154X3-L01, LP154EW01 etc.) The part number should have 154 in it, being that it's a 15.4 inch screen.

3) Search Google and eBay for new screen using the part number. You will get a better deal when you know the exact part number that you want.

4) If you don't want to bother to fix it, contact me and I'll buy it :)

Hope this helps.

Member Avatar for Matrinka

Thanks for the info -- I'll try just fiddling with the cables and price the LCD! I'll keep you in mind if it gets too expensive.

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