Laptop LCD screen turned completely white

What can you do if the laptop LCD screen turned completely white? From my experience I can tell that this problem may be related to the following:

1. Loose connection between the video cable and the LCD screen.

2. Defective LCD screen.

3. Defective motherboard (I assume the graphics card is integrated into the motherboard).

Here’s an example of a laptop with white screen. When you turn on the laptop, it starts but the image on the screen is completely white right from the beginning. In my case it was a Toshiba Satellite M45 laptop but this problem may occur with any other brand.

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Installing internal wireless card into an older laptop

This tutorial explains how you can install internal wireless card into an older laptop. I assume that your laptop is “wireless ready” witch means it has a slot for the wireless card and equipped with wireless antennas, but missing the wireless card. Why did I make this tutorial for an older laptop? Because all new laptops are sold with the wireless card.

I’ll take as an example my Dell Latitude C840 laptop. As you see on the picture, it has a slot for the wireless card and one antenna cable. That’s strange, most laptops have two antenna cables, white and black. One cable goes to the main connector on the wireless card, another cable goes to the auxiliary connector. Probably you’ll ask me witch antenna cable connects to witch connector? I think it doesn’t really matter because both antenna cable are identical.

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How I fixed laptop memory slot failure with a guitar pick

Is it possible to fix laptop memory slot failure with a guitar pick? Yes, it is. You will not fix the memory slot itself, but you can work around the problem.


Today I received a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 laptop with the following complaint:

The laptop starts and works properly, but recognizes only one of the two memory modules installed. The laptop has two 256MB RAM modules installed, but registers only 256MB.

First of all, I removed the memory cover to find out if both memory modules are installed correctly. The laptop had two 256MB Kingston modules installed and they were seated properly.

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Service manuals for Sony Vaio laptops and notebooks

Today I found a great source with service manuals for Sony Vaio VGN series laptops and notebooks. Links to the service manuals were posted on one of the Russian forums (comment 13). Not sure for how long these service manuals will be available for downloads but they are the time of wringing this post. Some files are large and it might take some time to download them, so be patient.

All service manuals are in PDF format and you can download them using below mentioned links.

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How to replace laptop backlight lamp (CCFL)

In this guide I will disassemble a laptop LCD screen in order to remove and replace the backlight lamp (CCFL).

Replacing the backlight lamp is not an easy task even for experienced technicians. If you do something wrong you will permanently damage the LCD screen and have to buy a new one. Proceed on your own risk and do not blame me.

Some recommendations before you start:

1. Work in a clean room. You don’t want dust and lint inside your LCD screen.

2. Make notes, so you know how to assemble your screen back.

3. Take pictures.


4. Before you remove something, take a closer look at the part and memorize how it is assembled.

5. When you are assembling the screen, remove dust and lint with compressed air. Do not use cloth.

The backlight lamp (CCFL) is located inside the LCD screen, so we are going to take it apart. In this article I’m not going to explain how to remove LCD from a laptop, it’s been covered before.

Here some examples:

Removing LCD screen from a Dell laptop.

Taking apart IBM ThinkPad display panel.

Removing screen from Toshiba laptops.

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DC power jack repair guide. Do-it-yourself instructions.

This guide will explain how to repair a failed or loose DC power jack on a laptop computer yourself. Here’s my previous post related to DC power jack related issues.

Disclaimer: I’ve made these instructions only for people experienced with soldering and repairing computers. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this job, please do not open the laptop or you can permanently damage your computer. Take your laptop to a professional repair shop instead.

Use this repair guide at your own risk.

First of all, you’ll have to disassemble your laptop and remove the motherboard. Here you’ll find disassembly instructions for some major laptop brands such as IBM, Dell, HP, Compaq, Toshiba. If your laptop is not on the list, you’ll have to figure out yourself how to take it apart.

For this repair you’ll need the following tools.

1. Soldering iron or soldering station. I use Weller WES51 soldering station and for this job I set temperature to about 800-850°F.

2. I use high-tech rosin core silver-bearing solder from Radioshack with diameter 0.022″ ( Catalog #: 64-013 ). I think standard rosin core solder will work just fine.

3. Desoldering pump for removing solder around component leads. I use Edsyn Soldapullt pump, model DS 017.

4. 99% isopropyl alcohol and tooth brash for cleaning the motherboard from flux.

5. If you need a new DC power jack, you can find a cheap one here.

Laptop DC power jack repair guide.

As you see on the following picture, the solder drop on the positive terminal looks different than on other three contacts. That’s where the problem is. The positive pin is not making a good contact with the motherboard and because of that power to the laptop cuts off when I move the power plug inside the power jack.

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Troubleshooting laptop with backlight failure

This laptop came for repair because of the LCD screen backlight failure. My customer complained that the laptop LCD screen is black but the laptop works with an external monitor.

Here are my steps for troubleshooting this laptop with the backlight failure.

First of all, I tested this laptop with an external monitor connected to the VGA port and the external monitor worked absolutely fine. I was able to get crystal clear image on the external screen even though the internal screen didn’t light up. If the external screen works fine, then most likely there is nothing wrong with the video card.

Notebook display assembly diagram

After that I took a closer look at the laptop LCD and noticed that the screen is not completely black. The laptop screen still works but the image is very very dull, you barely can see it. It means that the screen still gets data signal from the video card, but for some reason the backlight lamp doesn’t work.

From my experience I know that this problem can be related the lid close switch, faulty inverter board or bad backlight lamp. I checked them one by one.

If you have a similar problem, make sure the lid close witch moves freely. The lid switch is a small button located close to the LCD screen. This button triggers the hibernation or sleep mode when the screen is closed. If the lid close switch is dirty, it might get stuck inside the laptop case and cut off the power from the inverter board. The inverter board works as a power supply for the backlight lamp and if there is no power coming to the inverter board, the backlight lamp will not light up either.

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Removing and replacing laptop keyboard

These instructions will help you to remove and replace keyboards on various laptops. I will not be able to cover all models but you’ll get the idea. Steps for removing and replacing the keyboard are similar for most laptops.

Warning!

- if your laptop is still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, do not open the case or you can loose the warranty


- always remove the battery and unplug the AC adapter before you open the laptop case

- if you damage the keyboard connector on the motherboard you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard

- proceed on your own risk

Sony laptop

I took these pictures from a Sony Vaio PCG-K33 (model PCG-9S1L) notebook. Should be similar for some other Sony notebooks too.

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Toshiba Satellite model M35X - fixing power connector

Toshiba Satellite M35X model is known for it’s power connector problem. This issue has been covered on this blog a few times before in the following articles.

Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem

Failed power jack workaround (guide for a Satellite A75 notebook similar to Satellite M35X)

Here’s another well written and documented guide submitted by Stephen Macuch. Thank you Stephen for the great pictures and very detailed instructions.

This is a view of the laptop power connector before the repair:

Inside the yellow circle is the main power connection from the connector to the board – note that you can see a dark circle completely around it, indicating that there is no solid metal connection.

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Laptop does not start. Fixing the problem.

If your laptop does not start at all or it starts but will not boot properly, it’s possible that you can fix the laptop at home without taking it to a repair center. Here are some troubleshooting tips for you. I’m not sure if I can cover all situation at once, so I will update this post as more examples come into my mind.

Situation 1.

The laptop appears to be dead. You plug the AC adapter but the LEDs (power light, hard drive light, battery charge light, etc…) do not light up and the laptop will not react at all if you press on the power button.

First of all in this situation check the AC adapter. You can test the output voltage with a voltmeter. If you cannot do that, find a known good AC adapter and use it for testing the laptop. It is possible the laptop appears to be dead because the AC adapter is bad (and the battery is discharged). If you know that the AC adapter is working properly and it outputs correct voltage but the laptop is still dead, most likely you have a power issue on the motherboard (or power board on some laptops) and it has to be replaced.

If you have to replace the AC adapter, make sure you use a correct one. The output voltage must be exactly the same as on the original adapter. The output amperage has to be the same as on the original adapter or higher, but not lower.

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