Laptop screen issue. Help diagnose/repair needed! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 09, 2016, 12:23:15 pm
content: Hi folks,I noticed this issue yesterday and I'm not sure what is going on. I was playing around with a USB stick version of Remix OS (Linux/Android Live OS) and left my laptop a few hours. Something must have happened, when I returned I found it stuck and my USB 8gb thumb drive was toast. When I went to try and open it, always showed 0gb space, 0gb free, and would say "no media" in DISKPART. Anyways, I got the USB thumb drive fixed using a low-level formatter from Phison since it looked like the controller chip on it got corrupted somehow.Meanwhile, I started looking at my computer screen and it is showing these 7 short lines near the top edge of the screen (see attached photos). There are 2 really small ones, 4 medium ones and 1 really long lines. I usually don't notice them but this is bugging me since I can't understand how this happened.I've seen issues with flatflex bonding but usually it creates a vertical or horizontal line going completely across the screen. In this case, most of the lines are only 4-5mm long, and the longest one is about 12mm. It is not completely black either, the lines vary in color. They tend to be mostly greenish.I've tried pressing on the screen and bezel, no change. I've tried a program to randomly change pixel colors (I don't think it's a stuck pixel) to no avail. I've rebooted and let the machine run cold for a while. I've booted into other OS's and BIOS screens... all still there. So it is definitely something with the display, just not sure why it happened as I did not cause any physical damage to the machine.I don't want to open up the screen at this point and start mucking around with the connectors for fear I may worsen things. It's a Lenovo T410. Thanks for any clues as to what may be going on?[EDIT: I'm going to post another message with the remaining attachments as they exceeded the max size per post]

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 09, 2016, 12:24:17 pm
content: More close up photos...[EDIT: Doing a bit more research, I am venturing to guess this is LCD leakage and nothing to do with the connector cables or physical electronics connection.... Still, I am not sure what caused it as I don't recall anything happening to this part of the screen].

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 09, 2016, 12:54:39 pm
content: 100% LCD panel damage. Usually happens after some mechanical impact. All you can do is replacing a whole LCD panel to fix it.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 09, 2016, 01:08:22 pm
content: Hmmm... somebody in the office perhaps brushed by it with their coat or zipper (or a loose plug thrown) while I was away at a meeting.LCD's are about $40 on eBay. If I can live with this (I barely notice it) I will manage for now, as long as it doesn't spread. Like I said, if you are confirming it is LCD itself and not the connectors, I'm not going to risk messing it up even further. I can live with it.

author: stmdude
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 09, 2016, 03:46:21 pm
content: JFYI, there's a bunch of information and videos out there about swapping LCDs in Thinkpads. It's basically a 15-minute job.Oh, and if you go ahead and replace the LCD, the Thinkpads screens can usually be upgraded easily. If not extra resolution, at least better colors.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 10, 2016, 01:06:18 am
content: which version T410 is it? NVIDIA or intel? if its nvidia it will be cheaper in the long run to buy new laptop instead of buying lcd today and new motherboard in a while

author: aargee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 10, 2016, 06:31:25 am
content: I had a HP with similar symptom after the end of a USB cable hit the screen. The problem slowly spread as a cluster of vertical lines.New screen was required.

author: urbis
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 10, 2016, 01:34:36 pm
content: I have a 14" panel from a T440p, never used.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 10, 2016, 03:02:15 pm
content: Quote from: Rasz on May 10, 2016, 01:06:18 amIts an Intel version. The product ID: 25222AU. Intel Core i5.I'm not sure how inter-swappable these screens are from one laptop to another in the Lenovo product line. I believe I've got the lower resolution one WXGA (1280x800), not the WXGA+ one.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2016, 03:19:40 am
content: STRANGE DEVELOPMENTHi everyone,I have been working on my laptop and noticed something odd.... the "damage" isSHRINKING!Check out the photos from today, compared to yesterday. Some of the lines have disappeared, and the ones that remain no longer stem from the edge of the display but start a bit lower and look shorter... they are fading!I have even put together a comparison photo showing yesterday compared to today (see this and next post for images).What is going on here?

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2016, 03:21:08 am
content: Here are the last 2 photos, since I was over max 2 MB attachments on last post.A close-up of the remaining lines, and the "change" comparison photo showing yesterday versus today.Any ideas? Is this some kind of sticky pixel issue? Is it in the display, or the graphics memory? I didn't do anything different. By the way, my Windows background is some kind of forest scene and I'm wondering if the green is coming from that? Maybe it is burning itself in somehow?

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2016, 06:00:04 am
content: might be even moisture, its 7 year old junk lcd, who knows

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2016, 09:03:35 am
content: There used to be stuck pixel exerciser programs around - they basically just cycle the screen through every colour state with various patters for an extended period of time. I'm not if these work, although they presumably do in some cases, it might be worth searching for a freeware one (with appropriate precautions). If the display seems to be recovering then this might speed the process.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 12, 2016, 01:36:32 am
content: I usedhttp://www.jscreenfix.com/which did nothing... but the problem seems to be going away on it's own, even without the pixel cycling.I'll report back in a week with more photos. Lucky I didn't jump in to take the screen apart and start messing around.(EDIT: I'm also tryinghttp://www.aurelitec.com/pixelhealer/but it also seems to be doing nothing)

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2016, 01:49:21 am
content: STATUS UPDATE:I've noticed some additional improvement in the last few days. I've run one of the aforementioned pixel fixing programs, maybe it did something, maybe not? Honestly I didn't notice any difference while it was actually running comparing before/after. The only differences appear after reboots, or when the system is powered off for long periods. The dead pixels appear to be fading away. See attached images.... Just a faded amount of green/yellow tint is now showing.I think whatever the issue was, it seems to be clearing up. I still have no idea what could have caused it.I did reboot one time a few days ago and noticed lots of short little black lines (like the ones on the previous images) but all along the top edge of the screen. First thought was...... I hoped it wasn't coming back, it looks like it worsened. Anyways, that resolved itself as well once I restarted the system.All good so far. For now... just waiting and not doing anything more.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2016, 01:59:43 am
content: The liquid crystal is a layer all across the screen, without any separation into pixels. Pixel boundaries are just on the electrodes. The crystals can coagulate and form agglomerations that resist changes in the electric field, leading to spots which don't respect pixel boundaries. (By contrast a true "stuck pixel" is a fault in the thin-film transistor on glass that controls the field to that pixel.) These crystal defects don't always result from physical damage, sometimes they just form for whatever reason. One of the ways of removing them is heating the panel while applying a 60 Hz flickering pattern. In some cases they can also shrink with normal usage if there is enough alternating electric field.

author: Raj
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2016, 09:18:48 am
content: This used to happen a lot on moto defy ...I used to fix it by putting it into fridge (But i dont advice doing it )...google moto defy screen spot...my one is ok now but here's some examples-https://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FDClZt5U.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.xda-developers.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D2408117&docid=ae_Qa51z9jjTzM&tbnid=UWaWHPdJEtIj4M%3A&w=1843&h=2457&ved=0ahUKEwiZ_4nOod7MAhUmXqYKHUKtAQsQMwgcKAAwAA&iact=mrc&uact=8&biw=1360&bih=643https://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fi1260.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fii567%2Fjkmoran92%2FP5170014.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.xda-developers.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D1659250&docid=u-AuFC1DtWAM1M&tbnid=4XzdfCTL6L3xdM%3A&w=768&h=1024&ved=0ahUKEwiZ_4nOod7MAhUmXqYKHUKtAQsQMwghKAUwBQ&iact=mrc&uact=8&biw=1360&bih=643

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2016, 12:09:32 am
content: Almost Gone!Well another day has passed and the issue has faded even more! I can only see 2 faint greenish lines (yesterday there were about 4). See the photos attached. Seems like every time I turn off the machine, go to bed, and in the morning I turn it on.... it gets smaller. I'm not doing anything else. No temperature changes, no pixel fixing program, nothing! Maybe as someone mentioned, the liquid crystal is "untangling" itself and responding once again to the electrical charges. As you can see in the close-up photo, the "black" spots affect mostly the blue and red pixels in the problem areas, so more of the green light shines through... giving it the greenish tint.Time seems to be working here all on it's own... to heal the wound.But if I only knew what caused it in the first place, I could prevent it from happening again. Certainly I won't ever boot "Remix" Android off a USB... as it got stuck and went into some infinite loop for a few hours while I was gone. This had the effect of killing the Phison chip on the USB drive (rendering the thumbdrive toast, not mounting at all in Windows, until I reset the controller chip using a 3rd party program).... but also killed my screen. I got the thumbdrive back to full capacity and mounting after. Now I wonder if they are related? Did my screen go funny before or after I used the reset software?Could a current spike or "electrostatic shock" to the screen (maybe someone electrostatically charged brushed across that area as they were reaching over the computer to do something) have caused both my USB thumbdrive to get toasted, causing the machine to be stuck in the reboot screen and unable to load the rest of the OS, and also the screen issue at the same time? I don't know.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2016, 10:51:57 pm
content: Going... going... Gone!Final update. One week has now passed since I almost certainly believed my screen was doomed. Nothing I did helped, just time. The defect is gone. I learned a peculiar and probably useless lesson... Don't take it apart.... Turn it on and off and on and off and waaaaaaiiiiiiiiittttt.