[Solved] Laptop monitor flickering

[Azimuth]

A few months back, I started noticing a pinkish/orange tinge in the bottom left corner of my laptop screen. It's gradually spread a little further, although it's still mostly confined to the bottom left. More annoyingly, however, the monitor has developed a flicker over the last day or two, and it's definitely getting worse.

I did some reading up on this sort of thing, and it's recommended to open up the casing and reseat the cabling. Problem is, there're no visible screws anywhere on or around the monitor.

Anyone got any hot suggestions?

It's a 4-year old Gateway laptop.

[Tryxst3r]

Clip-on back plate. Unless the screws are hidden under a flap. Model/make?

[Wesley]

A few months back, I started noticing a pinkish/orange tinge in the bottom left corner of my laptop screen. It's gradually spread a little further, although it's still mostly confined to the bottom left. More annoyingly, however, the monitor has developed a flicker over the last day or two, and it's definitely getting worse.

I did some reading up on this sort of thing, and it's recommended to open up the casing and reseat the cabling. Problem is, there're no visible screws anywhere on or around the monitor.

Anyone got any hot suggestions?

It's a 4-year old Gateway laptop.

Let me guess, if you press hard on certain areas of the casing, the pink thing grows a little? I had something very similar, and it started from the Start button and gradually extended to the whole screen. I took the casing off myself and found the cables for the monitor, but they were underneath the keyboard and there was no way I could get to them.

I plugged in an external monitor, and it was completely unaffected. So, either it was my graphics card that was faulty, or there was a metal thing making a short with some point on the motherboard, or a wire was at fault. I still dont know what it was, because I got the motherboard replaced and the problem went away. Funny enough, my laptop is also four years old. Maybe its a sign for us to move on?

[CrashHelmut]

Maybe have a look at this website: http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_gateway.html

For instance, here is one for "How to get access to the inverter and LCD cable. (http://www.insidemylaptop.com/remove-inverter-lcd-cable-gateway-solo-1450-laptop/)". It is model specific though, but it should give you an idea.

[Gambit]

A few months back, I started noticing a pinkish/orange tinge in the bottom left corner of my laptop screen. It's gradually spread a little further, although it's still mostly confined to the bottom left. More annoyingly, however, the monitor has developed a flicker over the last day or two, and it's definitely getting worse.

I did some reading up on this sort of thing, and it's recommended to open up the casing and reseat the cabling. Problem is, there're no visible screws anywhere on or around the monitor.

Anyone got any hot suggestions?

It's a 4-year old Gateway laptop.

Have you got any speakers or a sub close to the screen? I know on normal CRT's they affect the monitor badly, other than that I would not recommend opening it, even though you probably don't have a warranty anymore you are risking doing greater harm to the screen. Get a quote if possible from the guys you bought the laptop from. If the screen needs to be replaced it might not be worth it in the end.

[Inferium]

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG

I just fixed my 3-4 yr old laptop...
AWESOME
It had the same symptoms as Azis...
First a small spot - then the entire screen. In the end it was all white.

All I did is followed these instructions as CrashHelmut mentioned in his LINK (http://www.insidemylaptop.com/remove-inverter-lcd-cable-gateway-solo-1450-laptop/)
Btw - this works with almost ALL laptops.

[Azimuth]

Well.

It stopped flickering and behaved itself for two days or so. Then about 30 minutes ago, the backlight died while I was talking to my editor on Gtalk. Which was actually kind of lol.

Bizarrely enough, rebooting appears to have fixed it for the moment, but I've got an external monitor plugged in just in case. And my sister's offered to give me her old Dell laptop as a replacement.

[Dead!Raven]

Azi, That started happening to my laptop just before it's motherboard Burnt out. I assume thats whats wrong.

[Azimuth]

O_O

I'd better back my **** up.

[Wesley]

Well.

It stopped flickering and behaved itself for two days or so. Then about 30 minutes ago, the backlight died while I was talking to my editor on Gtalk. Which was actually kind of lol.

Bizarrely enough, rebooting appears to have fixed it for the moment, but I've got an external monitor plugged in just in case. And my sister's offered to give me her old Dell laptop as a replacement.

That's definitely a motherboard problem. I know you're pretty familiar with the tech, so you'll understand me if I tell you it sounds like the ACPI chip just decided to temporarily fail, right? If your backlight switches off, its because your motherboard told itself to switch it off, in which case I think its due for a replacement sometime soon.

[Xcaliber]

Dont we have a official computer help thread?

[Azraphael]

Nice find CrashHelmet, I've got a 4 year old Sony Vaio with one line running down the screen. I am going to see if these tips help to fix it when I get home. I work with a lot of laptops that are perfectly fine except for (usually) a faulty LCD so this info will be great to have in future.

*Edit* Just saw these repairs are specific to Gateways but the concept is generally the same across manufacturers.