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mark_D74Flag for Ireland

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Intermittent problems with laptop LCD panel

Hi,

I have an EEE PC here with strange artefacts which come and go intermittently.  It has the following 4 states:

1. Normal
2. Distorted as shown in the attached image, distorted part of screen flickers
3. Fine horizontal lines which flicker
4. Completely black

It reacts to movement of the netbook's lid and can always be made distorted or normal by working the lid forward and backwards a little.

I have disassembled the machine and held the screen in my hands, and I could only with difficulty induce any distortions (flicking it back and forth as it would if it were attached to the lid).  I reseated the VGA cable both at the motherboard and back of the screen, but it made no difference. The image on an external monitor is perfect, even when the laptop's screen is distorted.

So, I'm presuming that it's either the screen or the VGA cable (maybe getting pinched as the lid is moved back and forth).  Has anyone any thoughts?

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Did you inspect the cable at the hinge point?
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@vincem1099 Yes, this laptop needs to be pretty much disassembled to get at the screen. It looked normal.
Did the distortions occur if the when bending the cable back and forth?

@vincem1099 Not really, I tried to reproduce the problem specifically be bending the cable back and forth at that point and it didn't seem to make any different.  Nor did waggling the cable about at any point on its' length.  I even tried tapping where the cable meets the motherboard and where it meets the back of the screen.  It's pretty strange, it's a lot harder to reproduce the problem when the screen is free of the chassis it's screwed into.
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nobus
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Just as an update, I'm still not certain whether it's the VGA cable or the screen that's at fault.  Although the distortions would normally indicate a faulty screen, manipulating the cable now sometimes reproduces the effects. So, I've ordered a cable.  I'll update this as to whether that fixes the problem when the cable arrives.
i hope for you it's the cable, but i would be  flabberghasted if it was not the screen - but strange things may happen in 2012
i still suppose bad screen
The motherboard died either before or during the fitting of the new VGA cable.  So, either it was a deteriorating motherboard problem or it is something else we will never know.
agreed