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Wayne Barron
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Dell Precision M6800 Monitor Flickering after drink spill

Hello All;

OK, a few weeks ago my son called me while I was working and informed me that he had placed his drink on my desk, and my granddaughter hit it causing it to spill all over my laptop.
I took the system completely apart and cleaned it with alcohol, and allowed it to dry for the weekend, before re-assembly and turning it back on.
Everything is working great, except I have to replace the keyboard, and am just waiting for the slow plane from China to arrive, to get it in.
This question deals with the monitor.
I have dual monitors connected to this laptop and the external monitor is fine, so this is not a graphics card issue, but a monitor issue.

Do I need to replace the entire monitor? (Do not see this as the answer)
Do I just need to replace the LCD screen? (This is what I am hoping)

Attached is a video of the flicking of the monitor.
Please let me know what my next step should be.

Thanks all.
Wayne

20191229_111335.mp4
DellDisplays / MonitorsLaptops Notebooks

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Wayne Barron

8/22/2022 - Mon
Robert Retzer

Since you have had the laptop disassembled, my first step would be to ensure that the video cable is plugged solidly into the motherboard of the laptop, then check. If it is working fine using an external monitor definitely you are correct in assuming the video card for this laptop is fine. It is rare that a spilled drink would cause the flickering issue, but a poor connection could.
Wayne Barron

ASKER
Thanks, Robert. (Cool name, it is my first name as well)

I will check that later on today.
Wayne Barron

ASKER
Hang on.
When my son called me about the spill, he did inform me that the monitor was flickering.
So, this was something that started with the spill, and not after the disassembly.
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rwheeler23
Wayne Barron

ASKER
This is a picture of the bottom of the screen.
There is actually 2 sections with this Screen discoloration on it.
20191229_121456.jpg
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Wayne Barron

ASKER
@MASQ
This is what I stated.

When my son called me about the spill, he did inform me that the monitor was flickering.
So, this was something that started with the spill, and not after the disassembly.

This happened WITH the spill, not before, but WITH the spill.
And when I finally dried everything out, the flickering was almost like what you see in the video.
Right now it is fine, and not flickering.
Sometimes I can work for upwards of an hour or more, before the flickering starts.
☠ MASQ ☠

Thanks, I'd still assume you've not got rid of all of the liquid though as the screenshot demonstrates.
Would recommend you strip down the bezel & lid and allow the panel to dry out properly and also disconnect the LVDS cable behind the video heat sink and the internal panel as you can get liquid running under the screwed down connector there.
Don't think you're going to need a replacement though.
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Robert Retzer

it is hard to know if the flickering problem is with the lcd screen or with the inverter or the backlight. spilled liquids would affect these components first before affecting the lcd screen. Good news that these are cheaper to replace than as the lcd screen.  But the yellow tinge on the screen,  that sounds like it can be an additional problem... with the LCD screen.
☠ MASQ ☠

There are no inverters, the M6800 has a fused backlit LED laminate panel
Wayne Barron

ASKER
@MASQ
I will most likely tackle this in a few days.
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Wayne Barron

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