What is causing these horizontal yellow lines on my laptop screen?
August 3, 2013 11:27 AM Subscribe
When I open my laptop I almost always see these horizontal yellow lines on the screen. What are they? Is this a serious problem? Can I remove them or is the screen reaching its end?
The laptop is an ASUS UL80J, and I bought it new in fall 2010.
The lines are not static but move around, normally always in similar horizontal lines but occasionally in crescent shapes across much of the screen. Gently moving the screen back and forth tends to get rid of them, but I have to keep the screen at certain angles relative to the keyboard.
My assumption is that the connection between the motherboard and the screen is somehow weak/dirty/somehow bad -- that's why I assume moving the screen has an effect, since I'm tinkering with that connection. Can I open the laptop and clean that connection to fix the problem?
The laptop is an ASUS UL80J, and I bought it new in fall 2010.
The lines are not static but move around, normally always in similar horizontal lines but occasionally in crescent shapes across much of the screen. Gently moving the screen back and forth tends to get rid of them, but I have to keep the screen at certain angles relative to the keyboard.
My assumption is that the connection between the motherboard and the screen is somehow weak/dirty/somehow bad -- that's why I assume moving the screen has an effect, since I'm tinkering with that connection. Can I open the laptop and clean that connection to fix the problem?
Best answer: Before you make any attempt to fix this, back up your hard drive.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 1:35 PM on August 3, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 1:35 PM on August 3, 2013 [2 favorites]
Best answer: You are probably right about it being the connection. Monitor signals get carried in three parts - R, G, and B (and a few other wires too, but when those other wires go the errors are more interesting and catastrophic). Note that in the RGB color model R+G=yellow - see here. The yellow lines are where the blue signal crapped out and so your white background is being displayed as R+G instead of R+G+B (because R+G+B = white). Therefore the part of the connection that carries blue is flaky. There's a cable going through the hinge and either part of that cable has become flaky over time (not fixable without replacing the cable) or the connection of the cable at one of the ends has become flaky over time (one end is often soldered and the other plugged in, so if it's the soldered end you are screwed, but if it's the plug-in end the unplugging and replugging should work great - the plug-in end is the bit most likely to fail).
Attempting to fix this MAY be easy and get you a few more years of life from your laptop. It MAY also destroy your computer forever and render it useless in the attempt. Feel free to follow pipeski's advice and take it apart and see if there is a loose cable by un- and re- plugging things, but only do it after following Chocolate Pickle's advice about backing up your hard drive.
I've seen people follow online instructions and get it working great! I have also seen people convert their computer to doorstop. As long as you are only unplugging and replugging cables, things are likely to be able to be put back together, though. So, if you are handy and careful, things should work out fine. However, the pain of lost data is so great that backing up is very worth it.
posted by pmb at 2:55 PM on August 3, 2013
Attempting to fix this MAY be easy and get you a few more years of life from your laptop. It MAY also destroy your computer forever and render it useless in the attempt. Feel free to follow pipeski's advice and take it apart and see if there is a loose cable by un- and re- plugging things, but only do it after following Chocolate Pickle's advice about backing up your hard drive.
I've seen people follow online instructions and get it working great! I have also seen people convert their computer to doorstop. As long as you are only unplugging and replugging cables, things are likely to be able to be put back together, though. So, if you are handy and careful, things should work out fine. However, the pain of lost data is so great that backing up is very worth it.
posted by pmb at 2:55 PM on August 3, 2013
Best answer: i had the video go out on a dell laptop years ago. turned out that the graphics chip was not correctly soldered to the motherboard, and the problems resulted in a class action settlement.
funny part... the hacker solution to the problem was baking the motherboard in an oven to reflow the solder under the graphics chip.
posted by bruceo at 4:04 PM on August 3, 2013
funny part... the hacker solution to the problem was baking the motherboard in an oven to reflow the solder under the graphics chip.
posted by bruceo at 4:04 PM on August 3, 2013
Best answer: Plug in an external monitor and see if you ever get this "static". The GPU solder(or just gpu failure) issue is a distinct possibility, and the torque moving the screen puts on the internals of the laptop may just be applying some pressure to the chip and temporarily making the problem go away(yes, seriously). If you own the ul80j variation that lacks nvidia graphics disregard that comment however.
If it really only happens on the internal screen, and moving it fixes it though.. i'd assume the cable had taken a crap, yea. The cables are quite often socketed at both ends and therefor replaceable. The fact that the cable is available as a separate part gives a lot of support to my theory that this laptop has a replaceable cable.
This is not a dirty connectors issue, and cleaning them wouldn't help. This is a "the cable got folded back and forth 10,000 times and is regularly exposed to high heat" problem. Several models of laptop have well known issues with these cables failing.
Reseat the cable, and if that doesn't help replace the cable. It's a cheap part, and it's probably even available cheaper if you look around on ebay...
Depending on how exactly that laptop is assembled the difficulty of this repair is somewhere between "A serious, time consuming tedious undertaking" and "For fucks sake!". You'll have to COMPLETELY remove the LCD to get to the other end of the cable, which includes taking the bezel off the display. You'll also have to remove the keyboard, and either the trim along the top of the keyboard or the entire top case of the laptop depending on how it's designed exactly to get to the motherboard side of the cable. This is a serious repair i'd dedicate a good 2 hours to doing myself, and i have many years of experience working on laptops. If you haven't performed an invasive laptop repair like this before, but feel fairly confident you can successfully attempt it i'd recommend taking a large sheet of cardstock, and drawing numbered "steps" with a pattern of the piece you just removed, and putting all the screws on the drawing of the entire machine or the area of it in circled boxes where the screws would go.
You will also need a nice set of electronics screwdrivers, possibly a tweezers, and either something like this or this for prying apart things like the clipped in place bezel around the display. Do not force anything and look very carefully at how it goes together. Most internal connectors were not designed to withstand any sort of pulling or tugging and can easily rip right off the motherboard(which, if it's the display cables socket, would obviously ruin your motherboard by leaving you with a screenless laptop forevermore)
Best of luck, and post back if you have more questions about the repair/process or need clarification on something. Personally, i'd go test with another monitor right this second and order the cable if the issue only appeared on the internal display, and be gearing up to do the repair the instant it showed up...
posted by emptythought at 11:03 PM on August 3, 2013
If it really only happens on the internal screen, and moving it fixes it though.. i'd assume the cable had taken a crap, yea. The cables are quite often socketed at both ends and therefor replaceable. The fact that the cable is available as a separate part gives a lot of support to my theory that this laptop has a replaceable cable.
This is not a dirty connectors issue, and cleaning them wouldn't help. This is a "the cable got folded back and forth 10,000 times and is regularly exposed to high heat" problem. Several models of laptop have well known issues with these cables failing.
Reseat the cable, and if that doesn't help replace the cable. It's a cheap part, and it's probably even available cheaper if you look around on ebay...
Depending on how exactly that laptop is assembled the difficulty of this repair is somewhere between "A serious, time consuming tedious undertaking" and "For fucks sake!". You'll have to COMPLETELY remove the LCD to get to the other end of the cable, which includes taking the bezel off the display. You'll also have to remove the keyboard, and either the trim along the top of the keyboard or the entire top case of the laptop depending on how it's designed exactly to get to the motherboard side of the cable. This is a serious repair i'd dedicate a good 2 hours to doing myself, and i have many years of experience working on laptops. If you haven't performed an invasive laptop repair like this before, but feel fairly confident you can successfully attempt it i'd recommend taking a large sheet of cardstock, and drawing numbered "steps" with a pattern of the piece you just removed, and putting all the screws on the drawing of the entire machine or the area of it in circled boxes where the screws would go.
You will also need a nice set of electronics screwdrivers, possibly a tweezers, and either something like this or this for prying apart things like the clipped in place bezel around the display. Do not force anything and look very carefully at how it goes together. Most internal connectors were not designed to withstand any sort of pulling or tugging and can easily rip right off the motherboard(which, if it's the display cables socket, would obviously ruin your motherboard by leaving you with a screenless laptop forevermore)
Best of luck, and post back if you have more questions about the repair/process or need clarification on something. Personally, i'd go test with another monitor right this second and order the cable if the issue only appeared on the internal display, and be gearing up to do the repair the instant it showed up...
posted by emptythought at 11:03 PM on August 3, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks all for your helpful comments. If I'm honest, I was sufficiently deterred by the suggestions to replace the cable (doorstop!) that I instead bought a new laptop. The old laptop is now living a second life as a headless NAS.
posted by crazy with stars at 9:56 AM on October 4, 2013
posted by crazy with stars at 9:56 AM on October 4, 2013
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You'll almost certainly find a detailed photographic disassembly guide online, or better still a guide to replacing the screen.
Sometimes the end of the cable works its way slightly loose. Lifting the little hinge and cleaning and reseating the ribbon cable will often fix issues with the LCD.
posted by pipeski at 11:45 AM on August 3, 2013