"A screen",the pittiful cry they heard. Then more wailing and gnashing of teeth.

May 15, 2007 11:52 AM

What is it? Is it possible to repair? Or where on Gods green earth can I get a replacement? Slowly increasing white strip with sporadic coloured lines throughout on my notebook screen. Funnily enough it is more frustrating to look for the answer than it is to just try to ignore it.

Ok it was picked up by the screen and too firmly it appears. It started as just a few coloured lines and proceeded to spread inwards then turning white and getting larger slowly but surely.

It is a Sony Vaio VGN-B88GP (PCG-5B3P).

What gives me reason to think it's repairable is that I left it sitting close to the air con. When I came back and the screen flicked back on it was ok. Well I can't be sure completely but from when I was paying attention a good 3/4 of it was back to normal and then began to fade left to right back to white. So there must be hope... perhaps.

posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Sony Vaio = piece of shit. I recommend bailing out of the brand entirely, immediately. I've been through three and they all suck. Sorry this isn't more positive-sounding or optimistic.
posted by Mrs Hilksom at 12:24 PM on May 15, 2007

You can't really repair an LCD, but you can certainly buy a replacement LCD and install it.

Call these people, they may be able to help.
posted by disclaimer at 12:57 PM on May 15, 2007

My thinkpad has a vertical line on the LCD - I read something about how you can try to hold it by the bezel and carefully press either on the front or back (depending on the particular issue) giving the screen a bit of arc. It worked a little for me and reduced the size of the bar - apparently the problem has to do with some lines and/or connectors being loose. Of course, you could trash your LCD doing this, in which case see above.
posted by true at 1:10 PM on May 15, 2007

What's happening is that the connector to the LCD panel is coming disconnected, probably because of case warping.

Each row and sub-column (three per column) of the LCD has a wire connected to it. The driver electronics for the LCD actually raster-scans the display, energizing one row and one sub-column at a time, in sequence, so that it eventually visits every sub-pixel (three per pixel, RGB) on the screen.

"White" means that the pixel (all three subpixels) is not being energized. That's how liquid crystals work. If they're left unmolested, they organize themselves and become clear. So a big white section means the leads for the sub-columns in that area have become disconnected.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:21 PM on May 15, 2007

Mr. Steven C. Den Beste you tremendously fabulous man I could kiss you!! That is largely ALL I wanted to know!!

Now if one were to decide a molesting was in order. SOs intelligent eyes lit up at the prospect of his fixing skills being quite possibly suited to the task.

The case is likely warped but the hinge is kinda stiff so I would think it's mostly to blame. I suspect I could even sort the hinge out but how do I know if the warp is fixed? Is this the same way to know if it is happening again?

Are they wires you can solder ect? Is that how you would go about it or how does that work? Consider it in pieces because it is shagged either way so even just tips for avoiding disaster would be wonderful!

And thank you again for explaining it, I'm extremely appreciative for your bother. SO is pleased as he has 'fixing' to do and I have a more satisfactory answer than I even dared dream of.
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 7:51 PM on May 15, 2007

PITIFUL.

Sorry. It's driving me nuts.
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 7:54 PM on May 15, 2007

It just occurred to me I may need to clarify, my above comment was in reference to my spelling mistake in the heading...
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 12:55 PM on June 1, 2007