How can I fix my Compaq Presario v5000 screen?

April 30, 2008 1:26 PM

Compaq Presario v5000 screen is broken. How can I fix it?

Warranty is up, so I'm on my own. The picture is fine when hooked up to an external monitor, which leads me to believe it's not a software problem. When you shake the LCD a bit the whole screen will display, but then the bottom half of the screen will freeze and stay static while the top half changes as you are opening an app or whatever.

I thought it might be a loose connection, but after some disassembly and kind of playing with the connections I can't find it. I'm ok with replacing parts. Do I need a whole new LCD or can I just replace something like the screen inverter part? (What does the screen inverter do by the way? I saw the parts on ebay) New LCD screens for this laptop are around $150 =( so with good laptops available for around $400, I don't know if I can justify it.

posted by banished to computers & internet (3 comments total)

I am not a computer repair expert, but I have dissassembled my Toshiba 5205's screen several times and did many repairs on it. I can tell you with a good amount of certainty that the sympoms shown in your picture are not due to inverter board or the CCFL lamp (the two cheapest replaceable parts in your LCD). Both of those items are power-related, not display related.


I suspect there is a loose connection somwhere in the bundle that leads from your motherboard to the back of your monitor. What do you believe caused this problem in the first place?
posted by yoyoceramic at 1:34 PM on April 30

I'll speak from my experience with a few Apple LCDs - it's probably the data cable for the LCD. The inverter cable provides the voltage necessary for the panel, while the data cable carries the information to be drawn on the screen. I think this is what you need to replace - and it's possible that this might be what you're looking for. I'd check the part # of your panel against what's listed in the description for that item, and go from there.
posted by god hates math at 1:40 PM on April 30

Yoyoceramic is right, it's not the inverter or backlight. If those were out, you would have no light coming from the screen, but if you shined a flashlight at it you would be able to see that the image is there.

If you can jiggle it and get changes in behavior, then you might be in luck. Have you already tried to disconnect and reconnect the computer end of the cable? (Probably under the keyboard, in god hates math's link it's the right hand side.) If you have, you need to pull the display part of the computer apart.

The service manual is here. (PDF)

Read chapter 4 and then perform the steps listed in 5.12. Once you get the LCD panel out, look on the back for the very flat data cable (in the left of the above linked photo). Pull it out gently, clean any dirty connections and reassemble it. There's usually a piece of tape holding it in place. Make sure to replace it.

If it's still acting flaky after that, you probably need to replace the cable. Or the panel itself.
posted by gjc at 8:25 PM on April 30