Toshiba Satellite laptop screen issues

[01rangerxl]

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop that is approaching 5 years old. Recently the screen has started to flicker at times, or get black lines running across it. It's clearly a wiring issue since moving the screen corrects the lines and flickering.

The computer still works really well. It's still reasonably fast and reliable. I don't want to replace it if I can avoid it.

What do I need to do to get the most life out of the screen that I can? Is there a wiring harness I can simply replace, or clean, or do something to in order to fix the issue?

 

[EricF]

If you're feeling brave, you can take the cover off of it, or if the keyboard comes out alone that'll work even better.
You'll see a ribbon cable connected to the screen. What I do is carefully and gently remove it, blow it out with some canned and and reseat it.
on the older Thinkpads, this worked very well for me.

I haven't had a toshiba give me any screen issues yet.
(knock on wood)

 

[dtt004]

It could be the backlight that's failing. Most LCD's made this year come with LED backlights, similar to the Macs. A solid state lighting source such as that usually lasts much much longer than a cathode ray fluorescent backlight that usually equips most laptop LCD's and LCD TV's. The newest flat panel TV's are coming out with the LED backlight too to provide a longer lasting, more uniform, and more vibrant picture. But yea, on a side note, an LED TV is an LCD, it's just the light source are LED's.

So it could be the backlight.

 

[widman]

If it varies with moving the screen, check out the ribbon connectors. They can work loose. Google repair or dissasembly of your specific model and you will find good instructions for disassembly.
Set the screws up so you know where they go. Not really hard with a little thinking. I've even replaced the lcd screen inside it. The trick is the little connectors that sometimes slide open, leaving the ribbon loose.