The host is the most important thing here, since I am finding it hard to get a full replacement for the screen. If someone has an answer for a fix, that would be awesome.
Looks pretty toast to me but I guess you could try opening it up if you haven’t already and making sure the cable is plugged in all the way on both ends and not damaged. If fiddling with that has any effect at all then try replacing the cable.
Someone I know had a laptop that would pull it’s cable out from the motherboard over time just by opening/closing the lid! (HP iirc)
This is a weird problem. I’m going to open it up this weekend. For about a year it has seemingly randomly done this. Opening and closing the lid doesn’t seem to be the problem because I left it open for a couple of years with no issue. I posted here in hopes that there might have been a driver issue along the way. I’ll poke around and see if I can see a hardware issue.
To be clear, if it he happened on and off that eliminates a bunch of potential causes. It is entirely possible this is just a loose ribbon cable or similar, though it could be a different kind of intermittent. Does it happen on an external monitor? What about a live USB? Both of those will isolate whether it is hardware or software to some degree.
No problems on external monitor. Only the built-in has issues. I would like to be able to take it places. The issue is so intermittent that I can’t chase it down to one cause. I haven’t tried a live usb yet - I will do so as soon as I can.
I assumed display damage because every time I’ve seen these artifacts it’s been due to a damaged display matrix, but i agree that if it’s intermittent and isn’t some kind of unusual defect in the display, the ribbon coming partially loose sounds most likely, followed by cable damage (e.g., pinched by lid hinge).
Ribbons are usually pretty secure, especially from factory if tape hasn’t been removed before, but with enough heat (e.g. left in car outside) and jostling, the tape can loosen, and cable’s weight plus jostling can be enough for ribbon to pull itself out.
To quickly check without opening case i would try lifting the machine in two hands and driving it gently but firmly into your right palm (which would jostle the ribbon toward/into its terminal). If it’s loose, i would expect to see the display respond in some way after at most a few tries, if the ribbon cable is loose. If not, it’s still worth opening and re-seating ribbon to be sure, but jostling it a bit should immediately worsen or improve the visual artifacts, confirming the diagnosis.
This actually makes a tremendous amount of sense! I’ve heard one fan struggle for some time but never saw the temps get serious. Maybe they did and I didn’t notice it! I’m going to do as suggested with essentially banging it around once I get brave enough. Thanks a lot for the suggestions.
Damn, son! What did you do to it?
Just used it =/
Have you tried slapping it?
I was seriously tempted multiple times. Does gently closing and opening it many times count?
But in seriousness, as a rule it’s not possible to unfuck a display matrix, only replace. The easiest temp solution is an external. The easiest long term solution, if the manufacturer is no longer selling the part, is saving alerts for parts-only listings of that laptop on sites like eBay.
Yeah. I have an external. I was just hoping that this community might be able to find something I couldn’t. Best I have is that screenshot with the model number.
Oh, that sounds like a recent laptop, and ASUS laptops have high interoperability. I’m sure there are at least 3rd-party generics available.
Edit: like this for example https://ebay.com/itm/364157672993
Thanks a lot for the link! I was browsing Amazon and they all had questionable specs.
No worries. In case this is your first display replacement, few quick tips…
- Helps to skim video teardowns like this
- Take photos of internals of electronics when you open them up so you can reference them later after reassembly.
- Keep track of screws. Trick: unscrew but leave them loose in the holes of the case tray with pieces of tape over each of them. Then you can remove tray without concern.
- Bare display edges are especially fragile and often have coatings that scratch easy. Trick: leave protective film on, just put a few pieces of folded tape on edges so you can pull off after install.
- Your display connects to the mainboard with two connectors wrapped in gaphers tape the right side:
- Display ribbon terminal (tall one far left) is more fragile than camera/lid sensors (wide one far right). Trick: use guitar pick or credit card to lift clamp right to left, never knife
- Ribbon itself often has physical tabs or printed white/color blocks indicating seat depth. This makes it far easier to verify its secure before closing case.
Good luck!
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You’ve already got excellent advice, but I’ll add this to maybe save you some money.
Since you’re replacing it anyway, go ahead and yank it and get the part number off the back. As Septimaeus said, it’s likely used on several laptop models. Vendors always charge more when you’re searching for the laptop model. Search instead for the monitor model. Also, try eBay and other vendors. You might be surprised at the cost differences after a little shopping.
Online? Looks like there are plenty of lines on there already.
I’d prefer a large series of interlacing lines at a specific refresh rate. I posted here because I thought there would be a high percentage of people that could maybe diagnose the issue. I don’t think there is something like /c/laptopgore here.
Replace the flex cable.
While you’re in there pull the panel assembly out and take pictures of the model numbers.
Use aliexpress to find a panel when the flex cable replacement doesn’t fix it.
