Laptop LCD display image distortion / artifacts

[Forerunner]

Hi everyone,

I have an issue with the laptop's display:

• The colors and contrast on the laptop screen flicker and distort when the screen / lid is moved, flexed or pressed.
• When the distortion comes up, only bending / pressing / moving will restore the good image.
• The image might become unstable by itself (without tampering with the screen), in which case the paragraph above needs to be applied.

By researching and googling I managed to narrow down the problem into two possibilities:

1.  The flex cable that connects the LCD to the main board might be damaged.
2.  The LCD display itself might be damaged.

I am uncertain about which one is it, so  I turned to the HP forums for advice.

I will present here my conclusions and what I have tested (and why I am uncertain):

First I started off my reconnecting and reseatting all the cable connections, so it is not a loose cable.

I also tested an external monitor, no problems.

Movement on the main board and its video connector also does not affect the problem. Board part is OK.

The problem persists in BIOS, it is definitely an hardware problem.

The slightest touch on any of the corners of the screen and also the bottom part (causing a very slight bend) affect the image display.

With the opened computer, moving the cable while the display is on causes sometimes distortion if the moved part is near the screen (the near it is to the connector, the greater the probability of causing distortion, albeit small), which leads to either three possibilities:

•  The cable is damaged near the connector (seems unlikely, this part is never subjected to stress), which could explain why moving it there causes some distortion (but less than bending the screen).
•  The LCD screen is damaged and sensible to movement, because moving the cable near the connector slightly applies forces on the LCD screen (bottom part where the LCD circuitry is), also explaining the image distortion.
• The connector pins have some problem and any slight movement coming from either the cable or LCD might disrupt the image (however, the connector appears to be in pristine condition, never been tampered with before and looked neat and clean, all the pins straight and new-looking).

Causing any bend at all to the LCD seems to disrupt the image, or sometimes correct it if it is already disrupted. It seems to happen even if I avoid as much as possible to cause movement on the cable / connector, but there is no way to be sure because any movement on the screen might slightly / residually move the connector / cable zone.

Therefore I am more inclined to believe it to be related to the LCD, because it seems to be the most sensible to movement (sometimes it starts to flicker by itself until I bend it or move it to make it stop).

However, one cannot be sure, since the LCD's controller circuits are on the bottom, including the zone where connector and cable are. Also the positioning of the lid can fix the problem, but it seems to be a coincidence because to move the lid I need to apply pressure on the screen, and no lid position fixes the problem, I have either to keep pressing the screen or moving the lid back and forth until the image is acceptable...

Is there any other way of troubleshooting?

Is the next step purchasing either a new cable or a new LCD?

Parts:

LCD screen / Display panel  - 720557-001

Display panel cable - 720536-001

Thank You for your help in advance.

[Barachiel · Accepted solution]

@Forerunner

Thank you for posting on HP Forums, 

Barachiel is at your service. 

I Understand you are in need of support,

And to help you out, I'm sending out a Private message with the required information's,

Keep me posted,

Good Luck. 🙂

[Forerunner]

To update everyone, the problem was indeed the screen.

Replaced the cable, nothing... Replaced the screen, perfect.

[Raj1788]

@Forerunner

Thanks for the reply,

It looks like you were interacting with @Barachiel, but he is out for the day & I'll be glad to help you out. 

I'm Raj1788 & I'm at your service. 

I'm glad to hear you found the solution you were looking for.

Thanks for taking the time to let the community know about the solution!

Take care now and do have a great week ahead.

:)Cheers:)