# Pink and Green lines on laptop screen



## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

Guys there is this pink sometimes green and sometimes blue vertical lines appearing on the bottom of my screen. I tried restarting but it was of no help. Can anyone tell me what it is and is it the fault of my graphic card or my LCD?!


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## l.vernon (Jul 29, 2014)

Highly likely thats your screen itself imo.
There is a PCB module usually just under your screen too, but if that's faulty the effects are usually much (much) worse.


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## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

OK. So what should I do? I mean,should I buy a new screen?


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## Marco277 (Apr 25, 2013)

If your laptop is old, that's exactly the problem.
If not, the laptop's most likely gone through some crap through its life that has caused a physical screen problem


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Brand & complete Model Number of the laptop?
Connect the laptop to a PC monitor. That will determine if the screen is an issue.


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## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

Marco277 said:


> If your laptop is old, that's exactly the problem.
> If not, the laptop's most likely gone through some crap through its life that has caused a physical screen problem


Its 2 years old. And I don't think it went through much crap...


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## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

Tyree said:


> Brand & complete Model Number of the laptop?
> Connect the laptop to a PC monitor. That will determine if the screen is an issue.


Ok, I will try that..


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## l.vernon (Jul 29, 2014)

If you need to replace your screen (likely) you can get them online, but you will need to be able to dismantle the laptop surround (and sometimes the base too) to swap out the laptop screen, there are also a few models that vary in the screen that was installed so it's best to dismantle first and check connectors etc to ensure they'll match the new one.

Screens range from £50-100 and then there's labour charge ontop if you wanted to take it somewhere to be done.


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## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

l.vernon said:


> If you need to replace your screen (likely) you can get them online, but you will need to be able to dismantle the laptop surround (and sometimes the base too) to swap out the laptop screen, there are also a few models that vary in the screen that was installed so it's best to dismantle first and check connectors etc to ensure they'll match the new one.
> 
> Screens range from £50-100 and then there's labour charge ontop if you wanted to take it somewhere to be done.



I guess i will take it somewhere to be done. 

Any idea why it happened even though its just 2 years old?!

Anyways Thanks for the help guys.


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## l.vernon (Jul 29, 2014)

picked it up by the corner of the screen whilst it was open? usually a pressure issue.

L


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## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

l.vernon said:


> picked it up by the corner of the screen whilst it was open? usually a pressure issue.


Yeah,I guess so :ermm:.

Anyways thanks :smile:


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## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

Again, what make/model of laptop? Many makes and models within makes are known for having poor lcd screen quality and they go out right around 1-2 yrs. old which is right when most Customer warranties expire! No coincidence, that!!

BIGBEARJEDI


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## Vinalla_Slice (Jul 13, 2014)

either teh screen, or the cable that goes to the screen. Either way, replace the screen i bet that will be it. they usually wear down from being opened/closed so much where the cable actually bends (if its a laptop). People that leave their laptops primairly open or closed wont come across this. its the people that open/close it multiple times a day every day


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## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

BIGBEARJEDI said:


> Again, what make/model of laptop? Many makes and models within makes are known for having poor lcd screen quality and they go out right around 1-2 yrs. old which is right when most Customer warranties expire! No coincidence, that!!
> 
> BIGBEARJEDI


Its Toshiba Satellite L840-A608


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## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

Vinalla_Slice said:


> either teh screen, or the cable that goes to the screen. Either way, replace the screen i bet that will be it. they usually wear down from being opened/closed so much where the cable actually bends (if its a laptop). People that leave their laptops primairly open or closed wont come across this. its the people that open/close it multiple times a day every day


Yep, I used to open and close it multiple times a day every day. :banghead: . I am, planning on replacing screen but it seems to be pretty costly


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## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

Thanks for getting back to us on your Make/Model. I used to work for Toshiba and know quite a bit about them; I bought over 400 of them for the last IT position I held; back then in 2000, Toshiba was undisputably the #1 laptop maker in the world and held like a 74% worldwide laptop market share. About 1 yr. after I started buying them, Toshiba corporate in Japan decided to stop assembling the Satellite series of laptops and sent those jobs to Japan. After that, The Satellites along with other models have fallen off and they lost their unique market-advantage. The offshore move killed the quality as it did with HP/Compaq and others. Much more than they will ever admit. 

With that being said, I see very few failed screens on Satellites. Most of their failures are poor Motherboards and hard drives, and things like power-on switches and touchpad circuit boards, fans, that sort of thing. They have scrimped on their quality so much, that they aren't even in the top 5 of any Fortune500 companies AVL (Authorized Vendor List), unless you have documented evidence to the contrary. 

Toshiba uses very high quality screens as you no doubt encountered when pricing replacements. That's one of the few things that still has some quality from the engineers who originally designed the Satellites back in the 90s. 

Other 2 options you have is to buy a tablet PC, or new Chromebook for <$199 brand new, or if you need a full size laptop 15" or better, Dell Inspiron 15 for $418. 

BBJ


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## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

BIGBEARJEDI said:


> Thanks for getting back to us on your Make/Model. I used to work for Toshiba and know quite a bit about them; I bought over 400 of them for the last IT position I held; back then in 2000, Toshiba was undisputably the #1 laptop maker in the world and held like a 74% worldwide laptop market share. About 1 yr. after I started buying them, Toshiba corporate in Japan decided to stop assembling the Satellite series of laptops and sent those jobs to Japan. After that, The Satellites along with other models have fallen off and they lost their unique market-advantage. The offshore move killed the quality as it did with HP/Compaq and others. Much more than they will ever admit.
> 
> With that being said, I see very few failed screens on Satellites. Most of their failures are poor Motherboards and hard drives, and things like power-on switches and touchpad circuit boards, fans, that sort of thing. They have scrimped on their quality so much, that they aren't even in the top 5 of any Fortune500 companies AVL (Authorized Vendor List), unless you have documented evidence to the contrary.
> 
> ...



Ahhaaa....Thanks for the info buddy. I seriously would like to prefer your 2 options but will replacing my screen cost so much?! A friend said that replacing it would be about Rs.6000(98.3$),[Not sure if it is true]


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## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

Sure thing. Usually, the LCD panel is the 2nd most expensive part to replace in the laptop after the Motherboard. :frown: In this case, checking eBay on your Model Satellite L840-A608, prices vary from about $44 to $111 U.S. with Free Shipping in U.S. Based on your comment on the price (not sure what monetary system Rs.6000 is?), but it sounds like you are outside of the U.S., so you would have to pay International shipping which is quite expensive in addition to cost of the item. For instance a few years back, I had a guy in Australia want to buy a music 4-track cassette from me for about $12. I went to ship it to him, and found out shipping any method that's trackable, which he insisted on was about $70 U.S. Soon as I mentioned this to him, he said forget it; he's not paying $82 for a $12 item and I can't blame him. This is one of the reasons I stopped doing International Sales on my eBay account. :nonono: 

Anyway; if you can find it on eBay in a country where you are (where is that?) or perhaps if in Europe or Africa you can find one in a neighboring country, you can get shipping for under $50 or $60. I think you are looking at between $94-$164 for cost of item purchase alone of course depending on exactly which country you are in. THEN, you'll have the cost OF LABOR to replace the display on your laptop. This typically runs $40-$90 here in the U.S. This would put you between $134 and $254 for parts and labor for this repair. Your friend could be right on the part cost, but the Shipping and the installation are what's going to make that repair add up depending on how strict your country is on import costs of items shipped to you via the Internet from outside of your country. :sad:

This cost estimate of course will vary widely, especially if you took this to a computer shop in your country and they can order the parts from *INSIDE* your country. You'd still have the parts and labor costs and that's going to be a $100-$200 U.S. repair or more. Typically Motherboard repairs here cost from between $175-$350 U.S. or more. Most hard drive repairs are around $80-$160 or so. Based on that, you can see why I stated that Display replacements are the 2nd most expensive item to replace. 

You also have to be careful that the friend used the exact Screen model (from the label on the existing Display panel), cause if he orders for you or you order from his source, you could get one that won't fit your exact model laptop. There are many L850's, so that could be a problem. Another reason to take it to a reputable repair shop! :wink:

My rule of thumb is that if a repair costs more than 50% of the cost of a brand new laptop replacement, it's probably not worth it. A brand new Dell Inspiron 15 in the U.S. from Dell direct is $418 to your door including free shipping. This means that if your local repair shop wants over $209 U.S. for the repair parts and labor, it's not worth it to repair it even for a 2 year old laptop. You also must remember that that 2 year old laptop has a 2 yr. old Motherboard and hard drive; both of which have 2 yrs. of use on them. Hard drives rarely last more than 3 yrs. in laptops; so if that's the original hard drive that came with your laptop, it's only got a year left before failure and then you're looking at another $100 repair! If you spend $209 now, and another $100 that's $309 and you'll be lucky if it lasts another 2-3 years on the Motherboard. And *THEN* you'll be looking at $500-$600 total repairs into the laptop for a 5 yr. old laptop. So, by next year it's quite likely you'll be only $109 away from spending enough cash on a new laptop versus putting that $309 into something that's got a limited life of maybe 3 more yrs. You're probably not aware of this since you don't repair computers for a living, but this might help you decide. :ermm:

Good luck, :thumb:
BBJ


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## Robin Varughese (Jan 18, 2014)

BIGBEARJEDI said:


> You also must remember that that 2 year old laptop has a 2 yr. old Motherboard and hard drive; both of which have 2 yrs. of use on them. Hard drives rarely last more than 3 yrs. in laptops; so if that's the original hard drive that came with your laptop, it's only got a year left before failure and then you're looking at another $100 repair! If you spend $209 now, and another $100 that's $309 and you'll be lucky if it lasts another 2-3 years on the Motherboard. And *THEN* you'll be looking at $500-$600 total repairs into the laptop for a 5 yr. old laptop. So, by next year it's quite likely you'll be only $109 away from spending enough cash on a new laptop versus putting that $309 into something that's got a limited life of maybe 3 more yrs. You're probably not aware of this since you don't repair computers for a living, but this might help you decide. :ermm:
> 
> Good luck, :thumb:
> BBJ


Thanks man, that was really helpful. I will think it over again :smile:


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