LCD screen wearing out?

RonAshman · 04 Sep 2014

Hi,

I'm not sure this is the right place to post this, I'll give it a try. It's purely hardware related, not Windows 7.

The LCD screen of an old laptop PC (2008) is wearing out, I think.
Whenever the screen is turned on (because you turned on the PC or the screen went off due to inactivity) you'll see all faded like salmon colors and then it will work properly as long as you don't turn it off and on again. It's like it needs to heat up (?).

Should I worry?

I attached a video. You'll see that whites (in Google homepage) look like pink, then will look normal.
Movie 00 VID 20140904 054400649 - YouTube

Thanks in advance.

TVeblen · 04 Sep 2014

Could be a fluorescent backlight that is on it's way out.

Best to test: connect the laptop to an external monitor and see if it does the same thing. Use a VGA cable to a computer monitor, or if it has HDMI you can connect it to a TV. An older TV might have a VGA connection too.

RonAshman · 04 Sep 2014

Hi, thanks for answering.

I should have mentioned that before. No, it's not a problem with the video card, it's the lcd screen. It works ok when connecting it thru any of the 2 outputs it has (vga and s-video).

Should I consider replacing the screen? I mean, could it be that it's about to stop working forever? Or is it a normal thing on screens that have many hours of use?

TVeblen · 05 Sep 2014

No, it does not have to be the screen exclusively. It could be the back light.
An LCD screen must be back lit in order to produce an image. That back lighting is a separate component from the screen. Older laptops used a CCFL lamp to back light the screen, newer models use LEDs.

LEDs do not normally change color, but CCFL could.

When a display screen goes you will get a distorted image, lines and blotches, or blanked/missing areas. The amount or color of the light illuminating an image is not controlled by the screen.