G74SX LCD passed away (green everywhere)

[sennevdb]

Hi guys,

Something pretty damn sad happened today. Put my G74SX in my backpack and went to school, which is what I've been doing for almost a year now. But while in my backpack, my LCD seemed to have decided to stop working properly and when I booted it at school, all darker colors were bright green and light colors turned pink.

Here's a picture of what the frontpage of this site looks like:


It's all good when I rig it up to a tv or external monitor, which gives us the certainty that it's the LCD and not the graphics adapter. I was wondering the following: has this happened to anyone else and is it possible that it's just a wire that is being pinched or loosened, or is it really the LCD that needs replacement? Should I open up this thing or just send it in under warranty?

Problem is that I need it for too many assignments for school (AutoCad, Photoshop and such).

Kind regards,
Senne

[dstrakele]

Your testing indicates the problem could be a bad LVDS cable connection, or defective LVDS cable, as well as possibly a defective laptop display. I'd bet one of the first 2 possibilities are more likely. Does wiggling the laptop lid back and forth, lifting the laptop by one corner, or pressing firmly on the laptop change the video behavior?

Technically, gaining access to the LVDS cable will void your Warranty, but you shouldn't have to remove any yellow warranty-voiding stickers. You'll have to decide if you wish to attempt repair yourself, contract the job out to a local computer repair shop, or send the laptop to ASUS for Warranty repair. Sending to ASUS will likely take the most time. Your time without laptop and out-of-pocket cost will depend on the exact cause of the problem and who you decide will perform the repair.

[cl-scott]

If it's under warranty, and you want to keep it that way, you'll need to send it in. If you don't mind voiding the warranty, you can crack the thing open and do whatever you want.

Based on my past experience repairing computers, this is typically (maybe 90% of the time in my experience) an issue with a bad LCD panel, but every now and then it does end up being fixed by reseating the LVDS cable or replacing it.

So it's up to you what you want to do with it, but if you decide you want to do an RMA then send me a PM or email and I'll collect some particulars to set up the RMA for you. Normally I like to let the call center have first crack at these issues, since that's what we pay them for, only stepping in if there's some special circumstance, but also based on experience trying to explain this sort of issue without photos can be... difficult to say the least.

[dstrakele]

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?14152-ASUS-G53SX-quot-Green-Display-quot-Issues discusses a similar issue. From the description, it seems like this user has some sort of grounding or other electrical issue. So sometimes the cause may be beyond the typical explanations from troubleshooting. In other words, I don't know what is causing this user's video issue, but it appears a new or better connected LVDS cable may not be the solution.

Here are some other similar threads for your reading enjoyment:

http://www.pchelpforum.com/xf/threads/dv2500-hp-laptop-with-a-green-screen.96214/

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=150846

http://www.asklaptopfreak.com/laptop-notebook-help/2007/01/01/laptop-displays-green-pixels-instead-b...

[sennevdb]

I think the safest solution would be to RMA it then, although I hate to be without my proper laptop for about 4 weeks probably. I already RMA'd it once because of some issue with the graphics drivers that keep crashing, I got the laptop back 4 weeks later and the only thing they did was reinstall Windows. Problem still exists to this day, but I found a fix where I need to switch off Nvidia Powermizer to prevent the crashes. Sad.

I'll step by the local hardware store where I bought it and ask the owner (very kind guy, I know him pretty well) if he would mind taking a look at wether or not it could be the cable, and if it is not, to send it over to Asus. A friend of mine had the backlight of his Asus die on him once, and he got it back in 2 weeks with a whole new display. Maybe I'll have as much luck as he has now.

[sennevdb]

Update and minor bump:

I just put some screws in that I had left out when I unscrewed part of the body, and all of a sudden the matter got a whole lot worse. Way more colors turned green, although I could still see images. Tried to backtrace the issue, and found out the following:

when my laptop grille (the exhaust thingy) is facing me, there are 2 screws to the left of it. When I tighten those, the green gets worse. When I loosen them or remove them completely, the green is only visible on parts of the screen where the colors should be dark. Since these screws don't touch the screen itsself, I think we can say that it's not the LCD itsself that is malfunctioning, right? It would be a cable that gets pinched somehow, or maybe something related to electric wiring as dstrakele said above?

[dstrakele]

That would be my thought, but I have little experience with this particular issue - and computers can be funny beasts!

[sennevdb]

I'm going to the local store where I bought it and tell him what I know, and ask him if it's right to assume that the problem does not lay within the LCD itself, but with the cable in between the LCD and the graphics card. If he says that that's probably the issue, then I'll ask him if he would mind trying to get it fixed and if not, he'll have to send it to the Asus repair center.

Fingers crossed for damaged cable. 😧

[sennevdb]

Got it back, three weeks after I handed it over to the shop manager. On the letter they sent with it, it says that they replaced the LCD completely. I'm pretty pleased. 🙂