Laptop screen, no display, no it works but greeny in colour. Please help.

[Paul Sheldrake]

Hi all, after 1 minute of advice from you please, a friend left me with her laptop overnight, screen was black, I tried another screen luckily had one with same connections and nothing, tried an external monitor via the VGA, still nothing, took out the hdd and booted it from my desktop, hard drive is fine and boots great

I advised the lady it is probably your graphics chip, I put it back together with original screen and she took it home, she says she booted it up and it now comes on fine but has a green effect to it, can you confirm this is the GPU as she doesn't believe anything i'm saying lol?

This is because she has taken it to a computer shop...

They have told her I have blown the GPU, even though the screen is displaying.. with a green effect.. and that the laptop is only fit for the bin and should be thrown out.

I have advised her that the issue is common on overheating laptops and the laptop is not fit for the bin, a new motherboard from ebay for example is only ~£50

Am I right in saying the issue is due to the laptop having a poor cooling solution and the chips hitting 80 degrees and upwards (idle that is) AMD ... which causes PCBs to flex... which makes the GPU lift from the board... the problem with lead free solder is it isnt even remotely as flexible as lead solder... so when the gpu lifts it causes stress fractures... ergo... display connection faults.. and gpus needing to be reflowed... etc etc etc

She is moving towards asking me for compensation for damaging the laptop I'm sure, I took no risks with the laptop and the screen wasn't working when it came to me, when it left me the very next morning the screen was working, (with green tint)

Any advise even if brief would be appreciated. Many thanks.

 

[ganon11000]

you can't "blow" a GPU (typical PC shop con) but what has happened is the solder has cracked on the GPU and when you re-seated the heat-sink you changed the pressure levels which probably changed the pins that are connected meaning it comes out in a weird green color.
If you did "blow" the GPU there would be no picture.

In simple you are 100% right in you diagnosis ... although the PCB doesnt flex or the gpu lift, the solder cracks.

if you have a heat gun you could fix it yourself or, as you said, a new motherboard is always an option.

Could I ask if it is a HP DV series or a Compaq F500 series?

 

[Paul Sheldrake]

you can't "blow" a GPU (typical PC shop con) but what has happened is the solder has cracked on the GPU and when you re-seated the heat-sink you changed the pressure levels which probably changed the pins that are connected meaning it comes out in a weird green color.
If you did "blow" the GPU there would be no picture.

In simple you are 100% right in you diagnosis ... although the PCB doesnt flex or the gpu lift, the solder cracks.

if you have a heat gun you could fix it yourself or, as you said, a new motherboard is always an option.

Could I ask if it is a HP DV series or a Compaq F500 series?

Thank you very much for your reply, highly highly appreciated, very grateful mate!

 

[hang-the-9]

I don't see how it's possible you damaged anything since when you looked at the laptop it had no image on it at all, and now does.

Video card is bad on the system.

 

[Paul Sheldrake]

I don't see how it's possible you damaged anything since when you looked at the laptop it had no image on it at all, and now does.

Video card is bad on the system.

That's what I said, I've been fixing laptops for years, I guess any idiot can open a PC repair shop these days..

Thanks for your reply mate.