Hey guys. I'm new to these forums as a user, but have used your website for years. I don't know if this is the right place to post ths thread, but here goes:

I've had an HP Laptop, DV7 series for a couple of years. Up until this morning, everything was fine. Now, for some reason the screen has a pink tint to it, only when using some applications. It's strange. I believe it is either the graphics card or drivers, but do not have any know-how as to properly diagnose. Here's some more details:

When booting up, the normally black screens have a green fuzzy rain going on and when usuing some applications like chrome or word there's a pink fuzz around everything. There is also some ghosting, with what looks like a shadow of the mouse curser, which is itself unnaffected by the tint. Another strange issue is that when looking at the regular desktop wallpaper, all the colors are fine, save for a small sliver at the bottem of the screen. I'm left puzzled!

Is it the graphics card? A loose display cable? The screen itself? Or possibly a bad video driver that needs updating/removing. Please help, i'm completely at a loss. Thanks for any advice!!!


-Francisco

Is it the graphics card? A loose display cable? The screen itself? Or possibly a bad video driver that needs updating/removing.

Drivers don't just go bad, unless the hard drive becomes corrupted and you would probably have several other problems too. Connectors can come loose over time, but generally you could open and close the lid while watching it and notice changes.

So that pretty much leaves the card (most likely integrated into the motherboard and NOT a replaceable card) or the screen itself. So to figure out which, connect an external monitor to the notebook and flip the display up to there (typically with a Fn + function key combination). If the external monitor shows the same problems, the problem is in the notebook (motherboard). If the external monitor looks good, your notebook's screen is failing.

Although very unlikely, it could also be interference if the laptop is only being used in one place and you've just put a big pair of speakers or a microwave oven or something near to it.

I have a similar problem with my 5yr Toshiba satellite laptop M115-S3154 - yes 5yrs, but generally running fine.
No wierd colors, but after start up the screen goes EXTREMELY dim - I can barely see anything on the desktop - once I "find" the arrow pointer, I can select items, but virtually impossible to work with it. I can get it to shutdown. Trying now to save my files to external hard drive. I have not hooked up a separate monitor yet...any ideas...

Hi b747c9,

That's a completely different problem - it sounds very much like you have a faulty screen backlight or inverter. You'll almost certainly find that the laptop works fine through an external monitor, which will confirm this problem. I can't remember which way around it is (the inverter or the backlight) but one of them makes the screen very dim almost immediately after turning it on, whilst the other only demonstrates the problem later in the Windows startup process. In either case, the part should be fairly inexpensive if you replace it yourself - both are normally found at the bottom of the display panel inside the plastic casing. A competent laptop repair shop should charge you an hour for the work.

Thanx DJN, i'll take a look at that - i just came back in after a couple of hours - it flickered bright and went dim again - i'll try and get to it in the next week?? and hopefully respond back with success....side note, is their an easy way to "find" the pointer -- i try to move it to the bottom left - but it's just so hard to determine where the heck it is....

Originally Posted by b747c9

is their an easy way to "find" the pointer -- i try to move it to the bottom left

That's all that I can think of doing, other than going into the display settings and changing to a 'large' Windows theme or a larger mouse pointer or enabling 'pointer trails'. Of course, if you can't see the screen very well, then that will be hard too!

Francisco, have you been able to try an external monitor as Digerati suggested?

A simple test to see if the problem is due to backlight/inverter issues is to shine a flashlight into the screen and look closely - if you see the displayed image, then it is the inverter or backlight. As DJ noted, it takes a reputable shop about an hour, and parts are typically $50 - $150 USD, depending on screen size and availability. This is something users can do themselves, if adventurous and handy disassembling and reassembling these sort or things.