Resolved Badly flickering laptop screen.

What an idiot, this is what I call a cascade failure...

Moving my 30 Kilo printer, knocked over my monitor from the cabinet onto the laptop which resulted in a can of coke being thrown over the laptop, an external drive dropping about 2.5 feet onto the floor.

Anyway, I haven't even checked the HD yet... Monitor is fine and laptop is working except the screen is unusable due to the flickering. The coke didn't seem to gety into the innards (only a couple of drops on the keypad) but after checking everything the screen just flickers (I'm using the monitor now to type this).

It's an old system (see my system) so not worth spending too much to repair, any ideas for a cheap fix?

30 years of computing and I've never had an accident like this

 

Flickering might suggest a loose connection to me. It works using a monitor, so it might be the connection to the laptop screen.

You could try opening it up and checking for a loose connection. I expect it would located around where the cable connects to the graphics adapter. Also check that the cable doesn't appear damaged.

Can you tell where laptop suffered the damage? It is probably that location where the problem is. Hopefully, it is in the base/motherboard section, opening the screen can be tricky/fiddly. If connectors seem sound, it could be a broken solder.

See if there is a service manual available for download at the manufacturer's website. If not and it is a very popular model, enthusiasts may have made one up.

If there is a service centre in the area, the tech might be able to give you his/her assessment if you show it to them.

Matt

 

Cheers Matt,

Strangely (or perhaps not) the flickering has stopped and I'm quite happilly using both screens at the moment. Your loose connection does carry some weight though, I'm thinking that the tempreture may be a factor and I may see this problem repeated tomorrow once the laptops been cooling overnight.

I'll leave this unresolved in the meantime and get back to you in the morning.

If any locals hear a small explosion from the Dundee area tomorrow you'll know I've messed up again

Edit:

Meant to say I've already got the service manual and my newly relocated printer mad had better print it out after all the hassle it's caused. External HD checks out fine too

 

Oh no, I'm imagining Steve on the disco floor... (John Travolta, eat your heart out )

 

I'm one lucky chappy, Laptop powered up this morning with no ill effects whatsoever

(and no explosions in Dundee either).