Flashing / flickering laptop screen?

Techn

Hi, i wondered if anyone could help.

I have an Asus UL30a laptop from carphone warehouse. Recently the screen has been randomly flickering, showing coloured lines (vertical or horizontal) and flashing on and off. These flashes occur rapidly and often dont stop until i move or tap the screen, or even the whole laptop.
This happens when plugged in and running on the battery. Its incredibly irritating, especially when it has a fit and i cant stop it.

Heres some pictures;





Carphone warehouse have twice sent it off for repair but returned it saying that couldnt find a problem! The second time it was returned it worked fine for a month or so, but then the problem returned.

No one seems to have any idea what the problem is

Myser

That may be related to a known nVidia chipset overheating fault. Do you know if the laptop uses an nVidia graphics chipset?

Techn

Myser wrote: »

That may be related to a known nVidia chipset overheating fault. Do you know if the laptop uses an nVidia graphics chipset?

I dont believe so. The info sticker on the palm rest has worn out slightly, but i think it says intel GMA.
I dont do anything graphically demanding. At most just watch videos and play a bit of football manager

Techn

Heres a video, if it works...

http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q19/lost989/?action=view&current=MVI_5743.mp4

rdwarr

Could be a loose connection on the inverter if a tap solves it.

Myser

As rdwarr says, it most probably a loose connection. You may need to replace the ribbon cable that connects the screen to the motherboard.

Have you shown the video to Carphone Warehouse? Can you replicate the problem in store?

Techn

Myser wrote: »

As rdwarr says, it most probably a loose connection. You may need to replace the ribbon cable that connects the screen to the motherboard.

Have you shown the video to Carphone Warehouse? Can you replicate the problem in store?

Thats the ridiculous thing, I have shown the staff in the carphone warehouse store and they have written detailed notes when sending it off to the technicians. But the technicians always come back saying they cant replicate the problem and see no issue. Even though i also included the photos and video on the laptop for them to see!

I cant see how that possible as when its at its worst you cant miss it. I can only assume they are putting off buying in new parts to replace because its out of their pocket and they wont do it until they know 100% for certain which part needs replacing.

They apparantly put it through some diagnostics machine and found no errors. Maybe this indicates it might not be a hardware issue per se, but as you say, a cable connection between the hardware?

If its just a cable that needs to be replaced then i'm happy to take it apart and replace it

Myser

If it is under warranty, don't attempt the repair yourself.

Write to the CEO of Carphone Warehouse showing the pictures/video. You should get a satisfactory response.

SteveJH200

Have you tried connecting the laptop to an external monitor? If that works okay then it's not the graphics chip or motherboard.

Techn

yeah i regularly connect it via hdmi to a tv and the tv screen is fine.

The thing is its technically out of warranty now (warranty ended in october). But the problem first occured one week before the end of the warranty. There was some issue booking it in for repair (database issues) but they eventually associated a repair voucher with my account so that i didnt have to pay even though it has now gone out of warranty.

They have used this voucher twice now as it is still valid due to the last two times no fault was found and no parts were replaced. The in store staff have been very helpful, its just the technicians who report that there is no issue.

GunJack

that is typical of a screen that's on the way out.....it'll be like that with random lines/flickering getting progressively worse until it's like that all the time. Go back in there and demand they change the screen