Laptop screen suddenly ruined?

robgoingcrazy

Have an Asus laptop from Argos, bought in April this year.

Does the job, but today I was using it and suddenly the screen went completely wrong - very suddenly, as you see below:



The latop itself is working fine, as I found when I stuck the VGA connector in the TV (I also have a monitor I can use for now but it's not ideal!)

No problems at all - then wham, gone - anybody any ideas?

I guess I will have to wipe all my confidential files off the laptop and drag back to Argos, as it's inside 12 months do I stand a chance of getting a replacement?

Realise that's for another forum maybe - but am curious what might have suddenly gone wrong to turn my screen into a 5 year old child's drawing and it's stuck like that?

robgoingcrazy

I've been reading around and some people say this is physical damage caused by dropping or hitting a laptop - but this categorically didn't happen... I would not be so puzzled if it had, it was just working fine one minute, then this.

Just hope I don't have to have an argument with Argos telling me I dropped it...

Very bizarre

EdGasket

The graphics chip has overheated and become partially detached from the motherboard. Its due to poor soldering and/or cooling. Happened to two HP laptops I have. Backup your files quick because the external monitor socket will also go at some stage. Then get a replacement from Argos. Luckily you are in warranty from a good company.

robgoingcrazy

EdGasket wrote: »

The graphics chip has overheated and become partially detached from the motherboard. Its due to poor soldering and/or cooling. Happened to two HP laptops I have. Backup your files quick because the external monitor socket will also go at some stage. Then get a replacement from Argos. Luckily you are in warranty from a good company.

Makes sense - am grabbing all my data now, all 1500GB of it thank heavens for 3TB external drives!

Do you know if I can take it to any Argos store or does it have to be one purchased from?

Johnmcl7

EdGasket wrote: »

The graphics chip has overheated and become partially detached from the motherboard. Its due to poor soldering and/or cooling. Happened to two HP laptops I have. Backup your files quick because the external monitor socket will also go at some stage. Then get a replacement from Argos. Luckily you are in warranty from a good company.

I doubt it - if the graphics card was failing, you'd see exactly the same behaviour on the external monitor and the pattern on the screen in the photo is a damaged screen, the artifacts from a failing graphics card are different.

I don't know if you'll have any luck with Argos as that sort of damage is usually from accidental damage (have an Acer 5742 with exactly the same screen damage I'm repairing for someone) but I guess it's worth a try.

John

Mr_Toad

That looks like a damaged display.

You say it hasn't been dropped but it definitely looks like the screen has been flexed and suffered damage. Did you pick it up by the lid or flex the screen in some other way?

kwikbreaks

It certainly looks like physical damage and I doubt it will be covered with the warranty regardless of what actually happened. Luckily screens are fairly easy and relatively cheap to repair - hopefully less than £50 for the screen and maybe quite a bit less (I've just checked and a 15.4" Acer screen cost me £37.65 in August last year. Check eBay/Amazon for the screen you need based on the machine model number then see if you can find a Youtube video showing the procedure.

OTOH you may get lucky with the warranty.

Good Luck

robgoingcrazy

I haven't done anything unusual with the laptop and it certainly wasn't dropped. It was working one minute, I closed the lid then remembered I needed to check something online, when I opened it it was like this. I've been opening and shutting the laptop dozens of times a day in the same way - until now...

It sounds like I am victim of some kind of fluke thing, I could understand if I'd dropped it or done anything unusual, I haven't. My previous laptop I dropped several times and it actually still works, although the screen is actually held on with tape. Nothing like that has befallen this laptop - yeah I am guilty of dropping laptops in the past, but not this one!

robgoingcrazy

So I just have to throw £300 away, for like nothing - one minute it's working fine then it isn't and I have no idea how this happened but I haven't got a leg to stand on and will be called a liar?!

Seems typical of my luck just at the moment

Wish I knew what had happened, this happened in the space of 2 minutes with the laptop not moving, not being dropped, not having anything dropped on it.... I just don't get it.

Mr_Toad

Sometimes opening or closing the lid is all it takes if you do it using the corner of the screen rather than the centre it can cause the screen to flex and crack.

When I was shopping for my current laptop many expensive models were rejected simply because they were too flimsy and I could see them flexing with little effort.

With the trend for ever slimmer, lighter models this is all too often achieved at the expense of durability.

I'm one of those people you grabs a laptop by the screen to turn it round for other people to see so I needed something that would stand up to a certain amount of mild abuse.

robgoingcrazy

Surely that is the purpose of a laptop and if opening it is likely to break the screen then it's not fit for purpose? I mean they give kids laptops, have you ever seen kids open laptops? (I have I've worked in schools in the past - I've never seen a laptop broken by a kid opening it though, no matter how roughly!)