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General discussion

color in display is gone bye-bye ! ! ! ! ! !

Oct 25, 2004 12:30PM PDT

I have Dell Inspiron 2600 running Windows XP Home with SP2. About a month ago, I replaced my keyboard because I was having problems with it. Some liquid splashed on the keyboard earlier in the year, but I finally had to replace it. It worked fine after that incident, but out of nowhere i started have problems. So, I thought the smart thing to do was replace the keyboard. GOOD AND BAD !!!!! Well, the keyboard works great. But, after the third day, my display got a funky blue tint to it. It's missing colors like red, pink, purple, cyan, and other colors in those families. I see blue, black, white, grey and other colors in those families fine. I ran the diagnostics and I couldn't see the colors of red, etc. I spoke with Dell tech support, they couldn't fix the problem. I'm hoping it's something simple that I can fix myself. So, I'm turning to my favorite forum for help. If anyone have any insight on this issue, the info would be greatly appreciated. Everything is working fine except the color. Oh, yea and I tried re-installing the drivers also. If you more info is needed, please let me know.

Discussion is locked

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Re: color in display is gone bye-bye ! ! ! ! ! !
Oct 25, 2004 12:49PM PDT

Perhaps when you spilled liquid it affected the video connection between the motherboard (which either has a video card soldered to it or has an integrated graphics chip on it) or perhaps that connection is loose.

Since you have a picture and it is not flickering on and off the connection is at least mostly intact.

That is a guess but since you did mention liquid spilling unfortunately in a notebook all the important components are under the notebook keyboard and you may have caused damage (motherboard, system RAM, hard drive, etc).

If you already know how to remove the keyboard you could check the LCD to motherboard wire connection or around the motherboard to see if you see any evidence of liquid.

As the LCD is displaying something it is not likely you are going to solve this via software.

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Re: color in display is gone bye-bye ! ! ! ! ! !
Oct 26, 2004 7:10AM PDT

Okay, even if I didn't have any problems up until now, the colors could just up & disappear? The spill happened almost a year ago. And, because it wasn't any problems after, I wasn't concerned. Everything was going fine and then one day, after everything loaded, some of the colors were missing. I'm going to look under the keyboard & I'll post the results shortly.......

I feel like I'm color blind Sad

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Re: color in display is gone bye-bye ! ! ! ! ! !
Oct 26, 2004 7:31AM PDT

You said yesterday that you installed a new keyboard. On my notebook that involves removing 2 screws under the notebook and flipping 4 switches down on the upper keyboard.

If in fact you had no problems for 1 year before replacing the keyboard, hopefully you loosened a cable connection and it you tighten it you may be ok.

As I stated, you need to focus on the cable connection between the LCD panel itself and the motherboard -- if you have a notebook with a video card (ATI / Nvidia, etc) than the cable would be running to that (usually soldered to motherboard in notebooks).

If you have shared video then the cable should be connecting to the motherboard itself.

Even if the cable looks connected try reinserting it on both ends (connection to LCD and connection to Motherboard or video card) and see what happens.

On my family of notebooks (Compaq X1000 or HPZT3000 at X1000forums.com) people who travel a lot and have vibration have had both LCD issues like yours or intermittent problems with the hard drive. In both cases it was the cable connection between the device and the motherboard.

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Re: color in display is gone bye-bye ! ! ! ! ! !
Oct 27, 2004 9:12AM PDT

Well, it seems peepin' inside to make sure the cables are tight didn't work. I'm about ready to give up. Maybe there really is no solution except buying a new screen. Did I mention that I ran the diagnostics color test, and failed, reinstalled the drivers, tried system restore, tested safe mode & VGA, plus checked the cables. One thing I did notice from just searchin thru stuff, in the advanced menu of the screen properties, it doesn't have a default color profile. Is it a way to default the screen to the original settings?

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Re: color in display is gone bye-bye ! ! ! ! ! !
Oct 27, 2004 9:45AM PDT

Is your notebook out of the warranty period ???

Does your notebook have a video card (dedicated video memory -- ATI, Nvidia, etc.) or is it shared/integrated video (Intel extreme graphics chip or similar on the motherboard itself.

If in fact you have a video card then perhaps something has failed on that and you could get a replacement -- but it is soldered in many cases to the motherboard so you would probably need someone to do this (swap it out). You would of course need the same model of video card for a notebook -- you can't just put any old video card in like on a desktop.

Perhaps Bob Probert, our moderator, could shed light on this since you do have video but just a lack of color.

Also, check the control panel area for the display (the LCD) and check out how the options are set up in the video card area (ATI or Nvidia likely) or whatever is there (if shared video graphics) -- perhaps there is something you can switch there in the advanced settings (color level setting -- 32bit, 16bit, etc).

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Re: color in display is gone bye-bye ! ! ! ! ! !
Oct 27, 2004 9:52AM PDT

You did mention you had played around in Control panel (under display) so it makes it sound like you have only integrated graphics (shared) -- a graphics chip on the motherboard itself.

Keep in mind if the LCD is still working properly (only the color is messed up) it may not be the LCD at all but rather the video card or motherboard graphics chip that is not sending the proper signal to the LCD (lack of color).

Motherboard repair on most new notebooks entails swapping the entire thing out now in most cases so of course that would not be cost effective if out of warranty but a replacement of the LCD, the video card, or the integrated graphics chip if possible would be much less $ of course.

Hopefully someone more familiar with hardware could at least indicate to you if a loss of color but not the display picture itself would more likely indicate a bad LCD or a bad video processing device (video card or motherboard integrated graphics chip).