strange characters on Laptop screen.

[goshawk066]

Hi,

I am working on a laptop, an IBM thinkpad A30. It has this problem where the screen displays odd characters when you change the position of the screen, and when you change the screen position by moving the lid up and down the characters change.

If any of you could shed some insight as to what the problem is, I would be most appreciative.

Thanks,

Image 1

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[crypticlogin]

If you look at it long enough, you'll see that the characters in error are one letter away, either forward or backwards, in the ASCII character set. So it's not as random as you might think!

But judging from the change only when the screen opens or closes, I'd start looking at the wires between the LCD and board. Make sure the contacts are solid, clean, none of them shorting with another. What happens if you try to run it with an external monitor?

If that looks okay, see if there isn't a flashable BIOS from the IBM site. Maybe there was a bad flash somewhere along the way?

"Just going bad" RAM?

 

[Pex]

Make sure the cable coming from the laptop itself to the screen.

 

[LiLithTecH]

More than likely the KEYBOARD is trashed (internal short).

Try plugging in an EXTERNAL keyboard to the PS/2 connector.

Is there an OS on it?
If so, boot into it and see if the external keyboard functions (50% correct keys).


(happens all the time to Toshiba's)

 

[dude]

I wouldn't say it's a keyboard problem. If keys are getting stuck, it should beep loudly to let you know. Only when the key or keys are released will the beeps stop after it empty's the keyboard buffer. I don't work much with Toshiba laptops so I don't know and never seen that error.

I doubt it's the LCD ribbon cable but that's all I can point at right now since it happens when you open/close the screen. Otherwise, it could be the RAM on the built in video card is bad. BTW, a bad ribbon cable usually gives you color errors, missing lines, & backlight problems. Never seen errors in character display because of a bad ribbon.