Aspire ES1-512 lcd display glitching; HDMI out ok

I tried to make the title as informative as possible. I'm an engineer so fixing this won't be a problem, I'd just like to know if I need to replace the LCD panel, or the cable, or both. The basic symptom is the lcd display glitches much like the vertical hold is out, for those of us old enough to remember TVs that had a vertical hold adjustment. The HDMI video output works fine, however, so the problem appears to be either with the lcd panel and/or the cable that passes through the hinge. I would bet real money the problem is the cable, but manually twisting on it doesn't seem to affect the frequency/severity of the glitching, nor does tapping on the terminations or other components (real high level troubleshooting here, I know).

Accepted answers

JackE

Gaah!! Of course you tried to turn the HDMI output on with the FN+F5 toggle combo, right? Jack E/NJ

All comments

JackE

Likely the LCD ribbon cable scrunched in the hinge. You can first try re-seating the connectors a half-dozen or so times to see if it'll clean up the connections. But for $10, I'd order a new cable anyway and probably throw in a $30 250GB SSD so I'd qualify for free shipping.

Jack E/NJ

MagicSmoker

JackE said:

Likely the LCD ribbon cable scrunched in the hinge. You can first try re-seating the connectors a half-dozen or so times to see if it'll clean up the connections. But for $10, I'd order a new cable anyway and probably throw in a $30 250GB SSD so I'd qualify for free shipping. Jack E/NJ

I tried reseating both plug ends once so far but will do it a few more times. The hinge area of the cable and the plug ends are definitely the most likely places to fail, but a new cable is fairly cheap. It just looks like slightly more of a pain to replace than the panel itself. I will update this thread after I get the cable if for no other reason than I hate it when people join a tech support forum just to ask one question, get an answer, and then are never heard from again.

JackE

>>>It just looks like slightly more of a pain to replace than the panel itself.>>>

Then welcome to Walmart. You can get both a new LCD screen and LCD cable thru Walmart for less than $60 with free shipping https://www.walmart.com/reviews/seller/929?offerId=0C83113118EC4CEF9435290385C01F7A & https://www.walmart.com/reviews/seller/616?offerId=2BAA2608AB2C43D58E93C6CBEA0134B1

Jack E/NJ

MagicSmoker

Well, replacing the cable didn't fix the problem, which just leaves the lcd panel as the culprit.

JackE

Still $48 with free shipping.

If the HDMI output is still good then it's probably worth it. Jack E/NJ

MagicSmoker

Aaaannnddd, replacing the LCD panel didn't work, either. In fact, now the screen is totally black, which leads me to suspect the panel is either defective or else they sent the wrong one, even though it fits and has the same connector. At any rate, I am done screwing around with this and and going to replace the entire laptop, which is probably what I should have done in the first place because I do place a value on my time and this used up quite a bit of it.

That said, thanks for the help, JackE - users like you make forums like this a real success.

JackE

Gaah!! Of course you tried to turn the new screen on with the FN+F6 toggle combo, right? Jack E/NJ

MagicSmoker

Hmm, no, I didn't try that and didn't think I needed to do anything special except swap out the screen with the power off. In fact, when I put back in the old screen the boot logo showed up in between all the spazzing out it does so that confirmed to me that the new screen is either the wrong type or defective.

Oh, and now the HDMI output doesn't work after trying out this new screen. Well, that cinches it - this laptop is toast.

JackE

Gaah!! Of course you tried to turn the HDMI output on with the FN+F5 toggle combo, right? Jack E/NJ

MagicSmoker

JackE said:

Gaah!! Of course you tried to turn the HDMI output on with the FN+F5 toggle combo, right? Jack E/NJ

No, I hadn't tried that because previously just plugging in a monitor to the HDMI port enabled it, but I figured I didn't have anything to lose trying Fn + F5 and lo-n-behold, that worked. A laptop that requires an external monitor isn't much of a laptop, though, so I am still going to replace it.

JackE

OK. Sounds like the new replacement screen you got was a lemon or wrong. Any identifying labels on it? Jack E/NJ

MagicSmoker

I've already sent the panel back for a refund so can't say exactly what the part number was, but I do remember that it had a "TP" in it and the panel connector had 30 pins, both of which the seller assured me meant it was compatible with my display. Maybe it was and I just got a lemon, but at this point I feel like I have given the repair an honest effort without success so won't feel guilty about buying a new one.

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