pulsing/flickering screen - SF514-52T-59ZU

Faldekan

Hi all,

I've had my swift 5 for a couple of years and love it. However, the past few days the screen started to flicker intermittently with a steady pulse (see below - difficult to show in pics, but it flickers for 2 seconds then is clear for 2 seconds, rinse and repeat!), which I could initially remedy by shifting the angle of the screen a little one way or the other. However, it is now pretty much constant and I can only rarely find the "sweet spot" where the angle of the screen stops the pulsing/flickering. Would a simple screen replacement be the cure? I don't want to fork out for a new screen if it turns out it is a software issue, but the fact I could solve it before with a move of the screen suggests something more mechanical to me - ie. a weak connection/cable somewhere?



Any thoughts would be very much appreciated!

Tom.

Serial number - NXGTMEK002821082D06600
SNID - 82103348866

dancemonkeymadness

You don't need to replace the screen but you do need to replace the ribbon cable connecting the screen to the rest of the hardware from the sounds of it. The ribbon cable can sometimes start getting worn out and broken from being folded and unfolded so much in the hinge of the laptop. When that happens, it produces the same exact symptoms as you described (flickering display or artifacts which go away when you get it "bent a certain way"). The problem degrades over time because the cable gets more worn out, so after a while no matter what you do you won't be able to get the screen issues to stop. 

I have SF315. I haven't seen the way it's connected yet but I can tell just by the design it doesn't give a lot of wiggle room for that cable, and it's a likely weak point in the design (though I really appreciate the exhaust placement being somewhere that isn't likely to be blocked just by using the laptop). I wouldn't attempt repairing it myself at this point, though, since it's still under warranty and they can really tell when you mess with an ultrabooks hardware.