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#1 December 20 2020

LifeEngineer
Member

Help with laptop screen issue

So we were watching a movie yesterday on my wife's laptop, from a USB flash memory, using a HDMI.
The display was duplicated, meaning the movie was playing on both the laptop screen and TV.
The movie finished, ejected USB, unplugged it, unplugged the HDMI, the laptop screen went black and never came back.
As long as the laptop is ON, the screen stays black but backlit.
During the start, the screen flickers like crazy.
Please see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4OK8egzjxg
And this is the laptop in question: https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c04778310

I suspect and hope that the issue is a software issue because the laptop was working perfectly and it didn't fall or anything.
Now I had to replug the HDMI in order to get some output on the TV and try to fix it.
I tried the below:
-reboots.
-duplicating screen, or PC only etc... (changing modes using windows+F4).
-tried to check if there's a driver upgrade for the built-in display adaptor (Intel HD Graphics 5500) but there's none and it says that it's working properly.
-downloaded this driver for 64bits system found here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downlo … dows-15-40- and tried to flash it but it failed saying that this driver is not meant for this laptop.
-I updated windows to latest 20H2 version.
-checked HP's website and even used the laptop's serial number to get the model and the proper drivers for it. It was a bit too complicated for me but I still tried a couple of graphics drivers that didn't work.
See it here please: https://support.hp.com/hk-en/drivers/se … ku=P4H01EA

I am afraid of disabling the device "display adaptor" or uninstalling its driver because I may not be able therefore to use it anymore? (or get output via HDMI to the TV?)

I'm a bit lost here. Can anyone please help me?!

Last edited by LifeEngineer (December 20 2020)

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#2 December 20 2020

anayman_k7
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

I just need to confirm 1 thing, if you plug it to the TV it works without issues?

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#3 December 20 2020

new_user
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

I think it could possibly be a hardware issue. Im no expert but there is a possibly that a cable going near the lid area (or close to the hinges) is lose or bad. The flickering on the logo hints that its not a software issue. I do not think any drivers are involved when the boot screen logo loads. Fixing the issue is probably cheap but the difficulty might be in identifying its source.

I think you did the wise decision by not messing with the software, if u lose the connection to the external screen u will not be able to use the laptop before fixing it.

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#4 December 21 2020

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

anayman_k7 wrote:

I just need to confirm 1 thing, if you plug it to the TV it works without issues?


Yes man, of course, that's the only way of using it right now. It works on the TV only even if I use duplicate which should display the same output on the laptop monitor.

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#5 December 21 2020

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

new_user wrote:

I think it could possibly be a hardware issue. Im no expert but there is a possibly that a cable going near the lid area (or close to the hinges) is lose or bad. The flickering on the logo hints that its not a software issue. I do not think any drivers are involved when the boot screen logo loads. Fixing the issue is probably cheap but the difficulty might be in identifying its source.

I think you did the wise decision by not messing with the software, if u lose the connection to the external screen u will not be able to use the laptop before fixing it.

Thanks man. I hope it's not hardware but I think it might be. And I hope I can fix it easily.

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#6 December 21 2020

AvoK95
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

You have a bad ribbon cable or a bad connection to it.

Take the laptop apart and push it back in its place more properly both behind the screen and on the motherboard. If it has a flat cable, make sure it is clean of dust.

This is very common on this model. In fact, some were like this out of the box.

Take all the screws out and the bottom cover comes out. Unclip using your nails or a guitar pick, just make sure it's not a screwdriver.

The screen borders come out by pushing them out and down, try using your fingers.

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#7 December 21 2020

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

AvoK95 wrote:

You have a bad ribbon cable or a bad connection to it.

Take the laptop apart and push it back in its place more properly both behind the screen and on the motherboard. If it has a flat cable, make sure it is clean of dust.

This is very common on this model. In fact, some were like this out of the box.

Take all the screws out and the bottom cover comes out. Unclip using your nails or a guitar pick, just make sure it's not a screwdriver.

The screen borders come out by pushing them out and down, try using your fingers.

Thanks man for your help. I will try to do that and hopefully I can find some guide or a youtube video online to assist me. Thx again

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#8 December 21 2020

anayman_k7
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

My wife has an old ASUS notebook where she started to lose screen signal when she moves the screen and it was clearly the screen cable, I ordered one from Aliexpress and meanwhile I opened up the Notebook and rerouted the cable to have more tension on it, it managed to reduce the flickering issues and when the cable Arrived it turned out I needed to solder tiny cables to the integrated microphone logic board, I did not have the tools to do it so I canceled the notebook microphone while installing the new screen cable, flickering is gone now.

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#9 December 21 2020

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

Yeah, this is also my wife's laptop and she's a teacher so she's using it for online lessons and she does use the built-in webcam as well as the microphone. She also has obviously all of her files/work in there, so it's really vital for me to fix it somehow.

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#10 December 22 2020

AvoK95
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

LifeEngineer wrote:

Yeah, this is also my wife's laptop and she's a teacher so she's using it for online lessons and she does use the built-in webcam as well as the microphone. She also has obviously all of her files/work in there, so it's really vital for me to fix it somehow.

HP laptops are all plugs, no soldering involved.

Asus laptops are very counterintuitive in repair.

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#11 December 29 2020

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: Help with laptop screen issue

Just wanted to thank you all for the inspiration as I opened the laptop and fixed it. It was the screen plug cable loose. Thanks again great folks.

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