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All about Display in laptops

Display in laptops can be classified as - LCD and TFT displays as most of the laptops used today employ anyone of these displays.

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

LCD - liquid crystals are the core particles that play a vital role in getting the perfect display on LCD.

LCD display uses two Polarizing materials and the liquid crystals are laid in between these two substances. LCDs also consists of Backlight that

is used for emanating the light. This light goes through the first Polarizing material and directly falls on the liquid crystals and this makes the crystals get aligned in such a way

that the varying frequencies of light can penetrate through them and now this light passes from the second Polarizer and final image is displayed.

TFT (thin film transistor)

We have two types of LCD displays, active matrix LCD and passive matrix LCD.Let us discuss about the active matrix display as TFT display is a type of LCD that uses active matrix technology. Active matrix display uses

switches that control the flow of voltage over the pixels so that accurate final image is produced.

TFTs use Silicon transistor and this substrate contains liquid crystals injected between the Polarizing materials and this even include capacitors

and other electrodes.

Most of the laptops equipped with LCD or TFT display come with WXGA (Wide Extended Graphics Array) or other similar resolution having

Bright View display.

General display issues in laptops experienced by most of us:

The above problem might have been caused due to one of the following:
1. Display settings might be incorrect

2. Display drivers not functioning properly

3. Failure of backlight

4. Finally, malfunctioning of display card

Resolution:

Regarding dim display or unsatisfactory display,

You may try the following steps to resolve this issue:

1. Firstly, check the display settings in your laptop. See that they are correct. To check the display settings, go to the Display Properties in

Control Panel and select the Settings tab. Now try with a lower setting in Color Quality. (In Windows XP).

Also click on Advanced option and adjust the Refresh Frequency setting in Monitor tab. If this setting is available, choose a lower refresh rate or

use the default one. Now click OK. If prompted to restart the computer, please restart it and check your laptop's display now.

2.Backlight also can be one of the reasons as if it does not work, you will not get the display that you expect.

3. Even try increasing the brightness of the display by using the brightness function key present on your laptop. This key is used along with the

function key fn or a similar key and these combination of function keys for increasing the brightness level varies from one notebook model to

other. Some laptops use fn+f4 where as some laptops use combination fn+f8.

4. Sometimes, even if you have correct display settings and you may still have the problem with the display. In such case, the display drivers

might be the cause for the problem and will have to be updated and you have to check with manufacturer of your notebook for the updated display

drivers and if available please update the drivers by reinstalling them or update from Device Manager(Right click My Computer and select

Properties and select Hardware tab and click on the option Device Manager).

You can update by expanding the display device and right click on it and select the option "Update drivers".

If the display drivers are not available just reinstall them from the Device Manager. Expand the display device and right click on it and select

uninstall and Windows will reinstall the drivers automatically upon restart.

This procedure of reinstalling the drivers may vary, such as you may have to install the drivers from the Operating System CD that comes with

your laptop or from the recovery partition that in the system. Please check this with the laptop manufactured

Even check with the manufacturer that if the latest BIOS for your laptop model is available and if so, please update even your BIOS.

Be Cautious while updating BIOS as if not updated properly or if you downgraded the BIOS or installed a lower version of it, then your system

may not work for ever and also the BIOS for 32bit system differs from that of 64bit.

5. If the problems persists even after adjusting brightness display levels and its settings or updating the display drivers or BIOS then this might be

due to graphic card or display adapter malfunctioning which may require onsite diagnosis.

Let me tell you one more thing, please check even the display of your laptop LCD or TFT display whichever it is. You can do this by connecting

external display and if you are able to get display on external display device then it is confirmed that it is the LCD or the TFT display that has to

be repaired.

I have provided the common troubleshooting methods and guidelines to resolve the general display issues that occur in laptops.

The resolution steps may slightly differ depending on your notebook model, you may contact your notebook support for confirming, if the problem is software or hardware related.

Also this topic is confined only to display problems and the boot issues have not been incuded as even if the laptop will not boot, you only see a blank screen on your monitor and the cause of this issue differs from the display one and therefore even the resolution changes.

Thanks for visiting my article "Display in laptops".

About the Author

I am Satya Santhosh and have completed my engineering and worked as notebook troubleshooting executive and have few years of experience in troubleshooting notebook PCs.