MSI GT780 internal display not detected

[jason.lipka]

Hey guys, needed to reach out to some experts. I have posted on other sites, so apologies if this is redundant for people who are also members there.

I have an MSI GT780 notebook I purchased in the fall of 2011. It has been actually pretty problem-free despite it's age. It has the original Nvidia GTX570m graphics card. I haven't monkeyed with anything on the unit other than upgrading to a larger SSD several years ago (long before this problem). It originally came with Windows 7 (64 bit), but I have since taken the free upgrade path all the way to Windows 10. I dunno if the OS upgrades are related, but I remember several months of trouble free operation under W10, so my inclination is that it is not OS related.

Anyways, I can't get the internal display to come on. No boot screen, no logos, nothing. This occurred after I shut the computer down to move. Everything was functioning fine, I shut it down, moved it over to the new house, now the screen won't come on. This has happened before. It used to be intermittent, meaning I could take the battery out and do some other things and eventually the screen will come on, but no manner of toying gets the screen to come on now. Sometimes (and I dunno what I do to make this happen) the screen will come on solid white, but nothing happens, it just stays that way. Other times it seems like the backlight comes on, but the screen stays black and blank. It's a real crapshoot, and I don't have a lot of insight as far as what I do that makes the laptop do these weird things.


I thought the laptop was junk, but then I plugged into an external monitor via HDMI cable and got a display on the external monitor. This leads me to believe that the hardware (insofar as GPU, CPU, and MB) are fine.

Now that I had a display to look around in, I noticed that the internal display is not even detected in the device manager? Ummm, what? It recognizes the external monitor but no internal?

Ideas?

I haven't upgraded any drivers or BIOS or anything like that because I wanted to get some opinions before I start messing with that.

Could it be a bad screen? What about a bad cable?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[xSimply1337x]

best case scenario something is being pinched or came loose inside where the display connects to the motherboard.
worst case scenario your screen/cable or connection on the board itself is bad and needs to be replaced.
best case of the worst case: you need to replace either a cable, screen or both.
worst case of the worst case: the connector on the motherboard itself is shot and you can only replace/fix it if you have the components and the know how of soldering. otherwise you need a new motherboard.

 

[jason.lipka]

best case scenario something is being pinched or came loose inside where the display connects to the motherboard.
worst case scenario your screen/cable or connection on the board itself is bad and needs to be replaced.
best case of the worst case: you need to replace either a cable, screen or both.
worst case of the worst case: the connector on the motherboard itself is shot and you can only replace/fix it if you have the components and the know how of soldering. otherwise you need a new motherboard.

Thank you for your prompt response. I agree with your evaluation of the situation, thanks. I guess what I am curious about is how do I go about diagnosing the problem? I wouldn't be heartbroken if I had to go all the way to the point of replacing the LCD panel, but I want to verify the problem before I start throwing parts and money at it.

I am pretty computer savvy and not afraid to take this thing apart and mess with it, but how would I go about diagnosing exactly what the problem is?

Is it just a matter of beginning disassembly and seeing what I find?

 

[xSimply1337x]

without the proper equipment to to test what component is bad there isn't much you can do. if you have another laptop lying around that is considered old but the screen on it still works you can always open up both and connect the working screen to the current laptop if the connectors are the same (and they should be for the most part unless there is a huge generational gap between the two) and see if you get video. If so then obviously it's nothing to do with the motherbaord and at that point I would say to get a new screen altogether just to ensure everything.

Otherwise the best method for you to test what is wrong specifically is to take it to a computer repair shop that gives free diagnostics to know with a little more certainty.

 

[jason.lipka]

I opened up the laptop and found the screen end of the cable to be loose (at the lcd panel, not the MB). All is well now. Thanks for the motivation to open it up.

 

[xSimply1337x]

Glad to hear that your problem is fixed.