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PC random grey screen with lines
Hi guys!
I'm new here and I'm having some seriously annoying problems with my Dell Inspiron 3558 Windows 10 PC. See here: https://imgur.com/LJsUnXl
Suddenly my PC started randomly going grey with vertical lines across. When it happened, the PC was still completely responsive. If I was playing music using the speakers, the music kept playing and touchpad movements were still indicated on the now grey display as a movement of the vertical lines. I also noticed that it usually happened when on battery power.
It was fixed by closing the lid and reopening it or putting it to sleep and waking it back up. Essentially, it was fixed by anything that made the screen turn off, even a timeout. At first it wasn't very frequent, but over time it became very frequent and I worked around it by closing and reopening every time it happened.
I did the LCD BIST test and it worked fine. I updated my graphics driver, and BIOS. Nothing changed. Then, something interesting happened. While booting, before starting to load windows, it happened. So I ruled out driver issues and software issues, right? It looked like a hardware issue, so next, I drained the residual charge on the PC, and left it off for 2 days with the battery out. After the two days, I powered it back on, and it seemed fine, but for only a day which, by the way, was much longer than it had ever gone without going grey since it started having the issue. This raised some questions for me, but I'm no guru so i didn't know what to conclude. Then, I was finally able to test it out on an external monitor ( wasn't physically able to do it before for some reasons) and so I waited for it to go grey and it did and I connected it to my TV via HDMI and the display was fine on the TV and still grey on the PC.
I handed it to a technician and he said it was the video cable, which he replaced. He then returned it to me and It worked fine for a day and then it happened again.
Again, I'm no guru and correct me if i'm wrong but all my observations led to me ruling out the video card, RAM, motherboard and software related issues. I think it's the LCD. What do you think?
Any form of help and insight would be hugely appreciated, this has been a real pain in the neck.
Looking forward to your replies!
ejn63
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October 18th, 2020 15:00
Re-run the LCD self-test. If it shows OK, it's likely you have a bad GPU -- and will indeed need a replacement system board.
AdeK01
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October 19th, 2020 13:00
Hi! Thanks for the reply!
I re-ran the LCD BIST and there were no problems.
Why do you think it's the GPU? I thought that since it displayed fine on an external monitor that the GPU wasn't the problem?
ejn63
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October 19th, 2020 14:00
That's not necessarily true - the GPU internally doesn't use the same circuitry to display internally as externally, and they can fail in such a way as that one works and the other doesn't. The older nVidia GPUs often failed this way - first symptom a dead internal display while the external one worked fine, because of the fact that the internal one did most of the work and failed first.
It's equally possible it's the external display path circuit that's failed (on the system board) such that one is OK and the other is not.
In either case, since the GPU is a permanent part of the system board it's a moot point. The only fix is to replace the system board with the GPU.
AdeK01
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October 20th, 2020 03:00
Thanks for the reply! I guess I'd have to go that route or just replace it totally.
I have some questions. Can the LCD be bad even if there are no problems when your run the BIST? and What do you think I could do to further narrow it down as the GPU? And lastly, do you think there's a workaround?
Thanks.
ejn63
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October 20th, 2020 04:00
Yes, the LCD could still be bad, but it's improbable. You're likely at a point where a shop that can determine exactly which is faulty is needed, though the cost of a non-touch replacement screen being as low as it is, might be the place to start. it'll probably run as much or more in labor to do a diagnosis/repair as it would to replace the panel first, and the mainboard if it turns out not to be the panel.
ejn63
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October 20th, 2020 09:00
The screen, aka LCD panel. Since it's likely well under $100, while the mainboard is well over -- if you're starting a parts cannon, the LCD panel is first (though my suspicion is that it's not the panel but the system board which will ultimately need to be replaced).
AdeK01
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October 20th, 2020 09:00
Thanks for the reply.
What do you mean by 'panel' ?
AdeK01
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October 20th, 2020 09:00
I see.
There's some detail I missed out; Some time ago, the Laptop fell, and the screen used to flicker with the moving of the lid. Suddenly, it stopped and didn't happen anymore without me doing anything in particular. This was a while ago but do you think it could be related? When this issue surfaced, it was sudden. Nothing happened to the system, the issue just surface albeit at a very low frequency, happened like once a week or so.