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My trusty Lenovo X201 (running Ubuntu 14.10) has developed a problem with the screen. The colour black is now green. Initially, I could make the problem go away by moving the screen back and forth but now the problem is permanent. Here is a picture of it against a laptop on the left that properly displays colours. It also now has some problems with screen brightness.

What I want to know is whether this is a problem with the screen or the graphics chipset. I want to repair it myself but don't want to buy a new screen only to find it was the graphics chipset. Is there a simple way of knowing for sure? An external monitor works fine. It seems like this must be a screen problem but would like to know for sure.

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  • Apologies. It's public now.
    – SteveSong
    Mar 1, 2015 at 16:07

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It seems to me that your problem is caused by a failing screen cable. This kind of failures manifests itself by flickering lines or distorted colors that initially go away after moving the lid, but then get worse and worse until becoming permanent.

Such cables are easily available and a bit cheaper than screens (which in your case is probably fine). Replacing them requires some manual skills, though: laptop are quite hard to disassemble. I recommend you to find a service manual or a disassembly video online, they are often helpful.

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  • Thanks, I didn't think individual display cables for the x201 were available but google tells me I am wrong. Will try that.
    – SteveSong
    Mar 1, 2015 at 21:17
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If it went away when you moved the screen back and forth, that points to some sort of physical problem in the connection between the keyboard and the screen.

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