Strange dotted line appears in the middle of laptop lcd screen

[Bram]

Hello community,

I have a little issue with the screen of my laptop and hope to get some input from you about the issue.
After turning on the laptop (Clevo N970D) a sort of dotted line creeps in in the middle of the screen within a few minutes. It is inconspicuous on white and black backgrounds as the attached image shows and is more prominent with certain colors. Operating system issue is ruled out as the line appears in bios screen too.

[kripton2035]

the lcd display is "dead" and must be changed for this failure to be cured.

[Bram]

Thank you for the quick input Kripton. For such a thin line I think I'll continue to use the laptop as it is until I get a new one. It's a 4 year old laptop.

[wraper]

LCD failure. Most likely driver chip bonding issue. You need to replace LCD. Although a crappy fix of placing some piece of foam or something like that to apply pressure on problematic driver chip probably will do the job. But do not expect reliability from that.

[Bram]

Thank you very much wraper! I do think also that a simple mechanical fix is possible because the line doesn't appear right away upon turning on but creeps in slowly after a few minutes so there might be some sort of instability at issue here. I have limited knowledge about LCDs but I assume this driver chip is located on the board at the bottom of the LCD screen, correct?

[wraper]

Usually there are multiple flex cables along the edge of LCD, each with driver chip bonded on it. Sometimes they can be directly on glass too.

[Bram]

Very helpful, thank you! I will proceed with a disassembly and see.

[Jwillis]

Very helpful, thank you! I will proceed with a disassembly and see.

Before you get carried away checking chips. Check the adhesive bonds to the to the LCD. Very common for those flex cables between the control boards and LCD panel  to loss adhesion.
They can be reattached with a Flex Cable Bonding Manual T Type Solder Tip.

[Bram]

Thank you for your precious help Jwillis! I will definitely take a close look at those too.

[Greybeard]

What is the rubber thing used for?