Troubleshooting Colored Lines on the Monitor Screen on an HP Pavilion ZD8000

By Chris Granger

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Laptops, including the HP Pavilion ZD8000, have an LCD (liquid crystal display) screen. This technology boasts great graphics and features; however, it also has some flaws. Some of those flaws include fuzzy display, shaky screen, small dots appearing and vertical or horizontal lines in the display. The LCD display is extremely sensitive. A small bump to the screen or dropping the computer can cause these issues. The majority of the time, replacing either the LCD display or the motherboard--because of the built-in graphics adapter--will occur if these problems exist. Follow the steps listed below to determine which part of the computer is causing your graphics issue.

Step 1

Disconnect all external devices (printers, scanners, and so forth) to make sure they are not causing an issue.

Step 2

Restart the computer. Press the "F1" key to enter the BIOS setup utility when the HP logo appears. Note if the colored lines appear in the BIOS; if so, the issue is hardware related. Locate an external monitor and plug it into the laptop to confirm this. Replace the LCD if no colored lines appear on the external monitor, but show up on the laptop monitor.

Replace the motherboard if there are lines on both, since this indicates the problem is with the internal video graphics.

Contact an HP support technician for further assistance to have parts replaced.

Continue to next step If no colored lines appear in the BIOS.

Step 3

Exit the BIOS, allowing the computer to boot into windows.

Step 4

Update your video drivers. Access hp.com to locate the updated video drivers for your computer. Follow the instructions provided to install them.

Step 5

Restart the computer.

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