Hi everyone. I just bought a used HP n5495 laptop that was sold as having a bad LCD. When I opened it up I saw that the wrong LCD was installed in it as the connection to the motherboard did not fit. I bought a replacement part and it does fit, however when I boot up the screen is distorted. The first image of the winxp desktop takes up 75% of the left side of the screen and a mirror image is displayed on the right (e.g. I can see the same icons and mouse movement on both images). The screen also has lines running though it and the white distortion makes the images difficult to see, although you can make them out. I'm thinking if I could reset the LCD like with a regular desktop monitor that may help, but don't know how to do this. If anyone has idea's I would sure appreciate it. Thanks in advance, Paul Tucker.

This is something I ask alot for the do-it-yourselfers... did you purchase the laptop knowing that it had problems to save money? Is saving money worth the headach?

It's more than likely going to be the fact that the display card itself is causeing the problem. From what I've run into with the mirror ghosting issues, the connector is the cause. The best way to tell is by moving the display back and forth. If that affects it, it'll either be the LCD itself or the adapter. You CAN use an external monitor, connecting via VGA, DVI, or Svideo if you have one available. Most laptops will autoswitch to an external monitor, I know Dell's do by default to extend the desktop atleast, but if that DOESN'T work... then the graphics card is bad. If it's onboard video... your SOL and would end up purchaseing another mobo.

Alittle consultation... never buy a used laptop... it's like buying a car. Unless you get a full background on it, you never really know what your buying.

Your Friendly Government Dell Tech,
J.E.
DellTech Rep ID - 172946

Actually, it simply sounds like it's been configured to run the display at too high a screen resolution. Right click the desktop and choose Properties / Settings and take a look. Back it down to 800x600 and see if the problem goes away.