Toshiba Screen Takes a Slap

[Gerowen]

I recently came into posession of a Toshiba Satellite C655 laptop.  It appears to be in like new condition; there's very little evidence of it ever being used.  However, the screen when you turn it on is all garbled looking.  If you smack it the lines and artifacts go away.  If you hook it up to an external monitor they don't appear at all.  That combined with the fact that smacking it fixes it tells me it's not the video card, it's the screen.  I've double checked the video cable where it connects to the motherboard and it's all good.  Before I go tearing into a laptop I've never dis-assembled before, what do you guys think could cause the lines/artifacts on the screen?  Obviously it's a loose part somewhere, but since I've never worked on this exact laptop, I don't want to just peel the cover off and start poking around until I at least have a rough idea of what to check.

 

Suggestions?

[spaceelf]

Laptops aren't really complicated that I've seen unless you need to do something with the main hardware, so you'll probably be fine poking around up top.  The cable is extremely unlikely to be part of the monitor, so you'd want to check the other end, the screws, and the antenna.

[Raa]

It sounds like it's the connecting cable between the panel and the mainboard.

Either it's loose (at the panel connector or the board connector), or the cable itself is damaged.

 

It's not too hard to take apart and put together usually, just keep an eye on which screws went in what spots. ;)