LCD Issue - Vertical bars length of panel - Advice?

Hey guys, after a spot of advice.

I have a Toshiba P30 laptop (3.2ghz, 2gb, 160gb, 9600 [or 9700 can't
remember ATI dedicated graphics]). It's about three years old now and has
lasted me relativley well.

This machine runs relativley hot as you can expect and I'm suspecting this
is the cause of my problem.

A few months ago, I developed ONE vertical line in the middle of the screen,
and this has now progressed to three (one blue, two red). They run the
entire height of the panel and come up about 2 seconds after power on.

This isn't replicated on external displays. It's obviously a hardware issue
with either the panel, connector or (I think unlikely) graphics chipset.

I've been too lazy to pull this apart as it is a massive pain and thought
I'd see what the consensus is. If it's most likely the LCD panel or chipset,
I can live with it. What do you think the likelihood of it being the cable?

If it is the panel, how easy is it to repair, and if I replace it, do all
LCDs have a universal ribbon connector (I think it's 30 or 34 data pins).

Cheers.

"OPM" <no@thanks> wrote in message news:465d69bc_1@news.iprimus.com.au...
> Hey guys, after a spot of advice.
>
> I have a Toshiba P30 laptop
> [snip]
> A few months ago, I developed ONE vertical line in the middle of the
> screen,
> and this has now progressed to three (one blue, two red). They run the
> entire height of the panel and come up about 2 seconds after power on.
>
> This isn't replicated on external displays. It's obviously a hardware
> issue
> with either the panel, connector or (I think unlikely) graphics chipset.
>
> I've been too lazy to pull this apart as it is a massive pain and thought
> I'd see what the consensus is. If it's most likely the LCD panel or
> chipset,
> I can live with it. What do you think the likelihood of it being the
> cable?

Might help you to diagnose the problem - Are the lines solid or do they
flicker when you move the lid? If they flicked with movement, then suspect
the cable or maybe even just a lose connection. If the lines don't even
twitch when you move things, then suspect fixed components like the screen
itself.