My laptop works fine and all,but the display on it keeps flickering and I can see slight burn in.

zvc · June 15, 2023

So I got this used (its not new) Lenovo Thinkpad i5 T470s from 2017. It works fine and it has all cool and nice features. But there is one thing that keeps bothering me so much I have to make a post about this.

The screen itself keeps flickering just like a flurosecent light and I can even see very slight burn in on the screen. Altough in the recording you cannot see any sort of flickering nor burn in. But from the outside point of view from my camera I can actually see it with my own eyes. But sometimes when I leave my laptop for long enough turned off and when I turn it back on. The flickering diminishes. But then the flickering comes back up when I change the wallpaper on windows and turn it off and turn it back on. The same flickering diminishing happens when I decrease the brightness to very low to the point I cant see the flickering nor burn in anymore. But it happens when I increase the brightness. No,the problem is not within the monitor cable located in the hinge of the laptop or the panel itself. Its the backlight itself that is sort of becoming a problem and the panel being a more of a minor problem.

I did try updating drivers to fix any problems it still does not help. I could try reach out to Lenovo service but considering the fact that this laptop is since 2017 and the warranty for it has expired, there is no chance of sending it back to be repaired. What can I do with this laptop?

Here is the recording of my laptop. It might look like as if the display is fine and there is nothing wrong with it. But in reality the screen itself is flickering and can happen occassionally. The slight burn in from the previous screen can also happen along with the flickering. So is the backlight the problem here? Or is it the panel? (It cant be the monitor cable nor the drivers because I did check that and it still does not resolve the issue whatsoever)

johnno23 · June 15, 2023

Have you tried moving the screen forwards and backwards to see if it makes the flickering worse.

often the issue s simply an issue with the ribbon cable. if moving the screen slowly forwards and backwards you find it works properly in a particular position or gets worse then I would check the ribbon cable. the ribbon cables are also inexpensive and easy to replace if your cable has degraded overtime with the opening and closing of the laptop.

Biohazard777 · June 15, 2023

13 minutes ago, zvc said:

No,the problem is not within the monitor cable located in the hinge of the laptop or the panel itself. Its the backlight itself that is sort of becoming a problem and the panel being a more of a minor problem.

Well if you are certain then just replace the whole screen.
80-100$ shipped from AliExpress or ebay.

16 minutes ago, zvc said:

I did try updating drivers to fix any problems it still does not help. I could try reach out to Lenovo service but considering the fact that this laptop is since 2017 and the warranty for it has expired, there is no chance of sending it back to be repaired. What can I do with this laptop?

Just to make sure, I'd try running a live linux distro and see if the problem persists.