Flashing laptop screen.

Hi. I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 laptop. It has a 15" screen and is running on XP. I have always had a minor problem with the display not holding its settings intermittently. Mostly it ran OK. Now suddenly the screen is flashing and changing colours. Sometimes a blue coating or pink stripes. It flashes very quickly and vividly. I googled the problem and although I could not find the exact issue I tried some suggestions. I ran a registry scan and malware scan. It has 2x521mb memory sticks which I changed about in case one of them had gone bad.  I thought to connect it to another screen but it does not have the same connections as my desktop screen so I did not know how to do this. Nothing I have tried has changed the issue so if anyone could help I would be very grateful. Thanks. Sue.

I have a horrible feeling your video is on the way out, and if it's onboard video that means the motherboard, but the only way to check this is to connect an external monitor as you have surmised, the connection lead you need is a VGA lead, as best I can see anyway.

I downloaded a manual, but had to guess which model it was, there were something like 5 models within that series, but with it's age that's almost certainly what you should be looking for, and I'm guessing the hardware side will be very similar, so here is what I found in the manual for when you do find a lead, I hope it's not as bad as I fear for you, but I hope this helps a bit.

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Hi. Thanks for looking for me. Unfortunately it does not have a VGA connection so I don't know what sort of lead or what I can connect it to to check the screen. The model No. is PS630E-G2077-EN. Could you check on this for me or direct me to the manual please?

Right it looks like they use a "generic" manual that fits all in the range, which unfortunately means you often find features covered that are not relevant to your specific system, which can make it hard at times like this, but attached is a screenshot from the manual that was the only option under the specific detail you just gave, you can find this Here (assuming this works), you will probably find that you need to use the drop boxes to find the actual download.

But it's a big download (13.9mb), as they include what appears to be the installer (files) for Adobe as well, but in the image you will see enough to compare to what you have, and fingers crossed you will have the 2nd option that I have seen, it uses an RCA connection to output directly to your TV, I have marked the VGA as well as this for you to compare from what you can see, I just hope you have this 2nd option available to you, as without it there is no other way I can think of to check this out, so it would be leap of faith time and get a new system I'm afraid to say.

But with xp no longer being supported, so is more prone to malicious attacks it may not be such a bad thing, but if you have no other option after this, you can get the data from your old system fairly easily, but it would require a special connector, which is not that expensive, and you would also need to remove the hard drive from this current system, again should be a matter of a few screws, but we can walk you through this if needed, but I hope something here helps a bit.

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Hi. I managed to connect it to an external monitor as it does have a VGA connection, it was under a flap that I didn't know was a flap until I saw the picture above. The screen flashed just the same so it's not that then. Is there anything else to try or is all lost? Thanks.

Hi, well if it's doing the same on an external monitor, and you followed ALL the above in doing this (there is a guide you have to follow, to switch it on\off manually above, previous to the rear view image), it suggests to me it's time for a repair shop, as there certainly appears to be a video issue if you can't see an image, but do make sure you are switching the system over via the keyboard to use the external display BEFORE doing this (allow it a little bit of time to load first, then when pressing the buttons, again give it a little time to swap over, as it probably won't be instant), if after following the guide above to switch the system over to the external port, you get no change, then it's time for a repair shop I'm afraid, hope this helps though.