Screen with horizontal lines/less than 25% working

[AndrePaulo]

Hi there!

Today I went to turn on my laptop and I was greeted with this:

I held the power button to restart, and then it stayed like this:

I did not move the laptop, it stayed the whole day in my desk.
Yesterday I was using it without any kind of problem.

I don't think it's Windows related, as I also see this effect while the computer is booting up and accessing the BIOS.

Is there anything I can do?

Thanks in advance!

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Is this a PCSpecialist system? Can you copy and paste your full specs from the order page?

 

[AndrePaulo]

Yes it is, forgot to post them!

Spoiler: Specs

Promotional Item
Get Rainbow Six Siege: Gold Edition with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 10875H (2.3GHz, 5.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 1500MB/sR | 1000MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre Cloverleaf European Power Cable
Battery
Defiance Series Integrated 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (73WH)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 3 PORT + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language
15" DEFIANCE SERIES PORTUGUESE KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
5 DAY DELIVERY TO PORTUGAL
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Yes it is, forgot to post them!

Spoiler: Specs

Promotional Item
Get Rainbow Six Siege: Gold Edition with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 10875H (2.3GHz, 5.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 1500MB/sR | 1000MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre Cloverleaf European Power Cable
Battery
Defiance Series Integrated 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (73WH)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 3 PORT + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language
15" DEFIANCE SERIES PORTUGUESE KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
5 DAY DELIVERY TO PORTUGAL
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland

Thanks

The fact it's happening outside of windows suggests a physical issue on the laptop.

If you can boot into windows at all, take a screenshot, if the issue shows on the screenshot it's related to GPU, if it doesn't then it's the screen itself. You can also test this plugging in a secondary monitor, if the issue doesn't show, you know it's the screen.

Just from the way it's presented, I'd guess it's a screen issue. If it were GPU, I'd expect more uniform pixelation rather than random patterns as per the photo.

 

[AndrePaulo]

Yep, works fine with a second monitor:

And a screenshot:

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Yeah, so something has failed in the panel itself.

From the pictures, it looks to me like some kind of pressure has burst the LCD matrix, that "leaking" effect in the edges of the lower half suggests that over a simple backlight failure. Guess it could have also happened if it somehow overheated.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

By the way, even though the warranty has expired, you're still eligible for repairs if you wanted to through PCS, doesn't exclude you from that, simply means the cost is no longer covered by warranty.

But I'd suggest at least getting it looked over and get a quote for repairs unless you were looking to upgrade anyway. You may be surprised at the cost for a replacement screen.

 

[AndrePaulo]

By the way, even though the warranty has expired, you're still eligible for repairs if you wanted to through PCS, doesn't exclude you from that, simply means the cost is no longer covered by warranty.

But I'd suggest at least getting it looked over and get a quote for repairs unless you were looking to upgrade anyway. You may be surprised at the cost for a replacement screen.

Thank you for your help triaging this!

I'll be contacting support!

 

[AndrePaulo]

Hmm

Yesterday I used the laptop without the main screen, only the second screen for a few hours, and then I shut it down. I remembered that I needed to test if it could output to 2 different external screens, so I booted it up, and surprise surprise, I saw the PCSpecialist logo on the main screen, without showing any problems.

I have no clue what's happening.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Hmm
View attachment 43559

Yesterday I used the laptop without the main screen, only the second screen for a few hours, and then I shut it down. I remembered that I needed to test if it could output to 2 different external screens, so I booted it up, and surprise surprise, I saw the PCSpecialist logo on the main screen, without showing any problems.

I have no clue what's happening.

The only thing I can think is that the screen itself overheated somehow, and with a bit of time to cool off, it's back to normal.

That is odd, but really pleased it's better. Fingers crossed it was just a one off.