LCD is displaying OPPOSITE colors! Please HELP!

[Atomic Dawg]

I've got an HP dv5000 laptop and the LCD is displaying the opposite colors. By opposite, I mean the following:

Red is Cyan (Cyan = Blue + Green)
Green is Magenta (Magenta = Blue + Red)
Blue is Yellow (Yellow = Red + Green)
White is Black
As you can see above, the wrong colors are turning on. For example, when just red should be on, red is off and blue and green are on. What's up with that?!?

This occurs at the BIOS level so it's not Windows or driver related. I've taken apart the laptop and disconnected and reconnected the display cable at the motherboard and LCD panel to no avail.

Lastly, when I connect an external monitor to the VGA connector, the external monitor displays correctly!

Any ideas?

[Atomic Dawg]

Here's a picture of what it looks like. The light blue gradient that goes from the top to the bottom of the screen only shows up in the photo. When looking at the screen with your eyes, the background is white like at the bottom of the screen.

http://www.zonespy.com/forumpics/dv5000lcd.jpg

[mxthunder]

bad lcd inverter? is it under warranty?

[Atomic Dawg]

bad lcd inverter? is it under warranty?

The laptop is definitely out of warranty. I thought about the inverter or CCFLs but I don't think that's it. The back light is still functioning and I don't see how it could cause the color problem.

I did some research on how LCDs work. Very interesting... Apparently, there are two polarizers: one vertical and one horizontal. If you want the red, blue and/or green part of a pixel to be lit, you energize a liquid crystal between the two polarizers. This "twists" the light 90 degrees and allows the light to pass through the second polarizer. If you want any portion of the pixel to be black, you don't energize the liquid crystal and the light will not pass through the second polarizer. Google "how lcds work" for some detailed explanations.

What must be happening here is somehow the wrong liquid crystals are being energized on my display. So here's my next question:

What controls the liquid crystals on a laptop display? Is it the motherboard or are they controlled by circuitry on the panel? If only I had another HP dv5000...