Is this a ribbon cable issue? I would be more than willing to send my VB off to someone that can re-solder this for me if that the problem. if its something else can someone let me know?

Is it a horizontal line? It could be the ribbon cable, or one of the 224 LEDs died.

Ugh I knew someone would say an LED died. How sad. I will continue to use it, as I am the original owner from 15+ years ago.

I solder-fixed one that had a black line like that. I, too, put it down to a bad LED, but it’s at least as likely that it’s a loose bonding wire between the driver chip and the (still functional) LED.

I’m not saying it’s practical, but with access to the right (very expensive) equipment, it could be fixable. I know that some of the more prestigious universities have wire-bonders, so its at least within the realm of possibility that someone here “knows a guy” that could make it happen.

i have a few lines on my displays. more since i got them solder fixed and replaced. i haven’t pulled them back out to clean them yet, but i’m assuming its just dust on the LED.

If it’s just a single black line, it’s most likely not the cable. A bad cable should cause repeating lines.

Is it a complete lack of one line, or a dark smudge looking line over part of the screen? If it’s that the line just isn’t there, then yeah… bad LED, bonding wire, etc. (not easily repairable). If it’s a dark line, then your display probably has a speck of dust or something and needs to be cleaned.

DogP