White screen, shaking screen . . . inverter perhaps?

[cure]

The new screen (well a used pull actually) on my 570E has an intermittent problem. Everything on the screen will start to 'shake,' think everything vibrating in an earthquake, and then often degenerate rapidly into a mess a little bit like an out tune old television caught between channels. More rarely, on start up the screen will be white.

Switching to battery power seems to make no difference. Playing with the brightness doesn't seem to help either. Nor does turning off the screen (FN-F7) or changing the angle of the lcd. The computer get's hot, but there seems to be no correlation as when the problem occurs. The backlight seems to be good.

Any one have any experience with this, can help diagnosis this?

Thanx,

cure

[rkawakami]

Any one have any experience with this, can help diagnosis this?

No direct experience with the type of problem you have described, but from my viewpoint, your problem is NOT the inverter. The job of the inverter is to take the small DC voltage and step it up and change it to AC voltage for the backlight. If your inverter was causing any problem, you would see NO light.

The shaking and disappearance of your screen image seems more like a video signal issue. There could be a problem with your video chipset, a loose connection in the cabling to the LCD panel, or a problem within the panel itself. My first suggestion is to plug in an external monitor and use the Fn+F7 key sequence you described to activate the external port (I'm assuming that the 570E has a VGA jack somewhere on the back). If there is a proper video signal on the external monitor while the LCD shows "junk", then I would say that the video chip is working and your problem is now isolated to the video cable/LCD panel. Carefully inspect the video cable all of the way from the motherboard to the back of the panel. This is a major disassembly job but from where I'm sitting that's the best (cheapest) option. Since the screen you have was a pull, you should have some experience with removal of the panel (again, I'm assuming you did the job yourself). If your previous panel did not have this problem, then that's another point for your video chip being okay and your problem is with the "new" screen.

P.S. Could you look into your e-mail address problem (see left column under your name)? It appears that thinkpads.com does not have a valid e-mail address for you.

[tfflivemb2]

I had this problem on a T30...fortunately, the systemboard was replaced under warranty.

[rkawakami]

I had this problem on a T30...fortunately, the systemboard was replaced under warranty.

Do you know what the explanation was for the video problem? Bad video chip? Bad connector?

[tfflivemb2]

No, I don't. Since they replaced it under warranty, they just replaced it and said "replaced planar".

[sessyargc]

i am also experiencing this problem on my 570e. i bought it used so the warranty is already kaput. i'm running slackware on it.

the "earthquake" effect seems to occur when the systems gets too hot. i.e i close the lid overnight while downloading a kernel. i just power off the laptop let it cool down and boot it up again. this was a major problem when i was in the Philippines where even the nights are very hot. so i learned not to close the lid while the laptop is powered on.

i still can't figure out the "white out" though. it just happened to me this morning i went to sleep with the laptop downloading a big file. when i woke up it was all white.

sorry if i could not provide a fix for your problem too.

[cure]

Ok, thanx.

I will try to watch a for correlation between heat and earthquakes. I have not had a chance to test the machine much of late and am still waiting to plug it into a monitor while the shake is on to see what happens . . .

[cure]

Ok, I plugged it in to an external monitor while it was doing a mild pixel dance (curiously beginning and mostly confined to the left side of the screen). The external screen showed none of the troublesome activity.

[cure]

The white screen effect is definitely uncorrelated to heat. Or at least can be caused independently of heat.

The machine was off all night and turned on with the problem.

I think that I am going to have to open up by 570e & 570 and play musical lcd's. I will try reseating the cable and take a look at the cable to the extent that it is exposed.

One point of potential consequence is that when the 570e is started up is always a set of fine white lines mounting from the centre bottom of the screen. They vanish in an instant however.

[cure]

I am still not entirely convinced that heat is the cause.

The problem is more common, however, when sitting in the ultrabase.

But it is typically caused by and worst after the laptop is packed away and moved (transported out of the house) or when the lcd is bumped (such as grazing a door).

(Mildly) slamming the lid shut and reopening it is the only 'cure' that usually works. Pushing with one hand backward on the left hinge and forward on the lcd just beside the hinge helps sometimes.

The complete earthquake effect is quite rare. Flickering pixels, particularly black ones, always beginning on the top left is more typical. Sometimes black characters in Windows acquire a redish tinge and at this time a small semi-transparent red rectangle often imposes itself (typically near the top of the screen on top of the Windows tool bar).

[tfflivemb2]

Actually, rereading this much later made me realize that the problem for this might very well be the LCD itself. The same T30 is now having issues again that is very similar to this. I swapped the LCD with one from another T30, testing a different issue, and the problem followed the LCD, not the machine.

As a side note, check your LCD cable VERY closely to make sure that there isn't a slight nick in the cable.

I am also remembering now, that I had a problem VERY similar to this on a Compaq Armada 7400. Putting pressure on the upper left corner of the screen caused the problem to go away.

[cure]

Mar 23rd, 2007, 05:12 PM #1
ziptron
Jr. Member

Default IBM Thinkpad screen problem
So I've had a thinkpad for the past 3 years and its been absolutely amazing, not a single problem, until now.

Currently I have a R40 (kinda old, but still kicking it quite hard!)

Anyway, every 5-10 minutes my screen starts to jitter and then freezes with a quilted pattern of colours. The computer is still running because I can see the colours changing when I move the mouse, and I can put it into stand-by using the Fn key. When it comes back from standby the monitor is usually fine (however not always, and I have to put it into standby again for it to fix itself). Same thing happens when I try using an external monitor.

Any ideas??

Join Date: Jul 16th, 2002
Location: Markham, Ont
Posts: 2,052

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It sounds like its a motherboard/video card issue.

Try posting your question on the Thinkpads.com forum. You'll probably have better luck

Join Date: May 14th, 2005
Location: Hamilton, Ont
Posts: 196

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Thanks!!.. This looks like a great forum.

- Paul

Join Date: Nov 3rd, 2004
Location: Mississauga, L5A
Posts: 1,380

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Check to see that your fan still works correctly on the top left of the unit. The problem your talking about is most likely video corruption caused by overheating. It may just need a simple cleaning, however if it isn't as the poster said you would be looking at a new motherboard. Past prices of R40 motherboards, 2 years ago, were around $250-300

Join Date: May 14th, 2005
Location: Hamilton, Ont
Posts: 196

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Hrm!

The fan has been acting out with an odd noise lately.

Should the fan always be on? I don't recall anymore if it was a heat activated fan.

What would be a good place to buy a motherboard?

Join Date: Sep 27th, 2005
Location: In front of my computer, where else?
Posts: 1,034

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I had this problem with a T40. The connection from the GPU to the board is broken (most likely one or two bad points). Bad news is that unless you have access to some pretty awesome SMT machine's, you won't be able to fix it. You can complain to head office if you want and they might take it back and fix it, but you are SOL as far as I know. If you bought an extended warranty, IBM will fix it if it is still in warranty (I think R40's only come with a 1 year warranty, check IBM's site.

Join Date: Jun 28th, 2004
Posts: 618

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you may want to clean the dust "lint" blocking the ventilation. This involve removing the fan and heatsink. Bring it down to your local laptop store to do it if you dont feel comfortable to diy.