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Blown LCD Fuse On My 600X - Best Solution?
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Blown LCD Fuse On My 600X - Best Solution?
Yesterday, the screen on my 600X went out for no apparent reason. It was just sitting on my desk, I tried turning it on, and I couldn't get the LCD to show.
After swapping parts around with my brother's 600E, I could see that the LCD and LCD sub card were fine. So I started testing the motherboard fuses with my multimeter. I came across fuse "F3" located about 1/2" to the left of the right LCD cable connection, and I wasn't getting any continuity with my tester. So I de-soldered the fuse and put a very short loop of wire there instead, and the LCD works again.
My question is, what kind of risk am I taking to bypass the fuse like this? I don't know what caused this to happen, so maybe it could happen again.
Has anyone ever had this happen to them before?
After swapping parts around with my brother's 600E, I could see that the LCD and LCD sub card were fine. So I started testing the motherboard fuses with my multimeter. I came across fuse "F3" located about 1/2" to the left of the right LCD cable connection, and I wasn't getting any continuity with my tester. So I de-soldered the fuse and put a very short loop of wire there instead, and the LCD works again.
My question is, what kind of risk am I taking to bypass the fuse like this? I don't know what caused this to happen, so maybe it could happen again.
Has anyone ever had this happen to them before?
James Arndt
Lenovo Business Partner/Authorized Reseller
ThinkPad T420s [4171-7FU] i7-2640m/8GB/480GB SSD
ThinkPad 600X [2645-4EU] PIII-M 1GHz/576MB/60GB Internal WiFi/BT/ThinkLight/Slot-loading DVD/CD-RW
www.famteam.com
www.arndtcomputer.com
Lenovo Business Partner/Authorized Reseller
ThinkPad T420s [4171-7FU] i7-2640m/8GB/480GB SSD
ThinkPad 600X [2645-4EU] PIII-M 1GHz/576MB/60GB Internal WiFi/BT/ThinkLight/Slot-loading DVD/CD-RW
www.famteam.com
www.arndtcomputer.com
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Unfortunately no... after reading your comments, I immediately tested the fuses on my T21 mainboard, hoping I could find a reason for the backlight failure (not due to the LCD panel, the cable or the inverter), but no such luck. All the fuses I could find (F1, F3, F7, F8 ) were OK.
As to your question, I'd feel uncertain and nervous too, but unless you can find a replacement fuse and solder it in (the ones on my T21 board are labelled 1x1 and 7x7, so possibly you could cannibalize a nonworking board for this), the only thing to do would appear to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Maybe the fuse failed because of age, corrosion, thermal expansion/contraction plus a bad solder joint or something not connected with any electric overload.
As to your question, I'd feel uncertain and nervous too, but unless you can find a replacement fuse and solder it in (the ones on my T21 board are labelled 1x1 and 7x7, so possibly you could cannibalize a nonworking board for this), the only thing to do would appear to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Maybe the fuse failed because of age, corrosion, thermal expansion/contraction plus a bad solder joint or something not connected with any electric overload.
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I haven't had an LCD fuse blow before but I did get a T23 system which had a bad main fuse:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=32656
Follow-up: and to answer the other questions, the risk of bypassing the fuse with a piece of wire is that if the reason why the fuse blew in the first place was due to excessive current being drawn, then if it happens again, something other than the fuse might be damaged. Most likely the fuse protects the inverter board. I'll dig out my 600X donor/testbed motherboard and see if I can identify what it is and where you might be able to get a proper replacement.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=32656
Follow-up: and to answer the other questions, the risk of bypassing the fuse with a piece of wire is that if the reason why the fuse blew in the first place was due to excessive current being drawn, then if it happens again, something other than the fuse might be damaged. Most likely the fuse protects the inverter board. I'll dig out my 600X donor/testbed motherboard and see if I can identify what it is and where you might be able to get a proper replacement.
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.
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I appreciate the trouble, thanks!rkawakami wrote:I haven't had an LCD fuse blow before but I did get a T23 system which had a bad main fuse:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=32656
Follow-up: and to answer the other questions, the risk of bypassing the fuse with a piece of wire is that if the reason why the fuse blew in the first place was due to excessive current being drawn, then if it happens again, something other than the fuse might be damaged. Most likely the fuse protects the inverter board. I'll dig out my 600X donor/testbed motherboard and see if I can identify what it is and where you might be able to get a proper replacement.
Hopefully I'm not causing more damage with this temporary solution. I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary with it yet, but it's only been one day.
Maybe it was something else that caused it to go, like Robby said. I have been tinkering with it a lot lately, but I wasn't doing any surgery when this happened.
James Arndt
Lenovo Business Partner/Authorized Reseller
ThinkPad T420s [4171-7FU] i7-2640m/8GB/480GB SSD
ThinkPad 600X [2645-4EU] PIII-M 1GHz/576MB/60GB Internal WiFi/BT/ThinkLight/Slot-loading DVD/CD-RW
www.famteam.com
www.arndtcomputer.com
Lenovo Business Partner/Authorized Reseller
ThinkPad T420s [4171-7FU] i7-2640m/8GB/480GB SSD
ThinkPad 600X [2645-4EU] PIII-M 1GHz/576MB/60GB Internal WiFi/BT/ThinkLight/Slot-loading DVD/CD-RW
www.famteam.com
www.arndtcomputer.com
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I found the F3 fuse on my 600X motherboard. "It's dead, Jim" .
I bought this thing (600X motherboard and bottom case) last year specifically to practice installing my external WiFi antenna mod. I never powered it up but as far as I can tell by measuring it with an ohmmeter, it's open. There's no markings on the top side so I'm going to take it to work tomorrow and see if I can remove it without doing any damage to it.
I checked the DigiKey catalog and there might be a Littelfuse part that matches the physical size. I just need to figure out the current rating. Does/did your F3 have a slight purple/periwinkle color to it?
I bought this thing (600X motherboard and bottom case) last year specifically to practice installing my external WiFi antenna mod. I never powered it up but as far as I can tell by measuring it with an ohmmeter, it's open. There's no markings on the top side so I'm going to take it to work tomorrow and see if I can remove it without doing any damage to it.
I checked the DigiKey catalog and there might be a Littelfuse part that matches the physical size. I just need to figure out the current rating. Does/did your F3 have a slight purple/periwinkle color to it?
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.
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- Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:21 pm
- Location: Millstadt, Illinois
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rkawakami wrote:....Does/did your F3 have a slight purple/periwinkle color to it?
Yes, it did. And it was white on the bottom.
Weird. I suppose this could be a fairly common problem, but this is the first time I've ever heard about it
James Arndt
Lenovo Business Partner/Authorized Reseller
ThinkPad T420s [4171-7FU] i7-2640m/8GB/480GB SSD
ThinkPad 600X [2645-4EU] PIII-M 1GHz/576MB/60GB Internal WiFi/BT/ThinkLight/Slot-loading DVD/CD-RW
www.famteam.com
www.arndtcomputer.com
Lenovo Business Partner/Authorized Reseller
ThinkPad T420s [4171-7FU] i7-2640m/8GB/480GB SSD
ThinkPad 600X [2645-4EU] PIII-M 1GHz/576MB/60GB Internal WiFi/BT/ThinkLight/Slot-loading DVD/CD-RW
www.famteam.com
www.arndtcomputer.com
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