Another T42p goes black

[Morten]

Hi,

First post - great forum you guys have here

My 15" T42p is dead, I get only a couple of blinks of keypad LED's, the battery and power led's remain lid, the fan spins but display is dead. I have tried the following troubleshooting steps:
- external monitor
- remove/swap memories, remove BT/wLAN/drives/etc.
- Apply pressure to GPU / northbridge / southbridge

Nothing changes. Mine developed this problem straight out of the blue, there was no intermediate period of instability, just bam - dead one day I pulled it out to turn it on, and it's been that way ever since.

What do you guys think - is there another candidate in addition to the traditional GPU solder disconect issue?

My machine was build by an enthusiast, and has a 15" SXGA+ (1400x1050) display. Does this qualify it as a frankenpad btw? For all it may have already been reflow-repaired in its past, this guy had a tower of thinkpad parts and seemed to like repairing and custom building.

I'm ready to go try a reflow, I got a blower ant thermometer ready but found we were out of tinfoil last night . Maybe that was a good thing as it was getting late, and it also gives me a chance to check with you thinkpad enthusiasts if there is anything else I should be trying first? Or if it's not worth the bother?

Lastly, if I do go for a GPU reflow, should I concern myself with applying flux of just follow VisionViper's guide http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=57021 ?

Thanks,
Morten

[ilakast]

In case you haven't tried that already: boot without the AC adapter, with battery only and see what happens

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=96848