Have you ever seen anything like this?

[DaKKS]

I bought a partially stripped T43p for its UXGA display, I knew the board was dead since it had a "DEAD - LCD OK" sticker on it but this just blew my mind. It appears as if its been so overheated that the fan has burned onto the GPU (V3200). The fan split into two when I forced it.

I managed to score a PM780 though that's going into my T42 (Assuming it survived.) and the UXGA screen is getting transplanted too.

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq24 ... 335e34.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq24 ... 5bbc15.jpg

Plastics are used but still pretty decent. All of this for 29 USD (200 SEK) WHOOHO! UXGA!

Mod edit: NO pictures over 50KB, and if you must, then put a warning in the title! Changed into links.

[Medessec]

It's not too unusual you get something like that on a T43 that has never had the heatsink replaced... that thermal pad between the silver-colored GPU heatplate, and the heatsink assembly always ends up bonding and puts up a good fight I've usually had to twist the assembly back and forth-pivoting it on the GPU heatplate, and usually what happens is the thermal pad gets torn up, or the GPU heatplate comes completely off, and clings to the thermal pad on the heatsink, exposing the GPU's memory chips and GPU die. Although... looks like what's happened here is that the thermal pad instead decided to grab onto a copper plate that's a part of the heatsink, which is meant to apply better pressure onto the GPU. Geez... well, no matter since the board's no good.

A good UXGA and a PM780... now that's a pretty nice upgrade kit for a 15" T4x owner. Really hope it all goes good for you... and hope that UXGA is nice!

[DaKKS]

Its like freaking concrete. I've worked with a lot of T4X machines over the years, and I've never come across something this bad. Sure, , like you say, it can stick pretty bad on occasion. But this is completely, utterly stuck.

[RealBlackStuff]

That PM780 will never work in a T40/T41/T42!
It's only suited for T43/R52.

They may have used thermal glue instead of thermal paste...

[DaKKS]

That PM780 will never work in a T40/T41/T42!
It's only suited for T43/R52.

They may have used thermal glue instead of thermal paste...

I'd normally defer to you on stuff like this, but this time you're wrong. It is not suited, yes. It is severely underclocked. But it works. As i'm writing this post on a T42p board with PM780.

Basic OOB config and you need NHC to get over 600mhz. I'm on battery atm. So its locked there.

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq24 ... a7d62d.png

[DaKKS]

Yup, swapped the screen. Backlight's gone. Swapped the inverter (although from a 15" XGA) and its back up again, but its pink. Great. Now I can rip everything apart again.

[Medessec]

Yup, swapped the screen. Backlight's gone.

Awh... god. That's the worst. Welp, I learned that... the first thing you want to do with a screen that you don't know for sure works, is see if it does, earliest way possible. Even if it means holding it over a T43 14" base board, plugging it in, and powering it on.

If you know for a fact the XGA bulb is good, then the screen still being pink is a result of one of the films in the screen being ruined. My spare T43p at the moment is a UXGA with yellowing on the left and right sides, a diagnosis by the pros on here as a ruined polarizer. I still use it for parts-swapping diagnosis, because it's still a nice unit otherwise, but geez. It's just incredibly disappointing. The screen also has a botch-inserted CCFL from a busted 15" XGA panel that came from a G40. lol... My roommates always wonder why I hold onto junk as useless as a busted screen, welp, who's laughing now?!

But really sorry to hear that man. Well, at least that PM780 works okay... you may want to watch the temperatures unless you're using the T43 heatsink with it. I think what RBS meant with it not being suited, is that the T2 may not be built at all to share heat with a PM780... I'm not completely sure, but I haven't really gone between T42s and T43s with CPUs before, phased by their different heatsink designs.

Welp, good luck, and I suppose you can post some more developments on here, if they're interesting enough.

[DaKKS]

Yup, swapped the screen. Backlight's gone.

Awh... god. That's the worst. Welp, I learned that... the first thing you want to do with a screen that you don't know for sure works, is see if it does, earliest way possible. Even if it means holding it over a T43 14" base board, plugging it in, and powering it on.

Thanks what i did. Pulled it apart just enough to swap the lcd assembly, but still keep it operational. I would've been so glad if it was only a straight swap... But I still have to rip the LCD assemblies and the LCDs apart.

If you know for a fact the XGA bulb is good, then the screen still being pink is a result of one of the films in the screen being ruined. My spare T43p at the moment is a UXGA with yellowing on the left and right sides, a diagnosis by the pros on here as a ruined polarizer. I still use it for parts-swapping diagnosis, because it's still a nice unit otherwise, but geez. It's just incredibly disappointing. The screen also has a botch-inserted CCFL from a busted 15" XGA panel that came from a G40. lol... My roommates always wonder why I hold onto junk as useless as a busted screen, welp, who's laughing now?!

I haven't tried an new bulb yet. Only the inverter. But I can see darkening in the corners and the bacjklight comes and goes even with a known good inverter, som its definitely the bulbs. I have a spare XGA screen I just attempted to strip of its bulb(s), but honestly, I didnt get far. I'll probably just break it. Never bothered to learn to swap bulbs since its easier to just swap the entire LCD.

But really sorry to hear that man. Well, at least that PM780 works okay... you may want to watch the temperatures unless you're using the T43 heatsink with it. I think what RBS meant with it not being suited, is that the T2 may not be built at all to share heat with a PM780... I'm not completely sure, but I haven't really gone between T42s and T43s with CPUs before, phased by their different heatsink designs.

Welp, good luck, and I suppose you can post some more developments on here, if they're interesting enough.

Well, unfortunately that PM780 doesn't do me much good. I mainly wanted the LCD. Only reason to try the PM780 is Windows 8/8.1. And I reckon Win8.1 support is rubbish for both FireGL T2 and X300, which are the only two working boards I currently have. I'll still give it a spin though.

Also, temps are fine. I wouldn't go as far to say its cool, but not too bad either. I'll try undervolting it a bit too. But overall. It runs fine and it recognized as a PM780@1.54ghz.

[RealBlackStuff]

the screen still being pink is a result of one of the films in the screen being ruined.

BS! A pink/reddish screen is the result of a dying CCFL-tube.
These tubes have a life-span of only 15-20,000 hours max.
Yellowing is caused by a screen-layer deterioration.

its definitely the bulbs. I have a spare XGA screen I just attempted to strip of its bulb(s), but honestly, I didnt get far. I'll probably just break it. Never bothered to learn to swap bulbs since its easier to just swap the entire LCD.

Look at my post here, it describes a T43 UXGA CCFL-replacement: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88991

[Medessec]

BS! A pink/reddish screen is the result of a dying CCFL-tube.

I understand that. Until I saw his replying post following mine, for some reason I was under the assumption he had already tried a different bulb, and the discoloring was still there.

If you know for a fact the XGA bulb is good, then the screen still being pink

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I mainly wanted the LCD.

Well, if the screen functions, and it's a UXGA, there's nothing stopping you from a botch-bulb replacement, so you can simply use the panel until a proper bulb comes along. I wouldn't recommend this for any sort of a final solution- but if you unscrew the backlight shield from the rest of the panel assembly and remove the bad bulb, you can replace the bulb in the cradle with a cruddy bulb from an XGA or some other 15" Thinkpad screen, particularly a busted XGA will serve you well. The wires may be different lengths, so you may have to cut up some parts of the plastic... but really, the bulb should plug right into the inverter, and provide the panel with a good bulb. Unless you take great care in keeping the films together in the panel, some dust or particles almost always get into the panel, putting dark dots in your screen, but they should be minuscule enough to permit use of the panel. It is a strictly utilitarian solution to making sure a good piece of UXGA hardware doesn't go to waste, and I've done it twice(once for my roommate's T43p, before he found a perfect UXGA panel) and another time for a spare T43p I have, that I use for diagnostic and to watch movies(reading or web browsing is annoying, because of the two small dark spots.)

If you don't have a spare bulb, or if you're a perfectionist, then I wish you good luck in your search for a good UXGA. They're out there...

[DaKKS]

UPDATE.

Haven't gotten around to fixing the UXGA panel. I'll probably need some liquid courage for that. Hehe. Maybe next weekend. I'm absolutely buried in in work and paperwork. I hate Swedish bureaucracy.

But I did give the board another chance. Cleaned it off, threw in known good parts and after some coaxing, it fired up. Whipped out the heat gun. Its done 2 hours in Furmark so far. Maybe this wont turn out so bad after all.

BTW, On a completely unrelated note. It has absolutely nothing to do with my repair whatsoever. But how do you put the heat spreader back once it removed? Thermal glue? Or just TP-Spreader-TP-Fan?

[RealBlackStuff]

You mean the white/printed aluminum cover on the GPU?
With thermal adhesive (such as from AS).

[DaKKS]

You mean the white/printed aluminum cover on the GPU?
With thermal adhesive (such as from AS).

Yup, that's it. I kinda figured. Just my luck that its out of stock everywhere in this entire bloody country.

I have some thermal adhesive tape from a previous project. Might just work until I can get a hold of thermal glue. Hopefully this temporary "repair" doesnt blow up in my face...

[RealBlackStuff]

You can also clean up the inside of the alu shield and use AS5/thermal paste instead.
When you mount the fan/cooler, it will hold that shield in place and the screw that holds the keyboard from the bottom will tighten it even more.
Just remember it if you ever take it apart again.

[Norway Pad]

I have never had the aluminum shield come off on any of my T4x GPUs, so I haven't seen this with my own eyes. But I understand that the 4-5 small ICs on the GPU chip are not the same height, so one of the ICs isn't physically touching the aluminium shield. So it was recomended by another user here to make a small piece of copper plate and install on the lowest IC, so even that IC can make proper contact with the aluminum shield. If this mod is worthwhile is unknown to me, and it is possible it gives the most result on a hot-running T43P. Any associated risks, as if the bit of copper gets dislocated and touches something on the GPU chip and makes a short, are also unknown to me. Just mentioning it, as I have put some thoughts into this for when I am going to dismantle my own T43P.

[Medessec]

I have never had the aluminum shield come off on any of my T4x GPUs, so I haven't seen this with my own eyes.

It's only happened to me on really old T43s that haven't had the heatsinks replaced in their lifetime, or for a long time. But sometimes it's good for it to come off anyways... because if you use your T43 for modern tasks, the GPU sees a lot more action than it did in 2005, so you'll want to scrape off the old thermal adhesive and put thermal grease there instead(basically what RBS up there outlined). I've done that on my spare T43p(not my prized one, I've left that original) and it does seem to help a bit.

I understand that the 4-5 small ICs on the GPU chip are not the same height, so one of the ICs isn't physically touching the aluminium shield.

For the most part, you're right: underneath the aluminum plate, this is what it looks like:
http://www.pc-erfahrung.de/fileadmin/Gr ... ity_01.jpg
And the GPU die in the center is slightly lower than the memory chips. But the aluminum heat shield has an actual pressed lump in the middle, that comes down and meets the GPU die flush.

So, as long as you have all original components, you don't have to worry about cooling the GPU properly. You can try shaving off all the old stuff, and putting new thermal pads on and thermal grease, but it'll only help so much.

[Norway Pad]

And the GPU die in the center is slightly lower than the memory chips. But the aluminum heat shield has an actual pressed lump in the middle, that comes down and meets the GPU die flush.

So, as long as you have all original components, you don't have to worry about cooling the GPU properly. You can try shaving off all the old stuff, and putting new thermal pads on and thermal grease, but it'll only help so much.

Ah, ok. As I haven't seen the aluminum shield off, I wasn't aware of the pressed lump. In that case the purpose of the copper plate wouldn't be that big. So it seems like my actions will be limited to applying new thermal paste. Maybe replacing the thermal pad with a copper plate could be a more worthwhile mod. I will do some experimenting.

[Saucey]

I'll probably need some liquid courage for that.

Haven't tried replacing a backlight on a 15" T4x panel yet, but given the 15" T6x wasn't too too bad, nor was a 14" T4x screen and the A31's unit was the absolute easiest to work on.
I think the T4x are near the T6x series, so I think you got this. Shouldn't be that bad...
Normally I would twist the backlight holder, thus breaking a plastic tab on one of the sides of the LCD unit.
Applyng it is somewhat tough, the 'U' shape of the backlight holder needs to wedge into the LCD panel, but this is doing it the quick way, not completely dissasembling the LCD panel.

14" widescreen backlights seem to be harder, same goes with a X-series unit. Failed on both units.

[DaKKS]

ITS ALIVE.

Threw the board into a 14" SXGA+ chassis I recently acquired. Lets just saw it got lost during inventory. Or fell off the back of a truck. Whatever strikes your fancy.

Pardon the kidnapped kitchen table. I normally have a proper place to work on computers but the power was out.

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq24 ... 2525a4.jpg