I think my T40 is destroyed... EDIT - REPAIRED!!!

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#1 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:25 pm

I just got home a few minutes ago, and plugged my T40 in. Pressed the power button and got nothing but a blank screen. The fan runs continuously and the power/battery LEDs are lit, but the screen shows nothing.

The last time this happened, it was because the system board died, and I fear this is the case now.

As my T40 is a bit over 2 weeks out of warranty, it would cost probably $4-500 for a Tier 3 (I think) repair.

I've taken out the extra RAM, battery, optical drive, held the power button down for 10 seconds, all the usual stuff. No response. Just a blank screen.

I guess this means my T40 is destroyed

Any recommendations?

davidspalding · #2 Post by **davidspalding** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:39 pm

Hook it to an external monitor before assuming the worst. Nothing you describe indicates that it couldn't just be the LCD.

#3 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:47 pm

I'm sure its not the LCD... there's no HDD activity, no anything

Also, the fan keeps running after I turn the power on. During normal bootup, the fan will turn on briefly as a test and then turn off. But now the fan just runs continuously.

Its dead I'm sure. I was hoping it would hold out just a bit longer.

JHEM · #4 Post by **JHEM** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:12 pm

If I wasn't leaving for Tulsa Wednesday I'd tell you to bring it over here.

It's not dead until I say it's dead.

Bad luck.

Regards,

James

simms · #5 Post by **simms** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:18 pm

This sounds EXACTLY like what I had, with my T40. Fortunately mine is still under warranty and they replaced the mobo last week. No problems now.

Try the external monitor first, that's what I did. Nothing on the screen, but lights on, no beeps...

Although sometimes mine would actually work, and if it got into Windows it would be fine.

#6 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:18 pm

JHEM wrote: It's not dead until I say it's dead.

I don't know why, but that's just too funny!

gunston · #7 Post by **gunston** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:31 pm

my friend's thinkpad encountered the same phenomenon as yours.
after taking it to the repair centre, one of the capacitor in motherboard is burnt/worn out.
luckily, his thinkpad is still under warranty, replaced with a new one and working fine now.

#8 Post by **thePCxp** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:33 am

K. Eng wrote:I just got home a few minutes ago, and plugged my T40 in. Pressed the power button and got nothing but a blank screen. The fan runs continuously and the power/battery LEDs are lit, but the screen shows nothing.

The last time this happened, it was because the system board died, and I fear this is the case now.

I think that you may need a new system board. This happened to my ThinkPad before.

renderful · #9 Post by **renderful** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:50 am

Same thing happened to my T40, only a few more months worth of warranty left. *crosses fingers*

AIX · #10 Post by **AIX** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:35 am

Did you drop the laptop before? Are there any reason for this or it is just happened?

#11 Post by **K. Eng** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:43 am

Nope. Never been dropped. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. It just stopped working.

AIX wrote:Did you drop the laptop before? Are there any reason for this or it is just happened?

Website · #12 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:43 am

K. Eng: Sorry to hear about your T40.

You could always try removing the system board and checking for any obvious malfunctions. For example, when my T23 died (with the same results as yours) I removed the systemboard to replace it. When I lifted the board out I found a loose piece lying free on the base. I haven't tried repairing it yet, but I have this sick sense of desire to try to solder it back on and see if it will work. (Just waiting for a dead T23 to test it in)

#13 Post by **K. Eng** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:13 pm

tfflivemb2, I would take the machine apart out of curiousity, but right now I just don't have the time to do so. Perhaps someday I'll be able to find replacement parts at a reasonable price and get it working again.

At any rate, I lack the money to buy a T60 or Z60t, so for the foreseeable future, I will not have a ThinkPad

Hopefully by the time I have $, Lenovo will have worked out all issues in the T6x line.

Website · #14 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:20 pm

If you have the money for a replacement system board, I am sure that there are several of us out there (given your reputation here) that would be willing perform the system board swap for you at little or no cost.

I know that I would do it for you, simply for the cost of the return shipping to you....as I'd really hate to see a mod for this forum without a Thinkpad of their own.

#15 Post by **K. Eng** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:52 pm

At $5-600 typically (did a quick Froogle search), its just not cost effective for me to buy a system board. For now, I will just make do with my homebuilt Athlon box.

There are a few ThinkPad A20/22 series machines I can borrow in the meantime. They are really beat up but they still work

I really do appreciate the offer for help though

tfflivemb2 wrote:If you have the money for a replacement system board, I am sure that there are several of us out there (given your reputation here) that would be willing perform the system board swap for you at little or no cost.

I know that I would do it for you, simply for the cost of the return shipping to you....as I'd really hate to see a mod for this forum without a Thinkpad of their own.

ThinkPad · #16 Post by **ThinkPad** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:12 pm

Did you figure out what the issue is?

AIX · #17 Post by **AIX** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:59 am

K. Eng - you can find on ebay a T40 planar/motherboard for ~250$ "buy it now" price. Give your Thinkpad another life!

Zero · #18 Post by **Zero** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:17 pm

simms wrote:This sounds EXACTLY like what I had, with my T40. Fortunately mine is still under warranty and they replaced the mobo last week. No problems now.

Try the external monitor first, that's what I did. Nothing on the screen, but lights on, no beeps...

Although sometimes mine would actually work, and if it got into Windows it would be fine.

And this sounds exactly like the problem I am having now with my T40. During the normal worksession in WinXP it just turns off. Strangely enough, sometimes this is triggered by me moving laptop physically (just a bit, no shaking, throwing, etc

) and sometimes it just powers off all by itself. After it went off and is powered on it does exactly the thing described previously: the fan working on high speed and continuously, if there is something in CD/DVD drive, then DVD starts rotating, but nothing else happens, boot process stalls on this stage. But, if I let the laptop to stay untouched for 5-10 minutes, it usually powers on and works... and dies again in a meantime. Sometimes the death is preceded by the random distortions of the image on the screen, like one can see on TV during the thunderstorm.

When trying to localize the problem I tried powering off internal wireless card, removing DVD, disabling USB and PCIMCIA, heating the CPU and GPU and I found out, that most likely this is caused by GPU being overheated, because if I run just a CPU burn-in test, it gets hot, then very hot, fan is working... but nothing bad happens. But if I run GPU burn test (I used Video Card Stability Test) it usually dies in less then 5 minutes and GPU gets very hot (tested by touching

). Why is that if I am not doing overclocking and the videocard is just a standard Radeon 7500 with short fan assembly (except that I use Omega Drivers instead of the standard ones)? Why is it powering off during the laptop's physical movement? What could be the cause of the problem and how could it be solved? Please, advise.

#19 Post by **K. Eng** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:03 pm

I called IBM up again and asked if I could get the T40 sent in for repair, but the rep said no, because it was about 3 weeks out of warranty.

So I asked to talk to a manager and got transfered to another line (escalation), where I proceeded to wait on hold for 40 minutes. Nobody answered, and I have dinner to cook and work to do. I don't have time to put up with this, so screw it, I'm just going to send IBM an email explaining my situation and see if they respond...

Website · #20 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:28 pm

Include that you are a Mod at Thinkpads.com....maybe they'll be nice so that you can come back and say nice things about them....

#21 Post by **K. Eng** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:44 pm

Ok I sent an email to the IBM CEO... I was as polite as possible.

I explained that my T40 died 3 times all with the same general kind of failure (blank screen on boot, no post, needing system board repair), and that each time I sent the T40 in for service at Solectron (3 times total, 2 for system board, 1 for bezel replacement) the T40 came back with loose parts or missing screws.

I requested repair even though my machine was 3 weeks out of warranty, or a replacement machine.

I have nothing to loose at this point since the T40 is completely dead. But the email to Mr. Palmisano is the end of the line for me. If nothing happens, I will buy a caddy for HDD so I can extract the data and scrub the drive, and then sell what is left for parts.

I will keep you all posted...

beeblebrox · #22 Post by **beeblebrox** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:52 am

Just a cautious advice from me... if you don't mind.

This behavior (moving, heating -> BSOD) was known in the T2x and T3x series. A common quick fix was in most cases a connection problem of the CPU socket.

My advice to some fellow workers was always to first open, clean and fix all connectors. In 99% of all cases it was the Pentium Chip that needed reseating and tightening the CPU socket screw.

Failure was heat driven, because of thermal expansion of the CPU frame -> drop outs.

If that ain't working, I just would check eBay for a new, empty board. They go for $60-150 (there is even a German guy in Florida selling them by the truck load to expensive Germany... Thinkpad4U or so was the name)

#23 Post by **K. Eng** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:46 pm

Hey, I will give that a try then... I've never taken the Pentium M processor out of its socket, so this is of interest to me. I've got nothing to loose, so why not?

Lenovo responded to the email I sent to IBM. A Lenovo rep from Executive Relations said she would review my case and get back to me next week. I'm sure glad someone is listening over there!

Puttagee · #24 Post by **Puttagee** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:30 pm

Hi K. Eng,
Just reading your posting and the problems you've experienced with your TP I hope you will be able to work something out with Lenovo.
Luckily for me I've had no problems with my T41 with 6 months out of warranty.

Best of luck...

lithium726 · #25 Post by **lithium726** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:52 am

Dont go into the machine and void the warranty until you know IBM wont take it back....

dsvochak · #26 Post by **dsvochak** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:17 pm

I've been trying to think of something amusing to say, but there isn't anything. Maybe the 3rd (or will it be 4th) time is the charm.

naro · #27 Post by **naro** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:25 pm

could it be that the hdd died on u??

cos no one mentioned that the hdd could be gone...

Website · #28 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:29 pm

If it was the HDD that had gone bad, then he should have still gotten the IBM screen, with access to the BIOS. In this case, he has not.

I agree that it is most likely the systemboard, especially since this problem as happened before.

#29 Post by **jdhurst** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:14 pm

Looks like the system board in my T41 is gone as well. Different hard drive; different screen; different CPU (I have a spare) = no difference. When I move the computer it quits. If warm enough (not overheating), it won't start (no BIOS screen). It is at the vendor now getting a new board (warranty - thankfully).

I do not have to flex the machine to make it quit - just move it. What are the chances that the new accelerometer on these machines can fail? Seems like a likely candidate.
... JD Hurst

Hanson · #30 Post by **Hanson** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:23 pm

dsvochak wrote:I've been trying to think of something amusing to say, but there isn't anything. Maybe the 3rd (or will it be 4th) time is the charm.

It is a conspiracy by Lenovo to "detonate" all the old models so that more people will buy the T60s!!!

I think my T40 is destroyed... EDIT - REPAIRED!!!

I think my T40 is destroyed... EDIT - REPAIRED!!!

Re: I think my T40 is destroyed...

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