DVD problems with T40 [PLEASE HELP]

[tobiasfunke]

My beloved T40 has been acting up. When I play a DVD it shuts off immediately. The screen goes black and but the computer still seems to be on. When I try to reboot, something turns on but nothing shows up on the screen. After about 20 minutes the computer will turn on fine.

It also shut down once when I moved the computer a bit. Sometimes before it shuts down the screen gets shaky.

I'm a poor student who really needs a computer, but doesn't have the money to get it fixed.

Thanks in advance.

[cmarti]

You can run the battery of test of PC DOCTOR 5 it may show you what is wrong.

PC-Doctor for Windows - Desktops / Notebooks

[danage]

it's probably also the GPU failure. try a forum search. you might need a new system board.

[tobiasfunke]

Thanks for the replies!!

I tried the PC Doctor tests and it made it through all the tests where the screen went black and it was testing the screen, I think. Then the test started to go "inside the computer" where there were gizmos and gyros and widgets, kinda like pinball. At this point the screen went black. I know that this should narrow down the problem, but since the comp went out the PC Doctor couldn't tell me what was up.

Maybe some of you T40 gods might know.


I also searched for GPU problems, it sounds difficult for someone like me to fix. But I'll give it a shot, it thats what the problem is. I might be able to bug some ee students too.

Thanks again.

[ajkula66]

Looks to me like your machine suffers from an issue common with T4 series, when the ATI video card starts detaching from the main board, because of too much "play". In Europe, Lenovo replaces boards free of charge even for machines out of warranty (admitting their....), but not in the US.

You can look it up, the problem is everywhere, ThinkWiki etc, but here's how one of my past buyers solved it:

Well, today after I tossed a piece of foam weather stripping pad directly on the video chip that puts pressure on it when the keyboard is screwed down I spent three plus hours downloading every update for the windows XP that was available. (SP2) It ran off of the house AC power for that whole time. It was restarted a half dozens times for each batch of updates with no issues. I then tossed a dvd in and watched the whole thing under battery power. It ran great all day. I basically left the machine on a table most of the time. I did end up gently moving it around the house and all was well. What I am going to do is call IBM and see what is up with any warranty extensions on monday and decide wheather that is a good deal for my situation. It is very promissing that it ran great all day. I know it wont last if someone picks the machine up that is unaware of the problem but I am going to wait and see how long it goes. I will end up buying a motherboard if I need to and toss that in there if it really becomes a problem.

Bottom line is, is really worth replacing a motherboard on a T40 these days, or just part the machine on eBay and get something new...?

[tobiasfunke]

Thanks for the replies. It does seem to be the GPU unit, and I know when I broke it too. I'll have to try to buy something in the meantime, and maybe try the "post-it" approach later.