T40p Video Card issues

[m_a_b]

I have a T40p 2373-G3U with the ATI video card. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago the display became completely garbled - just blocks of colors. I guess I can take a picture if anyone needs to see it. But anyways, it even does this on the Thinkpad and BIOS screens. Other than not being able to see anything, the laptop works fine - I can hear windows or Linux boot up just fine. Furthermore, I tried using an external monitor and the garbled image just displays on the external monitor as well. So, I am pretty sure that my video card has bit the dust.

Other than replacing the whole mobo, is there anything I can try to get the video card back? If I have to replace the mobo, what models of thinkpads should I be looking for as donors? Lenovo wanted $700+ for a replacement and I could only find a refurbished one online for $450ish, which is still too pricey for a 1.6GHz laptop...

Any thoughts?

[agarza]

Depends on our budget. You could get a T40 motherboard on eBay, or invest more and get a T42 or T43. Kind of useless if you buy a T43 mobo, because you would have to buy a new processor and memory in order to take full advantage of the 533MHz FSB.

[Temetka]

It sounds like your GPU is coming loose. There are two possible fixes:

1. Solder re-flow. There are some good videos on google / youtube which demonstrate this process.

2. Motherboard replacement. A new (or refurbed) mobo should cost no more than $250. (I wouldn't pay more than that). If you want to keep your existing CPU and RAM you can go up to the T42p. Keep in mind that the RAM won't run at full speed in a T42p. I believe it supports PC2700 whereas your system is PC2100. It'll still run though.

I am at school right now, so I don't have access to the tawbook or anything, however if feel 90% comfortable with what I said above. There is a massive thread in here (somewhere) where the topic of your problem is discussed in length. Basically due to flexing / age the BGA solder joints of the GPU or no longer making good contact with the mobo. Users have attempted to heat the GPU using a heat gun to 'reflow' the solder back into place.

That was a 3 sentence reproduction of a HUGE thread. I believe the thread topic was something like "T4x screen turns off when I move it" or something like that.

[Dead1nside]

I'm not sure about GPUs 'coming loose'. My T41p experienced similiar symptoms as your T40p, as the GPU is on the motherboard a replacement was needed like you say, but I was under warranty. And I played games on my machine, which I think took it a bit far. Mobos for the T4x series are pretty cheap on ebay, in the UK at least. But that would be your only option in terms of replacing it, yourself using the hardware maintenance manual. Else, I would suggest cutting your losses and buying a new laptop. Not sure about being able to get the T40p but I know the T41ps in the UK sell for <= £450 these days, so other laptops will probably be cheaper (ebay that is).

Hope that helps.

[m_a_b]

2. Motherboard replacement. A new (or refurbed) mobo should cost no more than $250. (I wouldn't pay more than that). If you want to keep your existing CPU and RAM you can go up to the T42p. Keep in mind that the RAM won't run at full speed in a T42p. I believe it supports PC2700 whereas your system is PC2100. It'll still run though.

The ram would run at PC2100 speed, though, right? So there wouldn't be any loss of performance to my current system, it just wouldn't be able to take advantage of the PC2700 speed unless I got new RAM. Is that what I am reading there?

Thanks for the info - I'll try to find that article. At this point, I can't HURT the motherboard, so I might as well try to reflow the loose connection, I guess.

[Dead1nside]

Yes if you have slower RAM, you can install it in a system that can take faster RAM, it just won't utilise the potential of the system.