T40 display issue - turns off

[passwave]

Hi everyone,

I have had a T40 for almost 4 years now- excellent machine

But, recently I am having some strange problems with it.

The display started to turn off. While using an application or playing a game, all of a sudden the display goes black, but the laptop is still on and the game keeps running.
Then, I have to restart the machine and it loads and works fine again, until I accidentally move or lift the laptop and again turns off.

If I put it on a desk without any moving, it works fine.

So, I did some diagnostics with directx (dxdiag.exe). I tested the
Direct 3D Acceleration and while testing the same thing happens each time - the screen turns off.

So, it may be the video card (ATI 7500) or the display - but certainly a hardware problem

Any comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

[wwill]

Hi everyone,

I have had a T40 for almost 4 years now- excellent machine

But, recently I am having some strange problems with it.

The display started to turn off. While using an application or playing a game, all of a sudden the display goes black, but the laptop is still on and the game keeps running. Then, I have to restart the machine and it loads and works fine again, until I accidentally move or lift the laptop and again turns off.

If I put it on a desk without any moving, it works fine.

So, I did some diagnostics with directx (dxdiag.exe). I tested the
Direct 3D Acceleration and while testing the same thing happens each time - the screen turns off.

So, it may be the video card (ATI 7500) or the display - but certainly a hardware problem

Any comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

i think there is something wrong with the LCD

[carbon_unit]

Try plugging in an external monitor and see if it still does it.
That will tell you if it is the display or the video chipset.

[passwave]

Thanks for the advice.

I plugged it to an external monitor and the same thing happens with both monitors - turned black . So, it may be the ATI 7500 32MB, which is the less worse case, I hope

Is the ATI Mobility 7500 integrated in the T40 or I can replace it with a brand new say ATI 9000?

[cmarti]

Hi everyone,

So, it may be the video card (ATI 7500) or the display - but certainly a hardware problem

Any comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Yes it sounds like the GPU is fried, time to upgrade to a T42p mobo.