URGENT> Screen will not turn on !

[Ashiaveli]

Help! I have a meeting to go to later today and my screen (T42) will not turn on. It flickers and turns so low that I can see that it is on but extremely low brightness (much lower than the lowest brightness). I've tried manually pushing the little button at the top left but that just makes it flicker too, I've restarted, looked through the BIOS and nothing.

Everything was fine a week or so ago and I haven't undocked it or installed anything new.

Guys, any ideas would really be appreciated.

[mitchellst]

There's three possible causes, but it's most likely your LCD or your FL inverter.

If the screen had a red tint when you first turned it on before it failed (you would've noticed it for awhile), then it's probably your LCD. If not, then it's probably your FL inverter, which is much cheaper to replace.

There's also an off chance that it's your motherboard, but it's much less common.

Either way, it won't help you in your meeting today. You could still hook it up to external video though. That will work, but may not be practical.

[GomJabbar]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=38664

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=44264

Note that you can plug in any standard monitor to the VGA port on the right side of the T4x ThinkPads. Use Presentation Director Fn + F7 to turn the external display on. You can also use ThinkPad Configuration or Display Properties to turn the external display on.

[larrys]

I had the red tint and black screen issue.

What *may* help is to reduce the screen brightness to a minimum. Close the lid ,reopen it, and the lcd may function again.

For me this was a temporary fix that lasted only a few days before it died completely.

[Ashiaveli]

Thanks for your help guys but I cannot tell you how disappointed I am. I've been telling everyone for two years how amazing this laptop is, how sturdy it is and how nothing fails on it (guess I jinx it) and the screen dies. My old bargain bin laptop's screen lasted longer. I've had this less than 2 years.

[SHoTTa35]

nothing to blame the laptop about really, inverters fail sometimes or it could just be the actual bulb that blew out. You know how they say those bulbs can last 100,000hrs or whatever but that can abrubptly change for no reason. The laptop is still good, you just happen to have a bad part which can be replaced (if it is the inverter)

[pianowizard]

Help! I have a meeting to go to later today and my screen (T42) will not turn on.

I agree with SHoTTa35 that the rest of the laptop should still be fine. Ashiaveli, are you going to present something through a projector at this meeting? The output from the VGA port most likely still works. Test it with an external monitor before the meeting.

[Ashiaveli]

just wanna give you guys an update:

I got it repaired. The technician was certain it was the inverter but I told him about this post and the links I was given and how that most people found that it was their whole screen. He called me later on in the day and told me it wasn't the inverter after all and then he changed the screen and it worked.

So the screen did, in fact, die. Love how I have my T42 back but I may get a mac for my next purchase. I researched new laptops and thinkpads are still the best built.

[wearetheborg]

Was it still under warranty ?
If not, how much did the repair cost ?

[GomJabbar]

Thanks for the update, Ashiaveli!