T40 boots to trippy graphics, before bios

[Gregirie]

Big thanks to anyone who can help, I really appreciate it.

First off:
IBM T40
Type 2373 - RU1
Windows XP professional

The other day I notice the graphics for the cursor look a little glitchy. I backed up the entire computer (thank god) using ntbackup. I restarted the computer and right away (before bios loads) the graphics cycle through this!





I tried rebooting but got the same jumbled graphics. I think i logged in to windows once just by clicking around randomly and watching the hdd activity light. Anyways, i messed around with it and one time i got it to hibernate; upon waking it came back to windows and the graphics were readable but was glitchy again with a few random lines and colors around the screen. Tried setting up a virus scan on next reboot and backed a few things to my external drive and rebooted. From this point on, when booting I just get the jumbled graphics.

The graphics were readable when i tried f11 so i reformatted. Used the "Ibm product recovery program v5.7" and reformatted and reinstalled everything. I thought this was the end of the problem as the reinstall went fine and it was back to day 1 status. Comp comes preloaded with symantec antivirus so I upgrade the virus definitions first thing. then I upgrade windows patches. at this point windows needs to restart to install patches. fine i restart. Jumbled graphics again. now f11 won't respond either.

Well, i pulled the hard drive and i get the same thing. Bootup shortcuts don't work. It seems after trying the f11 and f8 options during bootup i was unable to return to these menus a second time.

I read about the GPU seperation thing, my laptop doesn't respond to movements of jolting of any sort. At first i thought it was a boot virus or some kind of BIOS glitch.
But now I'm thinking this is a hardware issue.
My warranty is up.
What should I do with this thing?
How much is this going to cost?
Who am i gonna call?

[induktor]

Hi
I can't see any of those pictures, it gives an error message, try to upload to other site like imageshack or something.

I have a similar problem on my T40 (i think it's similar, based on your description), here are the effect I have.



To test if it's a video problem or a LCD problem I try the TV-OUT output but the result is similar.



In my case, when I lay my hands on the palm rest, the pressure on the mainboard makes the effect dissapear, but as soon as I take the hand off the rest it appear again.

I partially solve it by adding a rolled piece of paper (yes I know it's nasty but I'm just experimenting some solution ) under the keyboard over the ATI chipset, and also let the keyboard screws 1 turn loose, to avoid unnecesary pressure, and so far it worked.

I was thinking to add a heatsink to the ATI and northbridge, because in my case the effect happens when the machine is hot, but I still haven't figured out how to fasten in place to avoid a mess

if this is your case, I'm afraid that is very little you can do, the best thing todo is to replace the mainboard, but they are difficult to find and not cheap.

There are another solution that consist in heat the chipsets with a heat gun to re-attach the loose solder points, but it's a little extreme and I think, unless you really have experience doing it, I will be a little afraid to try it .

Here is the procedure: GUIDE: Reflow GPU Fix

c-u
indkt.

[ajkula66]

First of all, welcome to the forum!

This does look like a motherboard issue, GPU chip going bad instead of getting loose which is a more common problem.

You are quite likely looking at the motherboard replacement. However, you should contact forum member jamiphar (see the above ad about laptop and LCD repair) to see what he can do for you.

Good luck.

[Gregirie]

Thanks ajkula66,

I fixed the pictures, hopefully you can see what I'm talking about now.

It looks like a similar problem.

If it is the main board, how much does one run?
where do i go to get one and it is possible to do it myself, I have experience building desktops but I've never been inside my think pad before.

Whos this Jamiphar fellow? a forum member, technician?

Again, Thanks for the help guys, i really do miss my thinkpad.

[induktor]

Hi!

That looks a lot worse than my case, I think that this is a display problem, let's see what ajkula66 thinks about this, I may be wrong but looks like display.

why don't you connect something to the VGA and S-Video Output and see if you see the same problem or not, that way you can rule out the possibility of LCD or lcd flex failure.

c-u
Indkt.

[Gregirie]

Induktor, I tried the external VGA and S-Video out and i get the same trippy graphics.

So its got to be the motherboard then?

[ajkula66]

Yes it is the board.

Contact James (jamiphar) and you guys can take it from there...

[induktor]

Induktor, I tried the external VGA and S-Video out and i get the same trippy graphics.

So its got to be the motherboard then?

Ouch!, yes, I'm afraid so sorry.