T43 shuts down in secs after plugging a Hydis UXGA Panel

[athlonus]

Hello,

What I did was just a test and ended up rendering my flawlessly working t43 SXGA+14'' useless.

Here is the story:

I own a spare Hydis UXGA panel and some spare parts of an older t43 15 inch.

I wanted to build up a new system by using the Hydis panel. But first I needed to test if would work on a T43 ATI X300 Mobo. I opened the LCD lid and just connected the inverter cable to the CCFL as well as the 30 pin connector to the Hydis panel.

Hypothetically it should have worked. But what happened is blinking leds for a few seconds before the T43 shuts off.

I connected the original LCD again and it does the same thing. Unless I uninstall and put the battery pack back it does not respond to pressing down the power button. It just turns on and works a few secs with normally blinking leds and after some point just shuts off. I wanted to know what happened to the mobo basically. I know some about the electronics but nothing to diagnose this kind of trouble.

Also there is no CCFL light during the boot. Even I disconnected the LCD besides the inverter it just shuts down in a few seconds.

I think there is a blown fuse or a component but I have no idea about the possibilities.

Any ideas are more than appreciated. Thanks!

[Brad]

Welcome to the forum.

T4x SXGA+ and UXGA LCD's use different video cables.

Brad

[athlonus]

Hi Brad,

I was reading the threads about the LCD swaps. Do you think that I burned something by connecting the Hydis UXGA to t43p SXGA+ cable?

As I mentioned T43 powers up for a few seconds and shuts down now.

[Brad]

Yes. I think connecting the LCD's with the incorrect cable can cause a failure of the motherboard and the motherboard may need to be replaced.

Brad

[athlonus]

Would there be an alternative solution like replacing blown components? I have read about fuse replacements. I hope it is applicable to my issue here.

[Brad]

I can't say for sure if there are other solutions. I have not heard of any. Of course there is much that I have not heard of. If you find any other solutions please post them to let us know.

Brad

[xyz]

Sounds like the motherboard is gone, you have most likley killed the lcd controller chip.

I think what has happened is.. on the ibm panel pin 1 is ground and pin 2 is vcc and the uxga panel both are gorund , this is the way dell do things, so you have bascially shorted ground and vcc, resulting in failure on the board.


happened to me too last week, the board was a write off.

[SMA]

If you happen to have access to an external monitor, then you could try to connect it to the T43.
The odds are pretty good, that the machine will boot in that configuration.
I am not trying to provide a solution here, just suggesting a way of doing some diagnostics.
Seeing something that does work, might help to isolate the error.

[athlonus]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... e77284bcb7

It works on the external. Same issue here.

[lmt41p]

I have a very similar situation. My T41p shuts down in seconds even though I have (I believe) the equivlant sxga+ replacement LCD panel. Does anyone know if there are ways way to definitely test for a bad motherboard with having a a tech workbench? My story is as follows:

I had already purchased a new lcd inverter from IBM in an attempt to resolve a faulty backlight situation - unsuccessfully. The ID Tech P/N 11P8346 lcd I purchased is equivalent to the Samsung 11P8348 that I was removing, so I was confident the swap would be straightforward. Disassembly was without incident and I was careful to protect the exposed motherboard to hazardous debris. The reassembly was also incident-free. But when I finally installed the battery and turned it on, the power on sequence died after only a few seconds; the Thinkpad cannot even begin the POST. Switching to the old lcd panel did not change this behavior.

I understand that one could damage the lcd controller by installing an lcd panel with the incorrect resolution, or having the wrong cable with incorrect pinouts, but neither was true in my case (I don't think it's possible to miss a pin plugging in the lcd panel). I have done what fault analysis I could - removing daughterboards and even disconnecting the lcd from the mobo - and I have no clue as to what might have happened. But I have a glimmer of hope because when I power on without the lcd connect it went a little further in sequence, up to producing a beep, like a POST beep, but it still shut down after that.

I have a port replicator and I am wondering if there are any tests I can do, like voltage tests, with the mobo exposed from the top, to determine if my mobo is a throwaway. I am trying to get my LCD panel vendor to RMA it and test it for functionality. With these two pieces of information I'll be able to decide whether to get a new sxga+ motherboard for my T41p or just sell everything piecemeal on eBay.

Any comments for insights would be much appreciated. By the way, this forum is the real deal; very nice, useful content.

[Johan]

Welcome to the Forum, lmt41p!

A quick question: If you entirely disconnect the LCD cable/inverter/panel from the motherboard, and try connect an external display through the VGA-output at the right side of your ThinkPad, will this external display then show anything?

As to test the motherboard, see the thread T41P shuts off with internal monitor - more exactly this post.

If you end up discovering that your motherboard is dead then there are several very cheap T4x motherboards for sale right now in the marketplace in this forum; see the thread Thinkpad T4* Planars for Sale CHEAP!- All have been reflowed. While these may not be high-end "p"-motherboards (for e.g. T41p's) they may perhaps fill your needs... and I honestly don't believe that you will find T4x motherboards cheaper, anywhere. Perhaps the seller also has "p"-motherboards available... ask!

Johan

[lmt41p]

Johan:

Thanks for your post. I apparently have VGA only display capabilities. I removed the "new" (obviously incompatible) SXGA+ LCD panel but reinstalled the inverter so I'd have the indicators. I have the T41p in a port replicator. It can boot successfully with an external monitor, and it can boot Win XP in VGA mode and run apps. But if I try to change display to another resolution it simply shuts off immediately.

I'm guessing this means the GPU is bad. Somewhere I have a diagnostic bootable CD for the T41p which I will find and run diagnostics. What I don't know is whether one can get a mobo GPU repaired.

The irony of all of this is that I purchased the longest extended warranty availabe from IBM for the T41p, and their EasyCare service has always been great. The warranty was up at the end of November 2008. I sent it in mid-November because the USB ports suddenly refused to support USB 2.0, and they put in a new mobo. At the time, the LCD was not exhibiting backlight issues, and I didn't realize the slight pink tint at startup meant imminent backlight failure. EasyCare probably would have replaced the LCD if it was on the ticket. Now I have no LCD and a damaged mobo 5 weeks after the warranty expired. Truly a "Murphy's Law" situation.

I'd like to just drop my harddrive in another T4x, because of all of my apps and configurations, but I have doubts that Win XP will run with the HAL installed for the T41p chipset (and the SXGA+). I will check out the T4x motherboard source you mentioned.

Sigh!

[Johan]

What I don't know is whether one can get a mobo GPU repaired.

Very sorry to hear this Murphy's-law story... warranty ending in Nov. 08, and now it's just slightly past Dec. 08, and you're having all these troubles... aargh!!

Anyway, as already mentioned, there are ways to get on, and I suggest you contact forum member baisley (see the thread linked to in my previous post), as he is selling T4x-motherboards, incl. "p"-types. Alternatively, you may have your own T41p mobo repaired for a modest cost; see the sticky at the top of this forum T42 shuts down when I move it and scroll down to the last couple of pages (much of the first is history now); there you will find links to very fairly priced mobo-repair shops. Alternatively, you may contact forum member jamiphar (James Arndt); see his add here --> LCD CCFL Backlight Repair/GPU Rework - I'll fix it for you!; James is offering his superb service to us ThnkPad'ers.... and I can personally highly recommend James. Yet another alternative if you wish to try repair your mobo yourself: See the sticky at the top of the T4x-forum --> GUIDE: Reflow GPU fix - 56K WARNING!!!

Let's know how things progress for you. Best of luck!

Johan

[lmt41p]

Thanks, Johan, for your recommendations and links.

I located my PC Doctor CD, booted the diags and ran the entire set of tests (except only quick memory). I was surprised that the video adapter passed all tests. But, interestingly, after each suite of tests loaded the external monitor went blank for all except one test. Normally when I've run these tests on the LCD display I see all sorts of character sets, colors, graphics, etc., as the tests execute. I don't recall running those tests with an external monitor before, but I would have expected to see the same kinds of output on my Samsung 712 1280x1024 monitor

Bottom line: I can only run my t41p (2373-GEU) in VGA 640x48 8-bit color mode. If I attempt to change screen resolution using Win XP desktop\properties\settings, or, in fact, if I try to change anything in the display/monitor settings, even something simple like a checkbox to hide display modes, the T41p shuts down. It's as though the graphics driver attempts to interact with the GPU and that action crashes the Thinkpad. Since it boots and works in VGA, I assumed that the GPU was active. Maybe it is running in some kind of minimal, basevideo mode with default drivers. But when the CPU executes instructions that signal the GPU, some chip somewhere, maybe a simple bus driver, just shorts to ground and takes down the computer. Whatever causes this was obviously damaged by the LCD panel I installed.

I don't have the equipment to test this theory, like an oscilliscope or logic analyzer. or initimate knowedge about the mobo components so I'll have to rely on some of the resources you've identified to get my Thinkpad up and running.

Thanks for all of your help.