T43 Diagnosis

[rjr1049]

I am hoping to get some suggestions from one of you folks about a T43 Thinkpad that I have that has some problems. The screen is completely dark when I turn it on. I connected an external monitor, and booted the laptop again, expecting to see the right stuff on the external monitor if the source of the problem was that the LCD went bad. The external monitor was also completely dark. Then I booted it again, hitting Fn F3 repeatedly, thinking that I needed to do that to get the external monitor to display information but no joy. I took it in to a repair shop and their take on it is either a bad LCD or motherboard. Anyone have suggestions about what to do or what the problem might be? Thanks in advance for the help.

Bob

[Neil]

Hey, welcome to the forum. Sorry it's under sad circumstances. Have you tried the Fn+F7 keys? That's how you would switch between LCD only, LCD+Ext., Ext. only. Could be your Thinkpad is set for LCD only and if the CCFL went bad, or the inverter, and you external port is turned off, you would get the results you describe. But, if that is not the case, I'm afraid a system board (GPU) failure is very likely.

[rjr1049]

Thanks Neil. I thought I had tried the key combination you suggested (I think I tried every one out of desperation) but I tried your suggestion and no joy. Looks like it is time to pick up a used T43. Is there any problem swapping out the drive in one I buy with the one in my DOA T43? Seems like an easy way to save my stuff and get it working quickly. Thanks. Bob

[Neil]

Hard drive swap should work. There is no harm in trying.