T40 bad display??

[harshbarj]

I just replaced the display on a thinkpad t40 and the display is unreadable. The lcd is off a t40p and my system is a t40, I thought they were the same system besides a few parts. I could try to describe is and fail, so here is a video of what it is doing. I could not get youtube to accept the video, nor could I convert it to something else. The display starts out looking fine then slowly get worse. It takes about 5 minutes of it to get as bad as what is shown in the video. I rebooted just so the display was doing something.

http://www.386page.com/DSCN4380.MOV (sorry for the poor quality, only a digital camera)

The problem is on the LCD side as both the s-video and VGA port produce clean video. Even when running with dual monitors the LCD looks like that while the external one is fine. In the bios the problem is not nearly as bad and only slightly noticeable.

[harshbarj]

Running 3d demos run flawlessly on the lcd. I have no clue now as to what the problem is. It has to be hardware of some sort as even the splash screen at boot has problems. After running the demo the screen looks ok for a few minutes. And again the external monitor has no problems at all through all of this.

--edit--

On a side note, I noticed the right side is garbled worse. The left is almost untouched!

[RealBlackStuff]

Read this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65505
Join the club with a bad/loose GPU.
Only remedy is reballing the GPU by the likes of GPU Medics http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0525121152
or buy another motherboard.

[scr71822]

I'm not so sure this is a GPU issue since you say the external monitor output is fine. If you can get another good lcd, try that in place of your old one (whole assembly). Usually if its the GPU it will affect video external and internal.

[harshbarj]

This is most definitely not a loose gpu as pressing on the gpu has no affect on the display. I guess the lcd controller could have gone bad or it may be a bad lcd, I just don't know yet.

[RealBlackStuff]

FYI: the analog circuit that drives the external monitor is separate from the digital circuit that drives the internal LCD.
If external works fine, then internal may be shot (or vice versa, although this happens rarely).
Either way, you have a failing GPU!

[harshbarj]

I now think it is a faulty LCD display. I have the original lcd with a dead back-light and it has been on for about 20 minutes with no problems. Shame as the new panel looks beautiful in all it's 1400X1050 glory while the old one is scuffed and only a 1024x768..

Perhaps the t40p panel is incompatible with the t40???

[Neil]

Well, an SXGA panel is only compatible with the T40 if you use a matching SXGA cable. If you are trying to use the original XGA cable with the SXGA panel, it will not work.

[harshbarj]

It came to me as an entire unit. So the cable should be the correct one. And the laptop has now been on for nearly an hour with no problems so I can now say it was the LCD and not the gpu. Just hope the ebay seller honors his 30 day warranty (as he lied anyway saying it was a t40 display). He has excellent feedback so it likely was an honest mistake but we shall see.

[RealBlackStuff]

It's very rare to have such a bad LCD, I was almost certain it it was a GPU problem.
Hope you can get this sorted.
BTW, if you are keeping the T40p lid, I would be interested in the clearplate (small strip with control lights that says T40p).