Pressing left palmrest fixes T43 lockup?

[usadan]

My T43 intermittently locks up the mouse and keyboard entry for a several seconds at a time. If I press down (or torque down) the front left palmrest, it unlocks and stays working great as long as I keep pressure on that corner. Sometimes everything works fine without torquing but torquing always fixes the lockup. Works best if I hold that corner top and bottom and lift it up a bit, also works if I keep the PC on my lap and push down with my left wrist.

Any idea what is causing this problem? What component is on that corner? I don't use any PC cards. Is this likely a solder issue or a loose connector or something else? Thanks.

[Norway Pad]

From what I have discovered so far, the T43 seems to have an issue with the Southbridge chip becoming unsoldered. Not common, but it happens. The symptoms can be like you describe. It can be reflowed the same way as the famous GPU (Graphics) chip. Try to do a search here, and you will find posts about the T43's and loose Southbridge chips, and where to get it fixed. Depending on where you live (I didn't notice) there are reflowing/reballing services available.

BTW, I would not use too much force when twisting the laptop. Otherwise you might risk that other components, like the GPU, might come loose too. The sooner you get it fixed, the better, if you plan to keep this laptop.

[poshgeordie]

+1

This southbridge problem on T43's is becoming too common for my liking.

Typical unsoldered SB symptoms are:

• USB 1.1 rather than 2.0
  Hard disc only loads when pressing down on the palmrest. This can give the appearance of the Thinkpad freezing rather like the GPU issue except it unfreezes when pressing down.
  Occasionally the audio crackles.