T41 - broken screen. Force to external monitor at startup?

[deedoubleukay]

Greetings -

I recently rediscovered an old T41 from my college days with what appears to be a broken screen. I tried plugging it into an external monitor, and then starting it up. However, no signal is detected by the external screen, and nothing ever shows up on the laptop monitor - just a black screen. The computer is on, but nothing is visible.

After reading a few other threads, I looked closely to try and see if there was something faint, but still saw nothing. Without being able to see anything on the screen, I'm not sure how to go about diagnosing it. I do not have a docking station.

Is there a way for me to force the laptop onto the external monitor? Or is this a lost cause and the laptop is totally useless?

[Harryc]

Remove the battery and disconnect power. Pull all RAM modules. Plug in the unit and power on. Does it beep?

[deedoubleukay]

Yup. Any idea on what that means?

[Harryc]

It means that your systemboard is getting power and is functioning at a basic level. Reinstall (one module of) the RAM and start removing plug in parts. WiFi card, modem, hard drive, optical drive, battery. Try powering up on AC in between. Also try the 'other' RAM module alone that you have not tried. Try alternate RAM slots. The object is to get the BIOS boot screen to appear on the internal or an external LCD. Personally I'd leave the external plugged in while testing. Oh, and one of the times while testing, remove the keyboard (connect the keyboard with it's ribbon cable only) and put downward pressure on the GPU with a thumb, and power up. The GPU has large ATI lettering on it, and may be underneath a copper heatsink.
Refer to the maintenance manual for removals -
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-46464

[poshgeordie]

Welcome to the forums.

To remove the keyboard download the How To's doc in my sig. That doc has a link to T4x Screws which shows the keyboard screws.

The symptoms are typical of either an unsoldered GPU or Southbridge (SB) chip. Rough rule of thumb - with RAM module fitted if you have to hold down the On Off button for around 5 secs for the laptop to switch off it's 99% unsoldered GPU; if it switches off it's usually SB but could be GPU.

If you live in USA or Canada, again refer to The Board Room link in my sig which supplies refurb'd boards for forum members - good value too.