T30 screen goes dark when XP loads

[elle]

I have read a few other similar problems, but not exactly what is going on with my "new" T30 I bought on ebay.

The display lights up at start up and IBM logo is there. But when XP loads, screen goes dark. This happened intially while working, not at startup. If I press fn/f7 the screen will light back up for about 3-4 seconds, and then goes dark again. The desktop is there and I can faintly see the desktop thru the black.

Screen does not work in safe mode. So far I have run PC Doctor, I have done a few Recovery commands (fixboot, fixmbr, & Chkdsk /r) Errors were found and fixed on that last command. I have reinstalled XP. Still screen will not light up, except for a few seconds when fn/f7 pressed. I can hook up to an external monitor and computer works fine. But still have dark screen problem on T30.

So, I am thinking this is prob a hardware problem. Any ideas of what I could check next.

Thanks for any advice.

[ryengineer]

Have you done the Bios update? Updating gpu drivers? Since the notebook works fine on an external display so I doubt these things would be of any help.

The problem comes back to the lcd. Try connecting/disconnecting the ribbon cable. If none works and the laptop was not sold "as is" and this problem was not discussed in the selling description, I suggest you contact the seller to get an exchange/refund, whatever applies.

Edit: visit this thread and see what Ray suggests.

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

As you have said that you can faintly see the display on the LCD, it sounds like your backlight is being turned off. That can happen due to a bad inverter, a bad backlight, a bad ribbon cable, or a problem somewhere on the motherboard. Since a toggling of the Fn+F7 seems to bring the screen back to life for a couple of seconds, try the same thing with the Fn+F3 key combination. Assuming that the system is turned on and the screen is lit and then goes out, pressing Fn+F3 should make the faint image go away. A second press of Fn+F3 should re-enable the display. See if that also causes the display to go dark by itself.

You say that you've run PC Doctor. I'm assuming you mean the DOS version (blue background, green menu bars). Does the LCD remain lit throughout all of those tests or does it still go out?

[elle]

ryengineer: I will try the ribbon cable and see if that helps.

rkawakami: the fn/f3 does basically has the same effect that fn/f7 has. The screen will light up for 3-4 seconds, then go dark again.

I ran PC Doctor -windows vers. The display is always dark thru all the tests. The display stays dark unless I press fn/f7.

Thanks for the advise!

[rkawakami]

How about if you just boot the system and enter the BIOS screen (hold F1 key at power up)? Does the display go dark there as well?

Also, is there any red or pink tint of the backlight when it first turns on? If it does that, then that usually means that the lamp is getting old. If it's bright white and the re-seating/inspection of the ribbon cable doesn't fix the problem, then I'd vote for getting a replacement inverter. Best bet is to troll eBay for one but you may also have some luck posting a "wanted" in the Marketplace. Note however that one other member here is also looking for a T30 inverter.

[elle]

I just booted up and entered the BIOS. It went dark and I could not see the BIOS screen unless i press fn/f7. Then it lit up for a few seconds and went dark again. The screen is nice and bright without any blue or pink tint when I get it to light up.

[rkawakami]

Given all of that, the first thing I'd try to replace is the inverter board. For the T30, there's three different part numbers depending upon the type of LCD panel you have. Refer to the Hardware Maintenance Manual at:

HMM for T30

for the directions on how to remove the LCD bezel and inverter board (pages 114 and 115). You don't really have to remove all of the components listed in the HMM, except the battery and AC power. You don't want the system to turn on when you are handling the high voltage inverter board . When you get to the inverter, look for the FRU number that should be printed on it. The possibilities are:

26P8412
26P8411
91P7147

Go to this site:

Lenovo Parts Lookup

and plug in your system's type and serial numbers. This should return a list of FRUs installed in the system. Verify that the LCD display FRU matches what the HMM says you should be using (page 149 of HMM). It's possible that somebody before you tried to replace the inverter board and used the wrong one. It's also possible that the entire panel or lid assembly has been switched after it left the factory. I don't have any direct experience with the T30 system so I don't know what would happen if you installed the "wrong" inverter board for the LCD panel you have. It could be an electrical difference or a physical one between the three inverter boards.

[elle]

Ray, Thanks so much for all the information!! I will try a installing new invertor board and report back!

Thanks again!

[elle]

One other thing I was wondering about is this laptop seems to have a burned copy of XP. Can this cause hardware to fail? When I was trying to load other programs on it, the other programs could not recognize things like explorer.

[tfflivemb2]

One other thing I was wondering about is this laptop seems to have a burned copy of XP. Can this cause hardware to fail? When I was trying to load other programs on it, the other programs could not recognize things like explorer.

No, this will not cause it....the problem is hardware related, since you can still see the image on an external monitor, and a dim image on the screen itself...