Thinkpads Forum

My son's T60p is displaying a phenomenon I've never before experienced before in a Thinkpad in all my years of using them. When I switch on the laptop, I briefly see the Thinkpad Logo, then it fades out and the screen goes blank. Then it boots up and after a while the screen would get bright then dim, then disappear, but I can still see the backlight even though the LCD doesn't show anything but a dark screen. Any ideas?

How about with external display ?

Either the CCFL or the inverter is damaged.
Try another inverter, that's the easiest/cheapest.

Gonna try an external display. What doe the inverter do and how much/hard is it to switch out? Thx!

The inverter basically soups up the voltage for the LCD's backlight from 10V to ca. 850V with a peak of ca. 1350V at startup.
You only need to remove the LCD bezel to replace the inverter.

Where is the best sources for inverters and or CFL's? Thanks for the help!

14.1" use the same inverter for XGA and SXGA+
15" has one inverter for XGA and another for SXGA+/UXGA.
Try the Marketforum or eBay.
Get the HMM for instructions.
If a 14.1" LCD forget about CCFL.
If 15" and LCD is from IDTECH, see instructions here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88991
If other brand, forget it.
CCFL can be bought from: http://www.lcdparts.net/CCFL.aspx or http://www.rexim.com/pages/ccfl/name/lenovo.html or http://www.ccflwarehouse.com/
Alternatively, get another LCD or a complete, matching lid.

I should also mention when the screen boots up, it sometimes displays the Thinkpad logo, then immediately becomes stark white. It takes about 3 seconds but it stays white till I shut it down , but it gets to the point where I can't see a thing. I can still hear windows booting normally though via the speaker.

Check the LCD cable seating on both ends.
A white LCD often indicates a bad connection, usually on the back of the LCD.