T61p (6459-CTO) blank screen

[bitp]

OS: Windows 7, 64-bit. Over the past week waking my system up from hibernate the notebook's LCD display would remain black. At the time I did not think to turn on my external display that is attached via the docking station. If I pressed the power button it entered sleep mode and pressing it again the system would return with the LCD on. I was thinking perhaps something was off with a recent windows update given I was still using the original NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M drivers (186.94, 8.16.11.8694) so I installed the latest NVIDIA drivers (296.88). At this point the system stopped showing an entry for the ThinkPad LCD under Monitors in the device manager. I uninstalled the new drivers and re-installed the original and the LCD monitor showed up as a generic monitor, but still showed nothing more than a black screen. Installed the INF for the monitor and no change. When the system boots it does appear that the black flashes - as one black shade to another black shade. Perhaps indicating that the back-light is good? On crummy LCD panels you can see the leaking from the back-light around the edges, but I've never experienced that with this notebook. The little indicator lights on the LCD bezel are operating correctly. Any thoughts?

Thank you for your help.

[Neil]

Most likely the defect in the nVIDIA GPU is finally showing up. If you will look around the forum, you will find several threads about the defective chips.

[TuuS]

If you want to know if the problem is hardware or software related, try booting from a linux liveCD. If you get the same problem running linux, you can be pretty sure you have a hardware failure, if not, you may have something turning off the screen, perhaps one of the power saver drivers/times isn't working properly.

[bitp]

After the events detailed in my first post I was suspecting the hardware, which is why I found a forum to post for help. I'm hoping it is something simple that I could replace myself. but if it is a defective GPU I guess I'm screwed. Any suggestions on confirming a defective GPU? If the GPU is failing/failed why does the external display work without issue?

[RealBlackStuff]

These GPUs have 2 parts, a digital part that drives the internal LCD, and an analog part that drives an external monitor via the VGA port.
One can work and the other not, as obviously is the case in your machine.

[TuuS]

The nVidia FX570m used on the t61p usually tends to fail all or nothing, where the nvs140m used on the T61 may sometimes slowly develop symptoms. These failures actually aren't that common. It may seem common because there are many posts about them, but if everyone using one without any failure was to suddenly post in the forum it would probably crash our servers, since millions are in service, so I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that your gpu is fried. Download and burn a linux disc from ubuntu.com. Boot using the option to not change anything on your computer. If you don't have the problem in linux, then you will know it's a software problem. If you have the same problem, then you can be pretty sure it's hardware, in which case you can try substituting a known good screen, see if that solves the problem.

If this really is a nVidia gpu failure, then it's very atypical, as most fx570m won't boot at all once they have failed.

Good luck

ps. If you find you do need a screen, I have some very reasonably priced ones.

Edit: After re-reading your original post, I see you list tht you have a T61p in the title, which has the FX570m gpu, but in the post you refer to the NVS140m, which is not used in the T61p. A 6459-cto could be either so please specify correctly which you have.

[bitp]

Edit: After re-reading your original post, I see you list tht you have a T61p in the title, which has the FX570m gpu, but in the post you refer to the NVS140m, which is not used in the T61p. A 6459-cto could be either so please specify correctly which you have.

I thought it was a T61p, but I purchased it awhile ago so I could very well be wrong. The system is a 6459-CTO with a NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M. I appreciate the suggestion to boot a linux disc, however, if I cannot see what I am being prompted with I worry that I might end up triggering an option that will change my system. Also, if the problem persists with the linux disk a new screen would not do me much good given it would be the GPU, correct?

I know there is a BIOS option to have the boot screen display on both the analog LCD and external displays, but since I cannot see anything on the analog LCD I cannot make this BIOS change. I think it is a long shot, but is there a function key combination that cycles that option?

I appreciate everyone's help. This is very disappointing as I have waved the Thinkpad flag for years.

[ajkula66]

I know there is a BIOS option to have the boot screen display on both the analog LCD and external displays, but since I cannot see anything on the analog LCD I cannot make this BIOS change. I think it is a long shot, but is there a function key combination that cycles that option?

Fn + F7 should do it...