Thinkpads Forum

Hi Guys,
I am having a bit of an issue with my T61.
Its got the intel X3100 graphics set in it.
The right hinge was a little loose, so I powered it down, pulled the battery and opened it up to investigate.
When I was removing the screen surround it didnt come off as easy as I had thought it would.
So I stripped it down and fixed the loose screw in the right hinge.
I put it back together and it didnt work as expected.
I was getting nothing on the display, so I assumed that i had damaged the display panel as part of my work.
Annoyed, I ordered a new one.
When it arrived I fitted it and the same story.
So then I started to read on the web and look further into it.
The display was just missing its backlight but all there.
Now I got more into investigating it.
I read about the ribbon and inverter, so I stripped these out of another t61 I have.
These made no change. So I tested the old screen in the other T61 and it worked fine.
Now I am puzzled, I have tested the ribbon, the inverter and the screen in the other machine and all work.
I have read about fuses, but I dont see how this could be the issue.
I had fan speed controller on the machine to monitor fan speed and heat, it got hot a few times, but not to the point of card failure.
The VGA port works fine now.
So thats all I have.
Any ideas?
The Model is T61 and Type 8896.
Thanks

My guess is you damaged the inverter while removing the bezel, it shorted out and blew a fuse on the system board, or if you were working on it while the battery or ac power were installed, then you could have blown a fuse without damaging the inverter. It could also be a damaged cable that shorted out and blew the fuse, or it could have done damage elsewhere on the system board. To be safe I'd replace the cable and inverter, then replace or repair the system board.

TuuS wrote:My guess is you damaged the inverter while removing the bezel, it shorted out and blew a fuse on the system board, or if you were working on it while the battery or ac power were installed, then you could have blown a fuse without damaging the inverter. It could also be a damaged cable that shorted out and blew the fuse, or it could have done damage elsewhere on the system board. To be safe I'd replace the cable and inverter, then replace or repair the system board.

Thansk,
The inverter and cable work fine on another t61 and its inverter and cable cause the same results on the problem machine.
How do I test the fuses?
Can I put a multimeter accross them?

Yes you can, but make sure you have disconnected AC and battery!

Is the a schematic of the fuses to test? and how to test them?

T61 fuse location....

http://thinkwiki.de/T61_Sicherungen

You may want to use google translator to view this page, it's German.


ps. the board pictured is a 14.1" widescreen, intel graphics, merom cpu, yours may differ slightly.

Thanks,
Where is the best place to get the fuses?
And also Is it best to simply solder on over the blown one?
Or should I try to remove the old onw?
Thanks again

Just solder the new ones on top of the old fuses. It's really hard to remove those tiny things without doing serious damage to the surrounding components.

Mouser Electronics is often mentioned as a good source for fuses, but I don't know what might be avialable in or near Ireland.

Thanks for all the help.
I have done a good bit of stripping down and seem to have got to the root.
It seem that Fuse F8 has blown.
Am I right in thinking that fuse F8 is the one with the F on the top of it in the picture below?


I checked F3 and F7 too, they both appear to have continuity accross them.
Thanks for all the help.
I am hoping to be back on my Thinkpad in the next few days.

good luck with your repairs, and definitely don't try to remove the fuse, just solder the new one in parallel using leadded solder. If all goes well it should last the life of the laptop.

ps. I'm sure everyone would like to see photos of your efforts and it would contribute to the community.