Thinkpads Forum

Hello Folks,

I installed XUBUNTU 12.04 on my T61p. Tried different drivers while running glxgears.
In a while my screen (notebook LCD-Screen) started to blink like crazy. I stopped him the hard way and since then I have a double picture on my screen (even at boot time).
http://db.tt/b2wDbfWe

What do you think is the problem?

Greetings Flo.

Welcome to the forum.
It looks like you still got the wrong graphics driver, but if you say this also happens at boot time..
Can you show us a picture of a BIOS screen (press F1 at startup) or when the IBM logo comes up?
If they are also double, then you may have a corrupt nVidia GPU.
Did you swap out an LCD cable or inverter just recently?
Or even replaced the LCD with a non-IBM part?

Thanks!
The problem remains shurely in Bios. When I reseted the Bios settings after the problem, I had two screens while beeing in bios.
I did only swap the battery and put a new ssd in. I did not open the notebook.

Go back into BIOS (F1 at boot), then press F9 to load the Defaults, press F10 to save, and shut down the laptop.
Reboot and see where that gets you.

I'm guessing a GPU gone wild.

There have been reports of up to six screens showing up on certain T61/p units. Blown chips on all...

Yes I'm thinking of a defective GPU too...
@RealBlackStuff: I have done this allready.

Is there anything I can do without warranty and without buying a new motherboard?

I didn't want to 'hit' you straight away with the bad news.
But I see a different/new mobo in your future (or a different/new laptop).
If you don't need the GPU horsepower, look for a mobo with Intel graphics, they are much more reliable.
Either one will do:
42W7648 Merom
42W7872 Penryn CPU capable (T8100 and higher)
All the parts from the old mobo will fit on the new one.

very strange thing happend....
I recently read about using a hair dryer to repair the notebook.
I have nothing to loose so I made it the hard way.
after this I used the notebook on my docking station (with vga monitor)
Now im sitting at this notebook and it is working. But not very stable.

Do you think it makes sense to open the notebook and try to clean everything?

Not in my book.

You're just delaying the inevitable, which in this case means a board swap.

bake the darn thing in the oven. Somebody just reported success, heh, look up the recent threads in here.

Strange
Can someone argue why it is working to bake the motherboard?

Backing the board can fix solder problems if done correctly and that not very reliable....
The the G84/86 problem is not solder-balls related - its an internal physical damage.....if you are lucky you may be able to get it to work baking.
If it works then re apply thermal paster, clean the fan and use the nvidia performance tool to undderclock the GPU to lowest and keep Thinkpad Fan Control running on max to keep thermal difference as low as possible.

It's strictly a short-term "fix" and one of the reasons I *never* buy nVidia-based T61/p units from an unknown source...

If you bake the board you'll end any hope of it ever being properly fixed should any replacement GPU chips become available. All it does is expand the components within the GPU chip and sometimes results in temp connection across a fractured circuit.

If it was possible to fix a failed nVidia chip by resoldering it, then you should do it with proper reballing equipment, but baking the board or using a heatgun is a really bad idea and posting about it is only going to encourage more dishonest people to sell worthless boards/laptops to unsuspecting buyers.

Ok, it also worked for me! But i used aluminium foil to pack the rest of the mobo. I'm underclocking the GPU
@Tuus
Sorry, your arguments are not reaonable for me. I think if you don't want to sell your broken T61p and it is not reasonable for you to buy a mobo than I would consider doing this crazy trick. Your thoughts about selling a broken/repaired t61p, misleads more to do so, then people giving other help how they "repaired" their notebook!

flo.gruenwald wrote:Ok, it also worked for me! But i used aluminium foil to pack the rest of the mobo. I'm underclocking the GPU
@Tuus
Sorry, your arguments are not reaonable for me. I think if you don't want to sell your broken T61p and it is not reasonable for you to buy a mobo than I would consider doing this crazy trick. Your thoughts about selling a broken/repaired t61p, misleads more to do so, then people giving other help how they "repaired" their notebook!

Na super das es funktioniert hat!
Still-dont celebrate too early!
Make shure you underclock the GPU and try running your CPU onl ow speed to prevent cpu heat affecting the gpu.
Try to stay under 70 degrees at all cost and dont turn off the laptop if not necessary!

flo.gruenwald wrote:Ok, it also worked for me! But i used aluminium foil to pack the rest of the mobo. I'm underclocking the GPU

heh, nice, isn't it

flo.gruenwald wrote:Ok, it also worked for me! But i used aluminium foil to pack the rest of the mobo. I'm underclocking the GPU
@Tuus
Sorry, your arguments are not reaonable for me. I think if you don't want to sell your broken T61p and it is not reasonable for you to buy a mobo than I would consider doing this crazy trick. Your thoughts about selling a broken/repaired t61p, misleads more to do so, then people giving other help how they "repaired" their notebook!

I respect your opinion, but if you have see as many people who have fallen victim to this scam as I have, then you'd want to warn others about it too. Even when the boards are properly reflowed using the correct equipment, they still fail. This discussion has been going on since 2007 and the number of boards that work for longer then a few hours/days/weeks is still zero as far as I know, also another thing you may not be aware of is the topic that was referred to wasn't about fixing your own dead computer, it was about buying a dead laptop, baking the board and reselling it. Anyone who does that is trying to scam someone, as no one will buy it unless they believe it's actually fixed.

"WE" would not allow such a T61 to be sold on this forum if we knew..

and, most ANY T61 would be suspect if the manufacture date fell within the time period these were made..