Thinkpads Forum

Hi all


Long time since I've been writing anything on here, but decided to pop in, on a few questions regarding a T61 I got hold of.
It's a 7665-CTO, S/N is L3A9932

I made a Ubuntu Live USB distro, so I could check the specs of it. Unfortunaly I can only see the RAM and CPU (T7300). The graphics field has "unknown" written in it. So I cannot check this.


But what I know about it so far:
CPU: T7300
RAM: Came with none, but after I threw in a 1GB DDR2 DIMM from my T43p, it's running fine
GFX: Unknown (Can this be seen by looking at the motherboard?
HDD: None
Display: 1440x900 Anti gloss. (It has got marks in the upper left that looks like a camo of dark and lighter colors


Now to the problem:
There is actually just one problem with this T61. Though I'm not really sure of what it is.
When in Ubuntu on the live USB distro, everything looks fine, until after 5-10 mins. This is when the display goes nuts. Everything starts being in weird colors and flickering around. HOWEVER! When I connect an external display by VGA, everything shows up fine, so I'm actually thinking that the 1440x900 internal display is at fault here.
Could this be true?

Also, the fan is very noisy, almost sounds like an old harddrive spinning. The fan is quite loose, and it's not completely straight. This I can see when it's spinning.
Could this be why the display isn't running properly, somehow?
Should I try installing another fan? If so, will a T61p 15.4'' type fan, fit?


Here's the pictures.

Normal:(big external display on the left connected by VGA)




After going mental: (big external display on the left connected by VGA, showing everything like normal.)




The temperatures:





Laptop screen while going mental:





Specs from ubuntu:





Thanks in advance. Feel free to ask for more info if you need it.

Best Regards,
Frederik

Your machine is 14.1" widescreen T61 with nVidia NVS 140M graphics.
It was built around 07/09 (2007 September), which means it has the bad nVidia GPU.
Through overheating, resp. too many hot/cold cycles, the GPU loses contact between layers inside the GPU itself.
You can try replacing the fan with a known good one, and then undervolt the CPU it so it runs cool(er).
Perhaps your GPU might stay ON, but it is only a matter of time, before it conks out completely.
Only remedy: replace the motherboard with one that was made in or after 08/08.

I already know all of this.

As I asked in OP, why isn't the external display showing the same artifacts as the internal? I want something supporting these statements.

The analog (VGA) and digital (internal LCD) signals are handled by different parts of the GPU chip.

It's very common to see the external vga work (somewhat) when the internal does not. In time it will fail completely.

If you want a reliable board I can get one of the rare 08/08 boards or an even more rare new replacement board (not refurbished) that was installed in a corporate laptop by lenovo on-site warranty with a gpu dated 11th week of 2009. I also have available a NOS (new old-stock) board with Intel graphics and penryn support, as well as some well tested used Intel boards both merom and penryn.