Thinkpads Forum

my T61 display has started flickering mainly upon start-up like back-light or something is trying to go out or loose conection but dont show signs of loose conection when moving/tapping anywhere. and brightness is still good with no noticeable odd color spots etc on screen. mostly acts OK once running. should I be looking for a replacement component soon? I see where the W500 series had issues with the display drive board at base of screen often, I also own a W500 and have issues with over heating which I installed the TPfan control ini file for and it has loose fit at bottom of screen where front and back snap together like most of these models.
thanks for all help! Mitch

The display flickering could be the backlight going out, or the inverter being bad. Backlight failure is more common, I believe, than the inverter, but it's cheaper to replace the inverter if you want to try that first? However flickering at startup could be related to the CCFLs warming up. Although in my experience with dying CCFLs, they start up lit and then flicker out....


Since you do have a W500, if you're comfy with disassembling both laptops extensively (down to tearing apart the lids, removing the screens, and swapping the LCD cables) you could actually troubleshoot the T61's issues with W500 components. The screens are compatible between the two.


As for the W500's overheating, I was in the same boat awhile ago with the T9400 cpu getting too hot. Repasting the CPU die with a small amount of good thermal paste (and I mean good, real stuff, like AS5 or better) solved the overheating. I feel more heat blowing out of the vents, even at low fan speeds, because the heat is actually getting to the heatsink and blowing out - with generic or old/dry thermal paste, less heat gets off the CPU, the fan spins a lot, and it's just miserable hearing that whine 24/7. So a good repaste with good stuff should fix that.

if I find a T61 with web cam in lid and swap lids will the Web cam be seen by system?