Thinkpads Forum

Hello all,

I have a T60 with a T60p ATIfireGL board installed. It runs fine but on boot up it exhibits some interesting markings on the boot up screens, horizontal lines, question marks and some vertical lines.

Once it boots up to W7 when you roll the cursor over text 6 short vertical lines follow the cursor.

Take a look: https://imgur.com/a/MZ9uneI

I connected it to an external monitor and it displays the same behavior. Is this a video chip problem on the system board? Ideas?

Thanks,

Bruce

Well, the video chip is soldered to the system board, so for all practical purposes, the two options are the same.

It certainly looks like a video chip problem, specifically corruption of the Video RAM; apparently, it's not an uncommon problem on T60/p ATI chips.

dr_st wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:32 pm

specifically corruption of the Video RAM; apparently, it's not an uncommon problem on T60/p ATI chips.

Agreed. That machine will need its board swapped out.

Thanks Guys,

Interesting about the VRAM getting corrupted. This board was in my 15" t60p which I made into a Frankenpad and sold a few years go, then got moved into my wife's T60 to which she was pretty attached to. She is using a very nice X230T with IPS screen I found but really is not using the touch screen. So, if she wants her T60 back I guess i could put a T61 board into it. Is Tuus still selling T61old stock Nvidia boards?

Bruce

brucehe wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:09 pm

Is Tuus still selling T61old stock Nvidia boards?

I believe so. Send him a PM.

Find TuuS's NOS T61 mobos here: https://www.theboardroom.info/t61mobo.html
See the remark in blue near the bottom of that page.

Board is cooked for sure. I had a T60p that did that (ended up frankenpadding it). Best I can understand, over time the BGA degrades, and it loses contact. I think the issue was likely accelerated by the subpar cooling of the T60.

H-Atkinson wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 13, 2019 4:36 pm

Board is cooked for sure. I had a T60p that did that (ended up frankenpadding it). Best I can understand, over time the BGA degrades, and it loses contact. I think the issue was likely accelerated by the subpar cooling of the T60.

Actually, when one starts seeing question marks and other letters/symbols on a scrambled screen, that's VRAM corruption, nothing to do with the BGA failures.