Thinkpads Forum

I had previously posted this in as a reply to another thread. It appears the problem is not related so I've created a separate thread to hopefully get some input on my issue.

I am basically seeing this image on boot..
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/6599 ... 500022.jpg

once I get into windows it's basically all red and split screen/ghosted for the top 2/3 of the screen.. I can still navigate but it looks awful.. checking the resolution its showing my screen as unknown display @ 1024x768..

I have also removed the keyboard and cleaned/reseated the display cable.. reseated memory..

Hooking it up to an external monitor everything displays properly so I do not believe it's the video card..

Has anyone experienced something similar? Are there any additional details that would be useful for me to post?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Is this a 4:3 or widescreen T61.

I also recently faced a similar issue. The video would work fine with external monitor but would display occasionally on the LCD or stay blank or get disturbed images on the LCD. Sent it to depot, they replaced the motherboard and with same lcd it is working fine now.

I was under the impression that since it was working fine with external monitor, the motherboard was fine, but that was not the case.

This is a widescreen 15.4" t61 .. WXGA+
6459-CTO

By depot what do you mean?
I was hoping it was something that I could repair myself.. it's a build date from 2007 so it's no longer under warranty..

also forgot to add that this has the dedicated nvidia graphics gpu..

Well to start from the least complicated, that could sound like a partially connected lcd cable, make sure it's secure and isn't ripped anywhere connected well both to the mobo and on the backside of the lcd(it should be taped in too). This can happen if the cable got loose and came out a little bit from the lcd..

In other news, many people feel like the nvidia gpu might go bad, but i don't think it would go bad just a little such that a few channels are messed up. It's possible that only a few electrical contacts, solder joints or something is cracked and isn't conducting with the mobo due to mobo strain from carrying the laptop in a certain way but I don't think this is usually the issue. It's probably a loose lcd cable/ or bad cable

I wanted to post a few more images to hopefully give a better visualization of the screens behavior. The initial image I posted is taken during boot/post until it gets to windows.. then it defaults to 1024x768 and appears corrupted as i described..

I changed the resolution a few times and took various pics to show how it changed the pictures..

Changing resolution to 1440x1050
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7607 ... ewattt.jpg

Changing resolution to 1680x1050@60
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5020 ... watttg.jpg

Change resolution to 1360 x 768
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/7607 ... ewattt.jpg

change resolution to 1440x900
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7607 ... ewattt.jpg


are there any tools that I can run that will test the hardware to see if its the gpu or the lcd?
also.. in the display properties it shows lcd display as not connected and unknown display. is it possible the machine just no longer recognizes this display?

Please read the forum rules, we don't allow in-line pics without a warning in the thread subject line, and even then only one small pic is allowed. Breaking.img tags.

From the pink color in these pictures, the CCFL needs to be replaced.
From the picture in the other post, that pink would confirm the above, and could possibly point to a defective LCD.
More likely though, it's the blasted nVidia chip that is giving up the ghost.

so more than likely i would need to replace the motherboard and the lcd? not a whole lot left after that.. sounds like i need to buy a new laptop i guess..

While I am not quite familiar with this problem on the T61, I have seen the pink happen due to low power being sent to the CFFL. This was an old Compaq laptop. There was a problem with the system board that caused low voltage to the inverter/CCFL, as well as distorted video.

more signs pointing to the system board needing to be replaced.. :/ unfortunately the price for the mb on ebay is less than 50$ different than the cost of buying the entire machine.

the screen color is rather red in person as opposed to the pink that it looks like in the photo. i'm not sure if that would make a difference on the diagnosis.

what would you recommend at this point?

thank you again for all of your input everyone.

one last bump hoping for some recommendations on where to go from here..