Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone!

After I dropped my T60 on corner of table and break screen I bought one used from eBay, worked fine but...

So before assembling screen in lid I connected all cables and inverter and try it while holding panel in right hand (off course, this was really stupid thing to do). With left hand I connected power cord, turn T60 on, it booted and everything was fine. Then I accidentally touched inverter with metal housing that is surrounding panel and everything turned off.

After that I tried to power on T60 and now there is no backlight. After that I connected broken panel and still no backlight. On both panels I can see icons and everything but no backlight, so I bought new inverter.

Inverter arrived today but problem is still here. So on panel I can see icons and everything on desktop, ThinkLight is working, laptop is working fine (working now on T60 connected to external screen), but no backlight. On inverter only LED for WLAN is working and orange for battery (battery is almost dead so it is blinking all time), but orange one is very dim, during day I hardly can see it.

I want to know did anyone had same issue and what could be problem?

If I missed something just ask!

Sorry for my English!

There is a fuse soldered to the motherboard that controls the backlight (F7 designation). You probably blew that one.

Wow, that was fast!

Going to look for it.

Did anyone ever try to change it?
It isn't problem for me to work with soldering iron.

I have tried, and failed a couple of times to replace that fuse. They are just too tiny for me to work with. Others have had more success, though.

I have a R51 in here right now that has the very problem. I may try again to replace the fuse, or piggy back another one someday, but I'm not looking forward to it.

Piggybacking another one is a lot easier than replacing it.
Most fuses are big enough to allow a bit of messing.

I disassemble my T60 and tested fuse #7 with multimeter using diode test and it's OK, but one other fuse (looks like F7 but smaller) is burned.

On this picture (WARNING! ~1 MB) F7 is marked with blue and this other fuse with red.

Can someone confirm if it is a fuse or not?

Was looking for motherboard circuit diagram, but didn't found it.
Here I found a picture from T61, and it does look the same, but I just want to be sure.

And by piggybacking You mean just solder new on top of old one?

Sorry for asking so many questions, but English isn't my first language, so I want to be sure what we are talking about.

That one was my second guess. Piggy backing is soldering one on top, which works fine. I change them all the time. The lead-free solder melts at a very high temperature. They are hard to remove without some sort of rework station where you can heat the whole area. I also use a preheater under the board to shorten the time that you need to apply heat. I believe the fuse is .5 amp

Sorry to hijack your thread, I am actually looking to replace a broken X61 screen one of these days too.

Does each LCD panel have its own inverter model? Or are they all compatible with one another?

Everything assembled, but can't find SMD fuse anywhere in Croatia.

Thank You guys for help!

@ SmallWalrus: I changed just panel and everything worked (before me being young and stupid... )

This company has those fuses (even sells you 1 piece at the time) and has branches all over Europe: http://eu.mouser.com/localsites/
Pick the most convenient one for you. They ship worldwide.
You need to find out the fuse-value yourself.
Use this PDF to help you identify it: http://nickpaton.fireflyinternet.co.uk/ ... 0Fuses.pdf

Just to let You know that I repaired my T60 by replacing that smaller fuse which I took from PlayStation 2 Slim.

Glad top hear you were able to replace the fuse. You are a better man than I when it come to handling those tiny pieces! Not too long ago, I spent several hours over the course of a few weeks chasing one of those things around (and under) my workbench. Seems like every time I would touch it, it would have moved out of my magnifiers field of vision. Once it fell on the floor, and there were dust specks down there that were bigger than the fuse! Thought I would never find it, but eventually did. Anyway, I finally had to give up. Probably my 53 year old eyes didn't help, and my hands are not a steady as they used to be, either.