Thinkpads Forum

update:

luckily, as Neil suggested, it was only that the mainboard end of the LCD cable might need re-seated. and forunately for me, that's all it was. fixed.

/update

original post:


today I had my x61t, in its ultrabase, outside today in my semi-padded backpack,
and now everything (bios/boot screen, windows, linux) all has a strong red cast to it. or in any case where there would be a solid black background (e.g. bios), there is a solid red background.
there's no weird shimmering or artifacting, and rendered things like text or windows dialog boxes all look pretty normal and usable.

what I did today:
- put the thinkpad to sleep, unplugged P/S, put it in the semi-padded backpack
- took it to my office at work, opened it up, plugged in the power supply
- closed the lid, it went to sleep, put it in the backpack
- brought it home, opened it up, and RED EVERYWHERE

at no point did it get bumped, at no point was it in a position for the screen to have pressure on it

so far I tried: (only because I can't think of much else)
- take it out of the dock
- remove battery
- hold power button for 30+ seconds
- rest for a few minutes with no battery, no power supply
- replace battery, plug in P/S

I don't have a way to try a different monitor to see how the image looks there.

since the problem is not confined to windows, I feel like something got corrupted in bios? or maybe part of the wiring to the screen came loose?

any thoughts much appreciated, thank you.

I have been searching and searching but so far everything that comes up is about the usual red-tint-dying-backlight stuff.

example screen

http://imgur.com/B74AiZy

Well...your screen captures look fine, so that eliminates the digital part of the GPU/system board. Could still be an issue with the analog section I suppose.

tarvoke wrote:...maybe part of the wiring to the screen came loose?

This would be my guess. Most likely would be the ribbon cable where it connects to the LCD panel. Naturally, that's the hardest connector to get to, so I would suggest trying to re-seat the system board end of the cable first, then if that fails, try to get to the other end of the cable.

Neil wrote:Most likely would be the ribbon cable where it connects to the LCD panel. Naturally, that's the hardest connector to get to, so I would suggest trying to re-seat the system board end of the cable first, then if that fails, try to get to the other end of the cable.

thanks... hopefully it's the board end.

there is absolutely zero change in the display, when I move the screen around, reverse it and close the lid face-up, etc. - which I hope implies it's not the tablet/LCD/panel end that is loose.

much appreciate the assistance!

Just realized we are talking about a tablet...and I have zero experience working with tablet screens. I'm sure there is still a similar, if not identical, connector on the LCD panel, but the cable must be different to allow for rotating and folding the lid into the "tablet" position. Might want to wait for someone more knowledgeable that I before you tear into things.

no worries, my lazy plan is to download the service doc, read it a couple times, and then ... do nothing for a couple months. ha.

I have other thinkpads to use (a gorgeous x220t recently from ajkula66, that I haven't really used mainly because it is entirely too nice to use)

but this x61t, I mostly only use for ssh/email/etc. anyway - which all still work perfectly, there is zero red in any of the text rendering - so I will probably just leave it alone for now
(or is there any possibility of some kind of permanent damage if left for a while in this state?)

regardless, thanks again for the replies

A shot in the dark...

Re-seat RAM and run memtest 86 on the machine, one stick at the time, then on both, alternating slots...

It is also possible that your lcd cable is broken. Happens quite often with the tablet model.

thanks George - kickin' it oldschool, man popping cleaning and testing RAM, to fix vague ghost problems, sure takes me back a while
luckily, that all came back good ... but! helped added confirmation to Neil's suspicion - after all the ram-foolery, when I rebooted, the RED EVERYWHERE had changed to ORANGE EVERYWHERE! ha.
suspicion: I must have nudged the mainboard a bit, in the process.

Neil - thanks again. popped keyboard, popped LCD connector, blew on it. put it back, replaced battery, left keyboard loose for the moment, booted and... normal screen. battery out, keyboard in, screws back in.

everything back to normal now.

thanks you guys

also: note to childrens of the world - keep very careful track of the screws on the LCD connector. there are 3, possibly 4 different sizes. (I'm sure the manual specifies. I was lazy and simply put them in separate small trays, in a layout vaguely similar to the shape of the connector board...)