Thinkpads Forum

I just took apart my X61s to replace the heatsink thermal paste, which of course involves taking nearly everything apart. (My temps are much lower now, its great).

The one thing that went wrong is that I lost some of my LCD indicator lights (the row of lighted icons showing hard drive activity, battery, etc).
The wifi indicators still work, so the entire strip isn't dead, but nothing to the right of those two indicators lights up.

I appreciate any advice for troubleshooting why those lights aren't working. Since the LCD itself works fine, and two of the indicators on the strip are working, I think the LCD ribbon cable is seated correctly. Which of the many other cables might be the problem?

I would try reseating the LCD cable under the keyboard.
IIRC there's also a tiny 2-wire connector somewhere or near under the O-P keys. Maybe you disconnected it and didn't put it back?
Those LEDs are usually on the inverter (in the LCD lid), maybe that is going?

My guess would be that the LCD cable is either not seated correctly or it's broken. The LEDs are on the inverter board, they probably have a common ground signal and this isn't getting from the system board to the LEDs. First thing to do would be therefore to reseat the connector under the keyboard. Make sure the connectors are clean.