T400 I think integrated graphics is going.

[amy55407]

I have a T400 with integrated graphics. I'm having stripes appear randomly both on the laptop and once now on my external Dell monitor. If integrated graphics is going does that mean I just need to get a new computer? Is it possible to add a dedicated graphics card? If so which ones could I add?

I've been thinking about getting a T430s anyway (or jump ship and get a Dell XPS 14 ultrabook or wait for something else but I'm not sure I can wait if the graphics are about to die) but I have one of the T400s with the high nit screen which is nice.

If the graphics can be added does it make sense to upgrade this laptop? It has an Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 @ 2.53GHz processor and I've got an older Seagate Momentus hybrid ssd/hdd and only 3gb of memory running Windows 7 64bit. I could add an SSD and memory to pep this thing up. It really needs a new battery. I'm not running anything particularly power hungry at the moment. I finished an intense video project which involved lots of rendering and it was pretty darn slow. I won't be doing much of that now. I may want to put ArcGIS 10 on my home computer.

Thanks for you help.

[amy55407]

I'm going to answer one of my own question. With a little googling it looks like the only way to get dedicated graphics is to replace the motherboard. Now we're probably looking at too much money for keeping this going. I'll probably hang onto it whether I buy a new laptop or not.

[Cigarguy]

Is it only doing this while under load? If is it might by a heating issue. Might be worth taking everything apart and reapplying thermal paste to the CPU and especially the GPU. Your right in that the GPU is soldered on to the motherboard so a replacement motherboard is necessary.

[amy55407]

I've noticed the stripes or flashing generally when I just turn it on or soon after. That's been true both with the internal and external monitor.

[jayton4]

I have had issues with the Integrated graphics on ThinkPads of that generation that were related to mismatched capacity of memory modules. Try getting another 2GB stick of DDR3 or replacing both modules with matching 4GB sticks since they are so dang cheap.


Check out MIGR-74739 and follow the instructions there:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/diagnos ... D=HT001223

[amy55407]

Thanks. That's good information. I'll try the memory (if I don't decide to get a new computer first).