T30 Screen Problem

[chris301up]

I have used my IBM T30 for many years and generally this has be good.

I have had an issue with one of the RAM sockets giving up so I purchased a good second hand unit of Ebay. The seller advertised the unit with a dull screen so I naturally thought this may be an inverter problem. I did try it before doing anything else but quite rightly a dull screen. I tried the laptop by connecting it to my PC's monitor and all was well so, theoretically, this indicated a faulty screen.

I then spent several hours swapping over the screen from my good working unit to the base purchased from Ebay, but now the screen will only come on if connected to mains power and not through the battery. I have tried another battery but still no joy. Sometimes I have to reboot the machine for the problem to rectify itself.

Anyone had a similar issue and have any suitable solutions?

[Neil]

Did you swap the entire lid from one T30 to the other? Or, did you swap just the LCD panel?

[chris301up]

I swapped the entire working LCD unit including the lid

[Neil]

Could be an open fuse on the motherboard that would normally supply power to the LCD inverter.

[chris301up]

I thought it could be a fuse but it does come on, initially with the power lead but, after a while, will run on battery power also.

Very strange!!!

[Neil]

Well...probably not a fuse then if the screen does light up sometimes on AC. Still has to be a system board issue though, what with the same result with a different (and know good) LCD panel, inverter and LCD cable from the other machine.

[chris301up]

Right. Just an update.

When I first boot up the laptop, whether on AC power or battery, the screen is extremely dull and you can just make out the IBM Thinkpad Logo and Windows Logo in the darkness. Once hearing it complete the boot up process and by tapping a few keys it will come on, and will continue to come on when rebooting as many time as required without issue.

However, if I leave the machine for a while and try to boot up, the same dull screen again. I have also noticed that the machine will not boot up on the first attempt and have to switch the machine on and off a couple of times using the power button. Once you can hear the Windows boot up sounds and then tap the delete key a couple of times it comes on normally.

I have updated the BIOS thinking it may be corrupt but still no joy.

I thought it may be a loose connection, but surely if this was the case, the screen would either come on or stay off under any circumstances.

Stumped !!!!

[chris301up]

I have been investigating my problem further but still no joy.

What I will say though is the laptop is booting up, but it's the boot screen which is extremely dull, the Thinkpad logo and Windows logo can just be seen in the darkness.

When the laptop finally boots and the Windows start up tone can be heard pressing the 'delete' button will cause the screen to come on normally.

Possibly a M/B problem but I just don't know where to start.

Any further ideas????

[Neil]

...pressing the 'delete' button will cause the screen to come on normally.

Isn't the lid switch in the near vicinity of the delete key? I'm beginning to think your problem may be a stuck lid switch. That's about the only thing I can think of that would allow two different complete lids to light up some of the time.

Anyone had a similar issue and have any suitable solutions?

And, yes, I have had this happen to me once. Even sold and shipped the (working fine for me) T30 to someone else, and they usually couldn't get the LCD to light up. Tried explaining how to fix the lid switch, but never could get them to understand, so had them ship it back to me so I could fix the switch. Shipped it back, and never heard of another problem from them.

Hope that is your problem too. Sorry I didn't think of this sooner.

[chris301up]

Thank you for that advice... I'll take a look at that later and let you know how I get on.

[chris301up]

BINGO !!!!!!

I stripped the T30 down today to examine the lid switch as suggested and found that it wasn't the switch itself, but the thin metal strip that connects the switch to top of the base unit. Basically when the lid was opened the metal strip was still making contact with the switch and therefore not allowing it to open fully.

A bit of gentle bending has sorted the problem.

Hope this helps others with a similar issue?

Thanks for your kind help and advice. I was ready to shove it in the bin.... Ha. Ha..