Red tint during power on (T21) + some other stuff

[Zotaccian]

I have old Thinkpad T21 which works for the most part, it is usable, however during power the display has red tint for couple seconds then goes to normal. It seems like heating sort of resolves it. Does this usually indicate bad connection / cable or is the LCD just so old? What do you think?

Another problem is that the topcase plastic is cracked on both side, just where the palmrest begins. When you open up the lid it is puts so much stress on those locations that gluing doesn't seem to work. Currently I have resorted into taping the topcase into the base, using optical drive and PCMCIA slots to attach tape. Sorry if I can't explain this clearly, english is not my main language... but I assume only real fix would be to get new topcase...

[Dekks]

The red tint is a sign the backlight is reaching the end of it's service life.

[Neil]

Seems like I recall reading some time ago about someone who embedded a pierce of a paper clip, or something similar, in a groove on the bottom side of the keyboard bezel/palm rest with epoxy or some other type of glue.

But don't go spending any real money on this because a T21 is too weak to do much more than serve as a collectors item these days.

[Zotaccian]

Thanks for replies.

If the backlight dies I probably won't repair this machine, unless I just happen to have replacement parts by then. Same thing for the topcase, it won't be worth to spend money on this. The broken topcase is problematic when you lift the display lid fully up the topcase would bend so that the upper right corner of keyboard would pop out under the topcase edge, now when it's taped the topcase doesn't rise up so much and the keyboard stays under the topcase edge. Not an elegant fix but better than nothing.

Currently the machine has 1Ghz Pentium III, 256Mb of RAM and 30GB hard disk. Optical drive is DVD-ROM which seems to be original, works fine. I read about installing WiFI card on this model, I have couple of them lying around and just for fun tested one. Works and even connects despite the machine not having antennas, if the router is just couple meters away. I might have antennas somewhere since I now and then disassemble all kinds of laptops, sometimes preserving odd parts like that.

This Thinkpad has Windows 98 installed since I planned it to be sort of retromachine, but then again all or atleast most of those classic games I used to play should run in Dosbox, so there is no real need for this machine. With a light Linux-distribution this could of course be used for web browsing and such.

[Dekks]

Sadly a P3 will get bogged down with a modern browser viewing a heavily JS coded webpage, its what stops me using my X30 more often despite having the best feeling KB of any of my machines. You could try a lightweight browser but they don't handle the CSS etc very well in my experience.

[automobus]

Seems like I recall reading some time ago about someone who embedded a pierce of a paper clip, or something similar, in a groove on the bottom side of the keyboard bezel/palm rest with epoxy or some other type of glue.

How to cheaply fix that T20/21/22/23 broken palm rest *PICS*
By RealBlackStuff 2008-04-06; now found in HOW TOs & FAQs conference.

RealBlackStuff's solution was previously mentioned in topic "Better glue for case repair".



See also tips by Phazer in topic "ThinkPad Ultrabay 2000 problem".

BTW....a tight RH hinge can be the ultimate problem of all this. While you have it apart, put a drop of 3-1 on the washers below/beside the nut and work it sloooooowly until it loosens up. Be aware that with the bezel and the 2000 drivebay support removed that the bottom/motherboard will flex "ALOT" unless you press down lightly on the RH rear corner.
…
Bad thing is, you tread a very fine line betwen enough tension to hold it and loose enough not to cause long term problems.
…
Usually a few drops of oil and work it back and forth for about 1/2 an hour loosens it up just right. I had to actually loosen the nuts on one of mine to get it to swing more freely. But I had to readjust it about 10 times before I got it so the LCD won't drop back on it's own. Getting the nuts loose was almost enough to flex/break the chassis. Just oiling them ought to work, but your half way to checking the cage by taking the hinge cover off.
…
I used 3-1 oil. You have to remove the keyboard and then the hinge cover. Each hinge has two nuts on it and just to the outside of those two nuts, you'll see some (two I think) wave washers. Just put a drop on the top of the wave washers and then slowly work the monitor back and forth. Press firmly on the edge of the base (by the PgUp/PgDn keys) to keep the lower chassis assy from flexing too much until it gets a little freer. If you don't know how to remove the keyboard and cover, download the HMM from lenovo and print the relevent pages dealing with removong those items. And.........keep track of which screw goes where. It DOES make a difference. You should be able to check the ear/tang on the drivebay to see if it's broke. The screw that retains it is the one on the very left (when veiwing from the rear) under the oval cover by the external keyboard port.