Death of an old friend (X301 failed)

[mikemex]

Today I went to a restaurant for breakfast (I had some time to kill) and my trusty companion didn't felt well. Normal startup was corrupted and entering into Windows, all turned into vertical colored lines. I'm pretty sure it's the GPU (NorthBridge in that generation) what failed, although there is a small possibility that it's the screen.

While I'm not 100% sure about what happened, I'm over 90% confident that it was my fault. I had to rush the other day and I think it was shutting down (but not completely off) when I put it on the bag and it overheated. It was showing one of those annoying Windows 7 update screens.

Well, I guess nothing lasts forever... except stupidity. That's going to be around forever, it seems.

Yikes.

[RealBlackStuff]

X301 motherboards are cheap and available in many places, e.g. here.

[mikemex]

X301 motherboards are cheap and available in many places, e.g. here.

Thanks. Thing is, that's the 1.4 GHz version and mine was the rare 1.6 GHz. Those are far less common (a textbook example of why CPUs should be socketed)

[shawross]

I have the 1.4GHz X301 but I use it in dual IDA mode and it runs at 1.6GHz.

For what I use it for it has enough power.

It could be a cable connection behind your screen which is causing the problem.

Edit - Have you tried connecting an external monitor?

[mikemex]

Believe it or not, she's back from the death.

I just turned it on to do some testing and, to my surprise, it boots as usual. No screen corruption. No nothing. I'm typing this on it.

What gives? Now I'm even more concerned than before: how do I know it won't stop working at any moment?

[Insomniac1971]

Hi, I have had similar problems with my X300, first time it happened was 2 years ago when I just arrived in the Philippines, I forgot to adjust the fan speed for this climat so the laptop quickly overheated and showed horizontal stripes and shut down.

I let it cool down and put a fan directly on it(I don't use Aircon in my house) then adjusted TPfanco (the Linux version of TPfancontrol), so the laptop fan would run at a certain speed at startup and less, the lower the temperature went. This seemed to solve the problem.

A month ago I saw some flickering on the screen - this time not horizontal stripes, it was vertical and not stripes, but something else, like 2inch were bright and next one were dark and next on bright and next one dark and next one bright - so I did a reboot and re-adjusted TPfanco to run the fan a bit faster, and the problem seemed to go away.

Yesterday evening after it had been running all day playing movie from VLC to Chromecast, it started flickering again but when I adjusted the backlight it stopped, then later when watching a movie it started again, I think my screen or the backlight or both is failing.

I have some laptop screens here and will see if any will fit, physically and with cable or with some mods and not overload the circut board.

Unless I can find a list here of which ThinkPad models are compatible regarding the screen and plug, I will start a new post, so if you are interested keep an eye on new posts

Jan

[mikemex]

Hi, I have had similar problems with my X300, first time it happened was 2 years ago when I just arrived in the Philippines, I forgot to adjust the fan speed for this climat so the laptop quickly overheated and showed horizontal stripes and shut down.

I let it cool down and put a fan directly on it(I don't use Aircon in my house) then adjusted TPfanco (the Linux version of TPfancontrol), so the laptop fan would run at a certain speed at startup and less, the lower the temperature went. This seemed to solve the problem.

A month ago I saw some flickering on the screen - this time not horizontal stripes, it was vertical and not stripes, but something else, like 2inch were bright and next one were dark and next on bright and next one dark and next one bright - so I did a reboot and re-adjusted TPfanco to run the fan a bit faster, and the problem seemed to go away.

Yesterday evening after it had been running all day playing movie from VLC to Chromecast, it started flickering again but when I adjusted the backlight it stopped, then later when watching a movie it started again, I think my screen or the backlight or both is failing.

I have some laptop screens here and will see if any will fit, physically and with cable or with some mods and not overload the circut board.

Unless I can find a list here of which ThinkPad models are compatible regarding the screen and plug, I will start a new post, so if you are interested keep an eye on new posts

Jan

I will.

Mine has been working fine and I use it daily. I suspect it was the screen and not the motherboard. Like two months ago, I was cleaning the screen with a can of alcohol and I must have put too much on it because some of it got sucked in by capillarity. There is a stain since then in the lower left corner. Since alcohol tends to trap moisture, and it evaporates before water, I suspect the day I left it on inside the bag caused some sort of electrical issue with the connection.

I already ordered a replacement motherboard and I'm keeping my eyes open for a backup machine / parts donor. I have no intention to let it go.

[axur-delmeria]

Unless I can find a list here of which ThinkPad models are compatible regarding the screen and plug, I will start a new post, so if you are interested keep an eye on new posts

AFAIK only the X300 and X301 had 13"3 inch 1440x900 screens. No other Thinkpad model used that particular LCD panel.

OTOH someone in this forum (can't remember who) was able to install a 13.3" 1280x800 IPS screen on his X300/301.

[Insomniac1971]

I will.

Mine has been working fine and I use it daily. I suspect it was the screen and not the motherboard. Like two months ago, I was cleaning the screen with a can of alcohol and I must have put too much on it because some of it got sucked in by capillarity. There is a stain since then in the lower left corner. Since alcohol tends to trap moisture, and it evaporates before water, I suspect the day I left it on inside the bag caused some sort of electrical issue with the connection.

I already ordered a replacement motherboard and I'm keeping my eyes open for a backup machine / parts donor. I have no intention to let it go.

I will advice you to not use alcohol to clean the screen, it will remove the matte coating on the screen.

Better option is to boil some water, let it cool down and then when lurkwarm(when its warm and not burning your finger), then use a soft cloth to clean the screen. Do NOT use tap water directly, as it has calcium added to it from your watersupply, and will scratch up the screen, boiling the water makes calcium fall to the bottom of your pot/kettle.

Or just buy LCD cleaning solution

With kind regards

Jan

[mikemex]

I will advice you to not use alcohol to clean the screen, it will remove the matte coating on the screen.

Good catch. I've only done it once because I was cleaning other things and it just felt right, but now I see it's not.

There is ironing distilled water by the gallon, I think I'm going to use that.

Thanks.

[Insomniac1971]

You are welcome