Dead Video Card Fan on t42p - How do I get inside?

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koninc · #1 Post by **koninc** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:42 pm

Hi All,

Just landed in Seattle for a conference (flew from Australia). I find to my horror my t42p boots up and stays on for several minutes, then bluescreens with a graphics error. I think the fan got knocked in transit, and doesnt start up. That is IF the gfx card has a fan...

Does anyone know how to get inside? I got to the stage of taking off the keyboard and top plastic, but could not find anything resembling a vid card.

Help please!!

koninc · #2 Post by **koninc** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:49 pm

Hi,

It appears the solo fan is the ONLY cooling solution... now im not so sure its a heat issue, might be something more sinister. The GPU is attached to the mainboard right? If dead the whole mobo needs replacing?

Im going to test for temps when i get home...

#3 Post by **JaneL** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:55 pm

koninc wrote:Does anyone know how to get inside?

Item #8 in the FAQ.

#4 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:10 pm

koninc wrote:Hi All,

Just landed in Seattle for a conference (flew from Australia). I find to my horror my t42p boots up and stays on for several minutes, then bluescreens with a graphics error. I think the fan got knocked in transit, and doesnt start up. That is IF the gfx card has a fan...

Does anyone know how to get inside? I got to the stage of taking off the keyboard and top plastic, but could not find anything resembling a vid card.

Help please!!

do you need the thinkpad fopr your confrence..??
when are you leaving to go home..??
the first thing i would do is pull any add in memory and make sure that your HDD is firmly plugged into the drive bay..
in short, look for problems that could have been brought on be the trip and rouch handling..
like a loose plug or bum memory..

koninc · #5 Post by **koninc** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:55 am

Thanks for the replies. I have actually done some more sleuthing. I THINK that the GPU is overheating - the fan never seems to spin up.

Hard disk and ram are seated, everything is okay there - but windows crashes with an ATI "device stuck in an infinite loop" message. Definitely in the video card.

And yeah, i need it for the conference

I spent two hours on the phone with IBM friday afternoon when I got in but they told me to ring back monday... i'll probably get forwarded around techsupport for another 2hrs.

Everything now seems consistent that the fan is not cooling the GPU - the GPU has either come away from the heatsink, or something.

So, i have been looking for SOMETHING to tell me the GPU temp. Atitool doesnt, Centrino thingy doesnt... nothing else does either. Anyone know anything that will?

My next idea is to get the fan to be on FULL at any temperature. If i put it next to the aircon it stays up for longer... Anyone know how to get the fan to go on full?

thanks all!
nick

koninc · #6 Post by **koninc** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:48 am

Okay,

Its definitely the video card overheating.

I just downclocked it to 100/125 and it stayed up for twice as long.

I think the thermal management on the GPU is not kicking in and instructing the fan to start spinning. It just gets hotter and hotter until it crashes.

Here I run into the problems that the people who want to QUIET their systems are having - I WANT TO MAKE MINE LOUDER BUT CANT!

Lame! If i knew what I was doing I would rip it apart and check the GPU is contacting the heatsink, but i think that would void my warranty, which is the last thing i need right now.....

If anyone has any brilliant ideas, please let me know. I cannot BELIEVE that it is impossible to edit the ACPI tables on what temp the fan kicks in, it is a JOKE.

Dead Video Card Fan on t42p - How do I get inside?

Dead Video Card Fan on t42p - How do I get inside?

Re: Dead Video Card Fan on t42p - How do I get inside?

Re: Dead Video Card Fan on t42p - How do I get inside?

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