Thinkpad T22 goes blank often

[sperla]

I'm sorry if this is a repeat of an earlier post. I tried hunting through, but am not sure if it is the same problem.

Decription : Of late, my thinkpad has been going 'blank' after using for a couple of hours - ie. it doesn't shut down nor does the screen freeze. The screen just goes blank, the LEDs are still lit, but I can't get any response from the machine. If I press the power button for a few seconds, it powers down. Then, if I turn it on right away, it behaves inconsistently - sometimes it boots up, sometimes it starts booting and then goes blank again while sometimes it just doesn't respond.

I suspect it might be an overheating problem, judging from some earlier posts. I downloaded the mobilemeter and saw that it reached around 57 degrees shortly before going blank. I guess this is a little high (I was only surfing for an hour), but some of the posts mentioned going up to 82 degrees. However, I'm not fully convinced about because if I let it cool down for a while ( say an hour), it doesn't always boot up again. But it usually boots up the next day

The other suspects (from the other messages) are the motherboard and the button battery (CMOS ?). Is there any way to narrow this down ?

When it goes blank, I've tried rebooting by taking the wireless card, the battery and the CD drive out - the behaviour is pretty much the same every time.

Thanks in advance.

[t20user]

I have a similar issue with my T23. After a while of use it goes blank with gray bars on the top of the screen and the fan pulses. From what I have read around here that points to the mobo.

My T20 has gone blank when the fan vent was covered. Make sure there are no obstuctions to the vent (I am sure you have, just checking).

[lithium726]

sounds like the video chip dying.

same stuff that was going on when my T40's MR7500 chip died.