T30 LCD Problem (goes negative)

[ssredchevelle]

Hello, I am a newbie to this forum. I want to say that this is a great forum and there is a lot of good information on it.

I have a T30 (2366) and about 3 months ago my LCD started giving me problems. It would all the sudden turn "negative". Meaning all the colors were reversed. If I tilted the screen it would come back to normal. Then one day I turned on my laptop and the hard drive light blinks and I can here the fan come on but nothing appears on the screen. So I think the computer is booting up but the LCD is not coming on.

Does this sound like the LCD needs to be replaced or could it be another problem. Is there a way for me to test an external monitor. I cant get to windows so I cant turn on an external monitor or tv through svideo.

Thank you in advance for any help.

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

The video problem sounds like a loose/broken connection. Either in the ribbon cable between the motherboard and the LCD screen, on the motherboard itself or the LCD panel. Your comment about moving the screen (lid) seems to point to that type of problem.

As far as the non-boot is concerned, you can connect an external monitor to the VGA port on the back of the system and use the Fn+F7 combination (hold down the Fn key then press the F7 key) to toggle the video between the LCD and external monitor. There should be three different combinations if everything is working properly; LCD only, external monitor only, both LCD and external monitor enabled. Windows is not needed, you can check this by simply booting the system into the BIOS setup (press F1 key right after turning the system on).

[ssredchevelle]

Thanks for the help. My first guess would be the LCD cable as well. I think I will take the screen apart and look at the cable. The problem is I tried to get to bios and Fn-F7 to switch to an external monitor. I dont know if i am not getting into bios or not doing something right. The external monitor does not come on. I know the monitor works. I pushed the power but and hit F1 multiple times. then since i cant see I assume i am in bios and hit Fn-F7 a couple times and does not turn on the monitor.

Any other help would be appreciated. thank you