I Ran Over My Thinkpad!

[ArtShapiro]

Last night I was backing out of a motel parking space, and apparently had the soft-sided luggage too close to the rear wheel. I clearly ran over it.

I opened up the luggage, and nothing looked bad, so I smiled and went on my merry way.

In the luggage was a big external drive which I was returning to my riding partner after having replaced a failed Hitachi disk. When I put it in her machine, I was astonished to have it stone dead - no indication of anything when applying AC power. I took it home, took it apart, and nothing was obvious.

Then today I went to power up the T42, and got no video. It clearly was booting. I began to realize that things were not looking good. Inside the luggage, my containers of Gatorade powder were mangled beyond recognition, as were various other plastic jars. The T42 looked fine - no visible sighs of any damage - but no video. Fortunately my Olympus camera is fine.

The T42 works normally when connected to an external monitor. Any advice on how to start troubleshooting this thing??? I assume this narrows the problem down to the screen, inverter, cabling, or socket on the motherboard.

And I remain baffled by the complete power failure on the external drive, but its value is far less than the Thinkpad.

Art

[jamiphar]

I assume this narrows the problem down to the screen, inverter, cabling, or socket on the motherboard.

I think that's pretty safe to say. In some cases, there could be a broken trace between the GPU and LCD plug, but I would think that this is pretty unlikely.

You would have to start swapping parts to know for sure what's broken and what's not. I would guess that it's the panel, since that seems to be the most vulnerable part to flexing.

[tfflivemb2]

Can you see a faint image on the screen if you hold a flashlight up to the bottom of the screen? If so, you might have damaged the CCFL.

I have had people step on their laptops, thinkpads included and break the CCFL, with no visible sign of damage to the LCD.

[ArtShapiro]

Can you see a faint image on the screen if you hold a flashlight up to the bottom of the screen? If so, you might have damaged the CCFL.

Yep ... you nailed it. Thanks!

So can this be translated into Degree of Bad News?

Art

[ajkula66]

Sorry to hear about your mishap.

jamiphar is the person to talk to...the LCDs that come out of his house look better than new.

[carbon_unit]

I'll second that! James does good work.

[ArtShapiro]

Thanks everyone. I'm faced with the cost vs. value dichotomy that we all have to consider for any number of things. I have to decide whether James' certainly-reasonable repair charge is worth it for an aging SXGA T42, much as I like the machine. Happily I have the T23 and X61 to use, so I have the luxury of time to ponder. Even the XGA machines let me happily sit in the coffee shop on weekends with the NY Times crossword - the real purpose of having a laptop!

Question: Suppose I try to tackle this issue myself. I've always followed the HMM and it calls for a fair amount of disassembly before taking apart the lid and extracting the screen. Do I recall that this isn't really necessary, and that one can simply take out the side screws around the perimeter and pry things apart enough to easily extract the screen without disassembling the laptop body?

Art

[jamiphar]

With most previous ThinkPads, you can to it that way. But for a 14.1" T42, it's best to take the screen assembly off the base before taking the LCD out. The 14.1" screens that the T4x's use are trickier to replace a backlight on than most. If you want to do it, be careful not to bend the metal pieces that hold the backlight in place. It can cause backlight bleed if it's not sitting just right.

[leoblob]

I'm surprised no one commented the fact that the OPs Thinkpad was still running - perhaps limping a bit - after being run over by a car. I think that's rather impressive... how many other brands of notebooks could survive something like that?

Maybe we just expect our Thinkpads to be that well made, so when something like that happes, it's no big deal?

[ArtShapiro]

There isn't the slightest indication of the catastrophe - I can't say I've held a straightedge over the unit but to the naked eye it looks completely undaunted. Quite impressive.

I remain hopeful that letting it sit a few more days will miraculously restore the video.

Art

[ryengineer]

snip...Maybe we just expect our Thinkpads to be that well made, so when something like that happes, it's no big deal?

Oh ya, you can say that again.

[ArtShapiro]

Can I cry on everyone's collective shoulder?

This is worse than I thought.

I brought in the T42 to work, and threw it in the dock connected through a KVM to my office desktop monitor. Played with it a little off and on all morning; clearly the T42 is working as well as ever.

Then I looked closer at the T42 LCD screen. There are obvious cracks radiating outward from one spot, and various oval-shaped patterns on the screen whether the computer is on or powered down. We're not talking backlights here- the screen is pining for the fjords, as they say.

And upon taking it apart, I noticed there's a slight bending of the lid and slight tearing of the metal on the hinge edge about 2 inches in from the left side, just on the inside of the ribbon cable.

[censored] - ya'd think they could make a stupid computer that could stand being run over by a Honda Element.

I've really got to ponder the cost of a new lid and Samsung LCD panel vs. the cost for a used (or Outlet?) T61. Any guidance out there? Are these allegedly-upcoming new models going to drop T6x pricing?

If the X61 I recently purchased for my wife (and who hasn't had the courage to use it yet) weren't XGA, I think I'd claim it for my own!

Art, not the proverbial happy camper