T43 dying? (edit: confirmed GPU problem - see sticky)

[kai920]

I recently dropped my T43 on the floor by pulling the power cord. It continued to work for about 3 weeks with no problems, but recently (within the last 3 days) my T43 started behaving very strangely. I discovered that the machine does not work unless I press down on the trackpoint area or hd area very hard.

For example, I am trying to do a factory restore (IBM Product Recovery) and the timer is completely stopped, the hard drive does not work... UNLESS I apply some pressure on the center part of the keyboard. It's as if the machine is completely frozen. As soon as I apply some pressure, the timer and the hard drive starts churning again. I just put a huge & heavy "Office 2003" book on top and it's working (somewhat) continuously now.

Has anyone seen ANYTHING like this before???

After finally letting it restore by itself, I got to the Windows desktop screen... and then it froze again completely. Even the "apply pressure" trick had no effect. I noticed the bottom of the Thinkpad to be extremely hot - mainly under the CPU area & the front between the HD and the PC Card slot.

Any suggestions for me to try before I send it in? My warranty is expiring very soon.

PS1. I have a spare 80G Samsung, wanted to boot my recovery discs but but got the infamous 2010 error.

PS2. Will they look at my cracked corner in the palmrest and refuse to honor the warranty? I already ordered a replacement palmrest off eBay, but shipped it to my brother in the US. I'm in HK so would need him to fedex it over.. originally I didn't plan on the palmrest being needed urgently.

Thanks very much for your responses.

[Harryc]

Remove the keyboard (but keep the connector in place) and apply pressure directly on the Graphics chip. Does this change the symptoms?

[kai920]

I think the graphics chip is the one located in the center of the machine? (i.e. under the trackpoint area)

I'll try that and report back.

[Harryc]

T43 (GPU) location

[kai920]

Cheers for that. Looks like I need to press the copper-colored part under the chip I thought was the GPU

[kai920]

Harry - indeed pressuring the GPU seems to have made the system more stable and useable.

I suppose the next step is to consult http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=57021 for the fix.

Since I am still under warranty, should I take it to Lenovo? Do you reckon my damaged palmrest corner would have any effect on their warranty services?

Big thanks for your help!

[ajkula66]

Send it in. The worst thing they can do is claim that the problem is your fault, but you can still fight them on it.

Good luck.

[kai920]

Thanks. I confirmed that the warranty expires 3 years from my date of purchase, which means Nov 6, 2008. So I still a bit of time.

I was able to restore the HD with a stack of post-it notes applying pressure..

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/2535/img0091vs9.jpg 24kb

[kai920]

Brought my T43 into the local Lenovo repair center today and was told it would take 2-3 days for repair.

I brought it in at 4pm, and by 8pm I got a machine-generated SMS saying that my notebook has been repaired! The office had already closed by then, so I'll give them a call tomorrow to confirm if the repair has already been made. If so, I wonder what they did and how they were able to fix it so fast...

[richk]

they swapped motherboards.

[kai920]

Ah, you were absolutely right. I called them and they said they changed the system board. For some reason a new board didn't enter my mind as one of the options

I'll pick it up today if I have time.

edit: picked it up. They had it fixed within 3 hours last night, but sent me the pick up message after they had closed. Anyway, they found something wrong with my wifi card so they went ahead and replaced that for me as well! Also upgraded my BIOS. Top notch service again... hopefully this is the last of my problems as my warranty officially runs out in early November.