Black screen: NO idea!!!

[mckemp]

I'm a lurker and seldom post, usually only when I can't solve the problem myself through trolling. So....

I have a t43.
I start it up like any other day, and it's slow to load at first. It froze at the windows screen with the scrolling [][][], which stop scrolling. after giving it a good 2 minutes, nothing changes, i reset the battery, and turn it back on. It tries to load, but freezes again at the IBM screen. so reset number 2... I finally get it to some screen where I get a "PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable" error.

it developed the habit of not working and doesn't load anything on the screen. black screen. not like it loaded black, but nothing has been sent to the screen to be displayed.
RANDOMLY it will load up completely fine, but when I try to do ANYTHING, open a folder, check internet connection, it freezes. Wtf...

1. is this error due to a loose connection or some HDD issue?
2. black screen of death. what does this mean?
3. due to the freezing, i suspect either DIMM or HDD are to blame. Concur or disagree?


TYVM for help!

[ajkula66]

If your T43 has ATi graphics, I'd suspect a GPU problem.

[mckemp]

If your T43 has ATi graphics, I'd suspect a GPU problem.

GPU would cause the whole comp to not load at all?
It was doing partial loads for a while, at one point it did the auto-recovery scan thing, but again froze.

[ajkula66]

mckemp wrote:

it developed the habit of not working and doesn't load anything on the screen. black screen. not like it loaded black, but nothing has been sent to the screen to be displayed.

That's why I said what I did.

So, ATi GPU or no?

[mckemp]

mckemp wrote:

it developed the habit of not working and doesn't load anything on the screen. black screen. not like it loaded black, but nothing has been sent to the screen to be displayed.

That's why I said what I did.

So, ATi GPU or no?

Yessir, it is

[ajkula66]

Well, run PC-Doctor on all video aspects of the system and report back the results...

I'm off to bed...good luck.

[mckemp]

Well, run PC-Doctor on all video aspects of the system and report back the results...

I'm off to bed...good luck.

how do i do that if i cant load anything?

[rkawakami]

I'd run the following diagnostics, in this order:

- memory; removing all other hardware (specifically the hard drive but also Ultrabay device and MiniPCI) from the system
- hard drive; PC Doctor tests, if you can't locate the manufacturer's own utility (DFT for Hitachi, SeaTools for Seagate, FJDT for Fujitsu, etc.)
- PC Doctor tests; use the DOS version - bootable CD or diskettes

Assuming that the system boots normally for the memory tests (I'd suggest using memtest86+), whatever hardware that is keeping the system from booting (hard drive, I'd bet; mainly due to the PXE error message) is probably the issue. The disk diagnostics that I mentioned above are normally put on a boot floppy (assuming you have a diskette drive) but probably could also be put on a USB thumb drive. Make sure you don't run any destructive tests (i.e., writing/erasing the drive). If you get that far and everything still indicates a pass, then use PC Doctor to test the system board, CPU and video systems.

If you don't get any video when attempting to run the memory test, attach an external monitor and see if there's a video signal there. If so, then you might be looking at a GPU problem (could also be a stuck lid switch, bad ribbon cable, bad LCD panel or other motherboard issue to blame).