R51 Monitor Blank out problem

[msnyder101]

I have been experiencing this problem for several days with no luck
Computer: R51 running windows XP SP3
Symptom: monitor goes blank (not off, just blank similar to "blank" screensaver)
- It first occured while I was listening to music using winamp. The music simply stopped, when I went over to check why, the monitor was blank and computer was unresponsive. When I forced off the computer and rebooted it, the monitor was still blank, but the hard drvie and DVD drive would spin up. turned off took out battery and tryed again and it booted normally. Thinking it was a glitch with winamp, I unistalled it, no such luck.
- has since reoccured, several times while surfing the internet. Once when changing windows firewall setting, once while running wprime benchmark test (to get the temp to rise), It reboots always on the second try after I've wiggled the screen or tapped on the keyboard etc.
- The latest occurence, I just knocked on the palm rest and the monitor came back on. It went off again a moment later, I tapped on the palm rest again, and the monitor has stayed on for ~45 min now.

Anyone help would be appreciated.
Thanks
- Mike

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the GPU hell of T4x/R5x machines...take a look at this sticky:

http://www.thinkpads.com/forum/viewtopi ... =2&t=33952

More on this unfortunate issue can be found in the T4x forum.

Good luck.

[RealBlackStuff]

It could also be something as simple as re-seating your LCD cable, both under the keyboard (easy) and behind the LCD (a bit more work, but still easy).

[msnyder101]

Thanks, it is a really strange problem.
I doesn't seem to be triggered by movement or anything like that. Just has a mind of its own.
It worked fine for ~4hrs straight last night. Then dies this morning after like 30mins.

[msnyder101]

I thought I'd post an update.
I went out on a limb, after I noticed that the monitor will not blank out if I'm watching a movie, but will blank out every time if I let it sit at idle for a stretch of time. I went ahead and disabled CPU power management, disabled PCI Bus power management, and enabled the my pictures screen saver. The Computer hasn't had a problem since.

I think disabling the PCI Bus power management was what fixed my problem, b/c I early had the ati2dvag.dll BSOD problems which I fixed by following the instructions here:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic15393.html
What do you guys think.

[madkat]

what model no. is your R51?

[msnyder101]

Type 1829 if that helps.
Also, I must have jinxed myself. As the screen has went out twice since I posted last.
Though still is a vast improvement, at least the it's still useable.

[madkat]

wanted to see if it's an ATI or Intel model... and it's an ATI GPU model - so there are 99% chances you are experiencing the "gpu hell"...