saving my broke T42 --compatable with T41 or T43 ?

[hertfordnc]

My wife was using it and it slid off the bed, she caught it on the left side gripping the keyboard - immediately the screen froze, then the image sorta' broke up and it eventually died. Now it makes a bit of noise but nothing appears on the screen.

Ebay has lots of T41-43 for around $100 with no power supply, hard drive or battery.

Would a T41 or a T43 work, can I just install my hard drive and battery and boot up?

There are some units that talk about a bios password and no internet capability. is the bios embedded in the mother board or can it be swapped out from mine?

thanks

dave

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

There could be a couple of different things wrong with the system but given the description of "nothing on the screen", then I'd say that the graphics chip (GPU) probably came partially loose from the motherboard. You might be able to use your existing hard drive (assuming that the fall/grab didn't damage it) on a T41 or T43 but there's a possibility that Windows might object to the "new" hardware it will find. In some cases that can lead Windows into asking to be re-activated.

The BIOS chip is firmly soldered down to the motherboard and is not "swappable" in that sense. That's about all that I can say due to the forum rule about discussing circumventing security systems. Looking at the BIOS matrix at ibm.com, the T40, T41 and T42 models appears to use the same BIOS revision but the T43 is different. The lack of "internet" capability could mean that the ethernet and/or wireless cards have been removed. You could simply plug in your own cards.

The loose graphics chip can possibly be repaired but it typically involves shipping the system to a reflow/reball facility (the preferred method) or employing a DIY technique using a hot-air gun, a thermometer and lots of luck. One good method to verify that you do have a loose GPU is to push on the area between the touchpad and space bar, then turn the system on. If it boots normally when pressing that area and doesn't if you don't, then that is a good indication that the ATI video controller has broken some solder balls.

[hertfordnc]

Amazing- I pressed down where you said and it booted right up. I was able to use it my lap for a while before it dies again.

So now I know the screen is good and I can look for a deal on a motherboard or an incomplete thinkpad.

Can you expand on the repair technique? I've got digital thermometer that would allow me to monitor temps on the board while blasting it with a heat gun.


Thanks


Dave

[RealBlackStuff]

I have had excellent result from GPU Medics, who does the reballing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

[rkawakami]

As RBS and I have suggested, a professional reflow/reball repair is probably the best route to take, given that such a repair is around $50. If you would rather attempt the fix yourself, then having a digital (infrared) thermometer will give you a better chance at a successful result. However, you can still make the situation much worse than it is now. How can it get more worse when it doesn't boot reliably??? If the ATI chip ends up moving around, it could short some of the solder balls together and you will have no hope of fixing it without removing the whole chip and doing a reball. That requires some specialized equipment; not a DIY project. You could also end up disturbing other components in the area, which then might shift or drop off the board. There's three (quite large) threads that discusses the heat gun approach, as well as using a different motherboard:

t42 shuts down when i move it:
GUIDE: Reflow GPU fix - 56K WARNING!!!
T4x GPU Problem - Alternate Fix - R51 Mobo w/Intel GPU!

Basically the heat gun method goes like this: Protect everything around the ATI graphics chip with aluminum foil (or similar material). Slowly heat the chip up to around 150c-170c, letting it "soak" there for about a minute. Then ramp up to about 200c (temps are assuming that lead-free solder was used) for 30 seconds or so. Allow to cool slowly without disturbing the board. Here's a couple of temperature profile documents which graphically explains the process:

http://www.actel.com/documents/Solder_R ... adFree.pdf
http://www.altera.com/literature/an/an081.pdf

[SMA]

As far as I know, all T4x boards has LAN integrated on the motherboard.

I have 2 T42 boards that has the same defect.

Both boards has one chip almost burnt away

picture of burnt chip

the traces from the burnt chip goes to the connector at the bottom of the picture. It is the lan connector.

And both boards seems to have problems with this

picture of inductor

which is also part of the onboard lan circuitry.

It is possible that I will have to remove the burnt stuff first, but I will not be surprised if both boards will actually boot.
I haven't tried yet, but if they do boot I will have 2 boards with "no internet".
The boards may also have passwords.

I believe that the units mentioned in the first post of this topic will be similar to what I have described here.

[hertfordnc]

I followed the you tube video as close as I could. got it back together and there are no signs of life whatsoever. I don't even get a light when i connect the power supply. It's possible I may not have something connected properly. I'll look again before I give up.

probably look on ebay for a stripped but working T42 for $100

thanks

[ajkula66]

hertfordnc wrote:

probably look on ebay for a stripped but working T42 for $100

And chances are that it will have a GPU problem as well...since most of these machines are sold "as-is"....

Spend a few bucks more and get a mobo or an entire barebone machine from a reliable seller here...

[scr71822]

T43 has a different chipset and you'll get a 0x7b blue screen attempting to boot from your old hard drive. T40-T42 and the r50-r51 are probably a save bet at plug and play. Bios password chips can be easily replaced on the T40-T42 but the R52 and T43 use a larger chip that takes a little more effort to replace and skill.