T61p, out of warranty, with video artifacting, questions....

[CeNG]

As the title states I've got a T61p (XP Pro, SP3) which is 6 months or so out of warranty and it's started having video issues. There are consistent patches of pixels that aren't displayed correctly. At system post the patches are horizontal stripes and with Windows loaded they turn into little square patches near the top of the screen. I've verified that this happens when docked, on the external monitor, and on the Thinkpad's screen. I ran PC Doctor with the only errors found being the video memory test:

Video Memory Test
Event Type Description Time
Test Started - Wednesday, March 03, 2010 9:28:31 PM
Error Message Error at pixel 228 4 : Input color 0000FFFF not equal to output color 0000FFEF. Wednesday, March 03, 2010 9:30:21 PM
Error Message Error at pixel 996 4 : Input color 0000FFFF not equal to output color 0000FFEF. Wednesday, March 03, 2010 9:30:21 PM
Error Message Error at pixel 232 11 : Input color 0000FFFF not equal to output color 0000FF7F. Wednesday, March 03, 2010 9:30:21 PM
Test Finished Failed Wednesday, March 03, 2010 9:30:22 PM

I ran the test again the next day and came up with slightly differing results:

Video Memory Test
Event Type Description Time
Test Started - Thursday, March 04, 2010 7:28:28 PM
Error Message Error at pixel 216 1 : Input color 0000FFFF not equal to output color 0000FFEF. Thursday, March 04, 2010 7:30:19 PM
Error Message Error at pixel 232 11 : Input color 0000FFFF not equal to output color 0000FF7F. Thursday, March 04, 2010 7:30:19 PM
Error Message Error at pixel 1000 11 : Input color 0000FFFF not equal to output color 0000FF7F. Thursday, March 04, 2010 7:30:19 PM
Test Finished Failed Thursday, March 04, 2010 7:30:20 PM

The errors seem to change, although the areas where patches of broken pixels are showing up don't move, they are consistent.

It seems as though I need to replace the video card, but I'm wondering if that's actually possible or not. Is the 570m a separate card, or would the system planar board need to be replaced to resolve the issue? I'm debating whether or not I want to send it in for out of warranty depot repair as Lenovo wants $575 to resolve the issue and I'm wondering if it's possible to repair it myself more cheaply?

[Marin85]

I am pretty sure, the graphics card in your ThinkPad is soldered to the mobo, hence replacing it would require replacing the motherboard.

(If I am not mistaken, the first ThinkPad with detachable gpu is W700.)

[RealBlackStuff]

Contact Poshgeordie, he is looking for someone with an ailing T61