T60 - Strange intermittent problems with internal LCD

[dr_st]

My 14" T60 with GMA950 (1952-F76) recently began experiencing some problems with the display on the internal LCD.

The symptoms are as follows:

* Every once in a while the display "shakes" and the image becomes distorted for about half a second, then everything resumes normally. This happens maybe once every few hours of continuous work on the internal LCD.
* Even less frequently, the display will suddenly disappear completely, and the LCD will just display a solid color (sometimes white, sometimes blue). This started about a month and a half ago, and happened maybe 3-4 times since. Turning the display off and on does not help, but putting the computer in standby (not even hibernate) and resuming helps every time.

Since no such issues have ever occured while working on external LCDs (both DVI and VGA) ti me it seems like something may be wrong with the LCD cable. Has anyone experienced similar issues?

[RealBlackStuff]

Sounds more like an inverter problem than a cable or even LCD problem, but I could be wrong.
Either way, replacing the inverter is the cheapest and easiest change you can make.
But run PC Doctor first, maybe it finds the problem.

[dr_st]

Really - inverter? I thought they are only responsible for power, and as such a faulty inverter can give you backlight issues, but not this.

In any case - are inverters/LCD cables compatible across the whole range of 14" T60s? I have a spare half-assembled unit here with XGA LCD - wondering if it can be used as parts donor.

[RealBlackStuff]

They use the same cable and inverter for XGA and SXGA+.
Those anomalies could be caused by either a voltage spike or a voltage drop, which is inverter territory in my book.

[Harryc]

I've had the white screen problem and it was a loose or poorly connected LCD cable at the back of the LCD.

[westsailor]

I'm also having an intermittent problem with my T60 LCD (or ATI X1300?). The LCD a 1900X1200 Flexview model HV150UX1-100 that suddenly began showing brighter 'hot spots' on the screen about a month or so ago.

More recently, when I first boot up or resume from sleep the screen is 'smeared', with black horiz lines running thru it. Sometimes I can get it to work normally by repeatedly putting the T60 to sleep and resuming. When I am unable to get it working via sleep/unsleep I can reboot and usually after that putting it into/out of sleep mode gets it working. It's like something isn't being initialized properly and/or some timing signal is missing.

After having done this numerous times now I'm starting to think when I boot it up for the very first time it might take more of a bit of effort to get it working, almost like something is needing to warm up before I can get it to work right.

It's really annoying as the T60 works just fine otherwise.

(aside from the white spots showing up on the screen) could this be an inverter problem?

[RealBlackStuff]

FYI: flexview UXGA is 1600x1200.
I suggested the inverter right at the beginning.
Have you run the LCD tests from PC Doctor?

[westsailor]

Oops, my bad. Indeed it's 1600X1200

Yep, I've run all the PC doctor tests for system (CPU, MLB, memory, PCI buss etc.), display and video card a number of times. No problems reported there. In fact, aside from the hot spots that are developing (Arrgh) according to the test patterns I couldn't want a better looking LCD. Perfect focus, geometry, etc.

That's the thing... once I get the LCD to display properly it works like a champ. I wish I could run PC Doc when it isn't working properly but then again, I couldn't read the results.

[flamingmoe]

Hi there,

I know, this thread is pretty old. Nevertheless I am having exactly the same issue (T60, 1600x1200). The black or white screen seems to happen in battery mode only. In most cases around 15 minutes after I have switched from AC to battery.

Is there any solution available, now, as we are already in the FUTURE?

Thanks a lot in advance
moe.

[dr_st]

Well, actually, the problem kind of went away, without me doing anything. I haven't been experiencing it in a long time. Then again, I have been using this laptop far less frequently in the past 2 years than I have before.