New Post for GPU and Southbridge Problems

[Homer1987]

I have been reading some of the older posts on problems people have had with T4X GPU's and Southbridge chips.

I have a T43, 2 T41's and 2 T42's all have ATI chips. The T41's have manufacture dates of 2000 and 2001.

I have aslo owned in the past a T40 and another T43. I have used these machines for both work home and hobby.

I have had zero hardware problems with any motherboard. A failed hard drive or two , or an LCD because of age but that's not the laptops fault.

I was wondering if the "GPU Southbridge Problem" was more a function of misuse or abuse or perhaps we only hear about those who have problems?

I wanted to start a new thread to stir up some fresh thoughts on this and see how all of your T4X's are still holding up out there.

I know they are gettin old but in my oppinion still great machines.

K

[ajkula66]

Homer1987 wrote:

I was wondering if the "GPU Southbridge Problem" was more a function of misuse or abuse or perhaps we only hear about those who have problems?

A partial "yes" to almost all of the above...

Misuse - as in constantly lifting/carrying a T4x/R5x with one hand and flexing the planar by doing so - has been reported as one of the main issues. That being said, the design per se is still defective nevertheless. This statement applies to the Southbridge problems more than GPU ones. Nick (poshgeordie) could probably write a book on the subject matter, and if he ever does I'll be more than happy to provide the foreword for it free of charge...

And, of course, you'll hear more complaints than praises on any Internet forum - I participate in several and this is the rule of the thumb if there ever were one...

BTW, you're reading the dates wrong on those T41s. None of them could've been produced in 2000/2001, that was the T22/23 era...and Pentium M had yet to be invented...

[Homer1987]

Thanks on the dates. 10 of 2004 and 4 of 2004.

K

[tim S]

There is also the per day or per hour usage to consider. Some owners leave their
laptops on either for hours or even days at a time. Some use their computers for
'real' work again for hours at a time. One lift in the wrong place after the heat
builds up and blam, there go the graphics.

Some say the constant turning on/off causes problems as well.

I too have a T42 with the 64 ATi graphic chip, no problem for me either. I don't
use it continuously, hour after hour but even so it sure gets hot!

Tim S

[tdlpad]

Just wondering if the red epoxy balls around the GPU and Southbridge chips were applied to new machines when the problem was discovered or were they applied to machines that had been returned for warranty work?

[ajkula66]

After spring of 2005, epoxy was applied to both new motherboards and ones refurbished by IBM/Solectron/Lenovo/Flextronics/whoever...