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IBM Thinkpad T40 Problems

Fort1tudeFort1tude Registered User regular
edited June 2007 in Help / Advice Forum
I think my laptop has a hardware short of some kind. Sometimes when I try to power it on I get nothing, the backlight doesnt even come on. Other times it boots up normally, works for about 5 minutes, then freezes. When its frozen sometimes the screen turns gray with lines in it and it sometimes flashes. The strange part is if I tap it with a little bit of force on the keyboard or any other part besides the display it sometimes flashes back to the desktop, but its still frozen. When it first started I couldnt even get it to boot, it didnt even look like it was making it past POST because I took out the RAM and I didnt even get BIOS beep codes, so I dont think its a display problem.

Steam ID - Fort1tude
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Posts

  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Do you have another display you can plug in? That would at least narrow it down.

    japan on
  • Fort1tudeFort1tude Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    japan wrote: »
    Do you have another display you can plug in? That would at least narrow it down.


    I have tried that, its not the display.

    Fort1tude on
    Steam ID - Fort1tude
  • Eat_FireEat_Fire Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    sounds like memory (ram) or maybe the motherboard. Buy a stick of ram and try it out.

    Eat_Fire on
    -Updating life to SP1-
  • Fort1tudeFort1tude Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Again, taking the RAM out and booting doesnt get me BIOS beep codes. Doing that on a healthy computer would. Plus there is the whole thing about that when it gets into windows and freezes and goes to a gray screen, tapping the laptop with a little bit of force makes the screen flash and sometimes it shows the desktop again. I am really just asking if anyone has heard of anything like this and is it for sure the motherboard? I'm pretty sure it is but I want to know for sure because motherboards are expensive. I just bought a Parallel port motherboard diagnostic tool to check.

    Fort1tude on
    Steam ID - Fort1tude
  • Fort1tudeFort1tude Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Ok, I got the hard drive diagnostic card and when the system freezes it freezes on "Test system timer 0 count". At least thats according to the manual I got with it. Does anyone know what this means?

    EDIT: I just checked again and it froze at "Test System timer 1 count". Im assuming this means I need to replace the motherboard but does anyone know if this is an easy fix? Also where would I find instructions to replace the motherboard. I do PC work Ive just never replaced a laptop board before so Im sure I could do it and would rather not spend money on anything but parts.

    Fort1tude on
    Steam ID - Fort1tude
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Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum