Thinkpad issue
 

Hi, there. I have a T23 that I have had for several years. It has served me well until just recently.

I was greeted with the BSOD and I got an error message stating unmountable boot volume. Thankfully, a colleague was able to repair the corrupted boot sector and the hard drive data was intact. Time to back up again!

However, just the other day (one to two days after the boot sector was repaired) my screen went very very dark. I cannot increase brightness. If I hook up an external monitor, the external monitor is fine. It is only the laptop screen which is dark. I can only very faintly see what is on the screen.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions? Do backlights just die? Time for a new laptop?

fuzz

Sounds indeed like the backlight may have died. Backlighing is usually just a flourescent tube, just like you use at home but much smaller. They don't have an endless lifespan...

They CAN be replaced, but you really need to know what you are doing:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...rclo=&saprchi=

The tube is very very fragile, andrequires you removing the screen cover, usually removing the entire panel, and disassembling the panel back. I've done this repair before, and it is usually a 30 minute job. One word of warning though; always always remove the battery and AC before doing this, and discharge the backlight power supply as they produce 1000's of volts to power the tube.

Thanks, ScottC. I knew I would find the answer here...

The part is not too expensive, but I am not sure how much someone would charge to do the repair, or if it is worth it on a computer which I might consider retiring soon... I suppose another option is to put a new LCD on it.

I never realized that they were lit by a fluorescent bulb.

I tried to take some of the computer apart, but very cautiously, and with it unplugged and with the battery out. It's not that easy! But I will work on it for a little while. I'm glad that it works with an external display, so I can back up everything as needed.

Thanks.

fuzz

This is a topic that comes up a lot on the ThinkPads listserv (the most knowledgeable folks about the most arcane things about ThinkPads). It's also possible that it is the LCD ribbon cable.

You might either look in the ThinkPad listserv archive or join and post your question

http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad

Well, I recently had my Thinkpad repaired under the extended warranty. The local IBM local service center charges $85/per hour on laptop and $75 for desktop. Don't know why they have to have more expensive labor on laptop though.

Opening a Desktop is one screw, opening a laptop is 20 screws. Seriously; notebook repairs are far more specialized, anyone can fix a desktop...

Often, when a laptop display goes black, the invertor is what fails. It's a circuit board that powers the flourescent tube inside the laptop's lid. It's located between the backside of the display and the lid/case.


Certain Dell Inspirons are known for this failure.

I had a T23 that experienced exactly the same problem. In my case, the culprit was the little recessed switch that gets depressed when the lid goes down. One time when opening the lid, the switch came up off-axis. It got stuck there, with the switch imperceptibly still depressed. No amount of opening/closing would make the backlight come back to life. It wasn't obvious, but IBM's tech support people (unbelievably) diagnosed this over the phone. At their suggestion, I poked around the switch with a pen, and it finally popped up the rest of the way.

I have no idea how likely that is, but you might try this before you crack that case open.

fiat_owner

Inverter board is what failed on mine. $700 repair,including parts. :( Completely covered by the AMEX extended warranty program, since I bought the laptop with my SPG Amex! :)

Separate Thinkpad issue: Just got a new T60 and when using MS Word, it will occassionally beep (at random times)...anyone know why? My old one did the same thing, but this is a brand-new laptop!!!

I'll agree but add there are really good resources for IBM repair available.

I was surprised when I needed to replace the keyboard on my T23. There were dozens of vids available for DL.

I have an X60, and it also beeps at random times. This has also been reported at the forum.thinkpads.com forums.

Is this normal? or do we need to do something about it (if it indicates a problem)? It seems strange, especially when it randomly beeps when Im on a plane or in an office somewhere.

mine also does the beeping thing if i'm typing and hit a lot of keys, or a series of keys, on accident, i think...

Me, too -- and it scares the bajeebas out of me when I'm listening to music from my T60 and the beep is REALLY loud. Anyone find a way to get rid of this?!?!? I've tried resetting all of my Windows audio sounds, but no impact.