IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

[pentium]

I picked this laptop up at the university sans ram or the battery so I spent $12 and bought a 256 meg stick because I would only buy a one gig stick after I knew it at least worked and powered it on.
It did POST but to my dismay I got a white screen with colorful vertical lines.
I checked the VGA output to see if the video card was okay and that was fine and I visually inspected the screen and saw no scratches, cracks or chips.
If you also toggle the screen on and off the lines of color move around or become lighter white lines.
That means that somewhere between the board and the screen there probably is a poor connection, right?
I don't want to tear this system apart if I do not want to. I have no idea how to even take it apart in the first place.

[Wizard]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

Manual on how to take thinkpads is plentiful on 'net. Look for it.

T30, I think this one should let you undo 2 or 3 screws on bottom and that frees up the keyboard. once you are there, this should expose the LCD connector. Turn it on san the keyboard and press or wriggle that connector.

Cheers, Wizard

[Wizard]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...IGR-42358.html
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T30

This is lenovo's service manual for working on this T30.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...cid=MIGR-42308

Pulling the keyboard out is simple.
http://www.insidemylaptop.com/remove...ad-t30-laptop/

Word of advice: keep those screws organized and by length, color etc and make notes of where these goes!!

Listing:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...cid=MIGR-39298

Cheers, Wizard

[ratdude747]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

i have a couple dells that do that and i never got to work.

[EGuevarae]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

I picked this laptop up at the university sans ram or the battery so I spent $12 and bought a 256 meg stick because I would only buy a one gig stick after I knew it at least worked and powered it on.
It did POST but to my dismay I got a white screen with colorful vertical lines.
I checked the VGA output to see if the video card was okay and that was fine and I visually inspected the screen and saw no scratches, cracks or chips.
If you also toggle the screen on and off the lines of color move around or become lighter white lines.
That means that somewhere between the board and the screen there probably is a poor connection, right?
I don't want to tear this system apart if I do not want to. I have no idea how to even take it apart in the first place.

I've seen that before, Pentium. On the ones I've seen, the flex cable (the one from the "VGA card" to the panel itself) was damaged. Never replaced one, as far as I can remember .....

[pentium]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

Well I did what you said and was poking at every bit of visible ribbon cable for the LCD screen without completely tearing the top off the laptop and still nothing.

Damn, this looked like a good laptop too.

EDIT: I checked to see how much a replacement screen would cost and that's looking to be at least $100. It's a hard decision as this thing still needs a hard drive and more ram and I would prefer not to go and buy a UMPC for about $300.

[Wizard]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

To play with is good and learn the problem what looks like. Sounds like you are on the way to know what to do.

Cheers, Wizard

[gdement]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

I checked the VGA output to see if the video card was okay and that was fine

That's good. But I'd thoroughly test it before you invest much into it. Prime95, 3DMark or some other graphics stress, etc.

If I remember right, I think the T30 has 2 common issues of significance, both probably a result of lead-free solder:

1) 1 of the memory slots can develop a cracked joint, leaving only 1 that works. Can be fixed by reflowing the solder.

2) On models with ATI graphics, the GPU fails. Some people try to reflow it with hot air but that's hit or miss and it tends to fail again later.
The boards with Intel graphics are arguably more desirable just because they don't have this problem (from what I've read).


I've never owned one, I'm just repeating what I've read. Might be only the T40's that have the GPU problem, not sure about that.

[pentium]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

Well since I don't have any spare laptop hard drives I"m forced to live boot Ubuntu. Any diagnostic programs must be run through it.
I'm well aware of the ram slot issue as well and that has already been taken care of with the assistance of my friend who reflowed the joints on both sockets.
Still, I don't know if it is really worth the $100 to get the new LCD screen. I mean, my current laptop is a 10+ year old Panasonic Toughbook which needs a new $60 battery soon but I could always get a low-end laptop that barely does and...has vista on it as opposed to this T30 which has an XP pro OEM license on it.

[gdement]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

Not familiar with Ubuntu, but when I use an old knoppix 3.9 disc I use the "Chromium" game to stress video. I just leave that running and in a few hours if it hasn't crashed it's probably good video-wise.

If internet works on the live CD, then you can download mprime into the ramdisk and run that (same thing as prime95). Or just use the mprime on the "ultimate boot CD".

Still, I don't know if it is really worth the $100 to get the new LCD screen. I mean, my current laptop is a 10+ year old Panasonic Toughbook which needs a new $60 battery soon but I could always get a low-end laptop that barely does and...has vista on it as opposed to this T30 which has an XP pro OEM license on it.

Yeah, it's a tough call. The T30 is in a different class of build quality vs anything new+cheap, but then the T30 is old now so it might be used up anyway.

[EGuevarae]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

Well since I don't have any spare laptop hard drives I"m forced to live boot Ubuntu. Any diagnostic programs must be run through it.
I'm well aware of the ram slot issue as well and that has already been taken care of with the assistance of my friend who reflowed the joints on both sockets.
Still, I don't know if it is really worth the $100 to get the new LCD screen. I mean, my current laptop is a 10+ year old Panasonic Toughbook which needs a new $60 battery soon but I could always get a low-end laptop that barely does and...has vista on it as opposed to this T30 which has an XP pro OEM license on it.

On a thread about disk problems on the general computer part of the forum, I remember KeriJane has told she has some spare drives (small, but will do enough). Why don't you contact her? Maybe you can work something out.

[pentium]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

I got spare time today and realized that the ribbon cable for the LCD might be the problem itself.
It's a long shot but considering the panel itself has no visible cracks it might just be a loose or damaged ribbon cable.

I'll tear it apart today I guess and take a look.

[ratdude747]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

have fun

[pentium]

Re: IBM T30 LCD nothing but stripes

I didn't get to do it yesterday.
Another system started acting up and I spent the rest of the day trying to get it to work for me.

I'll have to try next week I guess.