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Any ThinkPad Experts Out There?

My ThinkPad T42 is broken. It happened just before I moved in to the new office. Like an idiot I balanced it on the top of a pair of step-ladders after I'd been testing the wall sockets for the network. Despite making a mental note to remember it was there I came back later and folded the ladders up - completely forgetting it was on top. It fell 6' on to a concrete floor, although I managed to break the fall half way with my foot. Woops.

Testament to the build quality of the ThinkPads is the fact it was relatively unharmed other than a piece of the casing missing on the corner. The only problem is with the screen. It's very, very, very dull. You can just make out the login box if you get to within an inch of the screen. Logging in or using it with its own screen is out of the question. Since I've moved to the new office I've had it permanently on the port replicator with an external screen. It's not been used as a portable laptop since and won't be until it's fixed.

Now that a new baby has arrived it would be good if I could work from the house a little more. Hence I really need to get it sorted. I just don't know where to start. Do you?

At the weekend I finally got round to taking it apart, as you can see. Believe it or not it's on and running in this shot. I even managed to completely re-assemble it without powering down.

In taking it apart I was hoping to find a loose connection and fix the problem. Alas I didn't and it looks like a hardware fault.

Having done a little googling I narrowed the problem down to either the LCD inverter or the CCFL backlight. As the CCFL is the cheapest part I'm going to buy one of them and hope that works. If not I'll try the inverter. If neither work I might have to consider a new laptop (it is nearly 3 years old after all). What's the equivalent of the T42 now? Is it the T61?

Comments

  1. Yes, it is the T61. And you should be able to get backlit back to work. A drop will most likely damage the CCFL and not the inverter.

    • avatar
    • Jake Howlett
    • Mon 30 Jun 2008 05:12 AM

    Thanks Volker. I should have known you were the man to go to for any questions about gadgets.

  2. Just as a note to ya, it almost for sure is the CCFL, but I will say from experience when working on other laptops, that it requires soldering in a very tight space and it can be very frustrating trying to get it to hold in the small amount of space you have to work with, but good luck, only took me about 3 hours to change out mine.

    • avatar
    • Ryan Homan
    • Mon 30 Jun 2008 05:38 AM

    Good place to order parts: {Link}

  3. Hi Jake

    If you end up having to go down the route of a new lappy (judging by the posts above, it might happen), I know a good supplier who sources Thinkpads waaaay cheaper than anyone else, guaranteed.

    I'm in the market for a new T61P at the moment and also looking to move my (T60P still in long warranty) lappy on so there could be a couple of options for you!

    Mark

  4. There are some good thinkpad forums here:

    {Link}

  5. Worst case scenario, try calling IBM Hardware support (aka IBM SERV) at 08705-500-900 in the UK for the part numbers / availability.

    • avatar
    • Alastair
    • Mon 30 Jun 2008 11:11 AM

    Exactly the same thing happened to my T42. From reading the forums it sounded like the CCFL was busted and I've never been any good at soldering. So I picked up a second hand T41 screen from eBay for about 40 quid. Now the laptop is as good as new!

    • avatar
    • Jake Howlett
    • Mon 30 Jun 2008 11:26 AM

    A second hand screen is probably what I'll try after the CCFL and inverter. Only trouble is the screen is "high spec" (or was at the time) and is SXGA+ with 1400*1050 res, so is harder to come by than most others...

    Jake

  6. Yes most likely the CCFL.

    Check ebay or a ewaste recycler for a screen which may work from a retired laptop.

    Also your local IBM office(they never get rid of anything, contrary to what they say).

    If not, we can order you a new one as we are a Lenovo dealer.

    And yes the inside of a thinkpad is not fun to work on usually.

  7. I'm sorry to hear your beloved T42 took such a nasty fall! You might seek some advice at the Lenovo Peer to Peer support community - {Link}

  8. What a terrifying photograph! When I did that to my Dell, I had about 3 bits left over, at least one of which was critical.

    Congrats on your beautiful daughter.

    By the bye, I just resurrected your old blog template so my (retired) father-in-law could make pointy comments online that he used to make in the Local Darwin rag.

    I'm pleased to report that after all this time, it still works brilliantly.

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Written by Jake Howlett on Mon 30 Jun 2008

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