IBM ThinkPad T43 - Non-boot problem.

Tesla · 5 Jul 2008 at 20:47

My mother's T43 is not functioning correctly.

I have done some initial diagnosis and concluded that:

Usually the computer does not start. Powers on but LCD remains blank, no HDD activity.

Sometimes I get 1 set of 4 short beeps, no display.

Sometimes it hangs on the IBM bios screen.

Sometimes it gets to XP, sometimes hangs booting XP.

Once I managed top get in to the XP desktop I pressed the KB where the connector lies underneath, this caused it to crash.

I have swapped out the memory so not that.

Any ideas, I couldn't even find out what the beep codes meant.

TIA,

Chris

Tesla · 5 Jul 2008 at 21:06

Have now resolved the 4 beep issue by reseating memory.

So the only issue is now crashing all within around 1min of being powered on.

Tesla · 7 Jul 2008 at 17:37

Bump?

leezer3 · 8 Jul 2008 at 01:01

Sounds like the mobo is toast to me.
I'd guess a loose connection somewhere due to heat or similar.

Have you still got the diagnostic partition on there? If so, the hardware test app may well be able to shed some light on the situation, but it sounds terminal

-Leezer-

Voodle · 8 Jul 2008 at 19:56

It's the usual problem of the GPU's BGA connection to the motherboard, because the way its designed, that chip gets stressed and the connection weakens, the only way to fix it is either get IBM to fix it under warranty (best option), heat the chip using a hot air gun (same as the RROD hot air gun fix) or buy a replacement motherboard.
I didn't think the T43 could suffer from that problem since it was mainly the T40 that suffered from this but I guess it's an inherent fault of the motherboard design, every time you pick it up by the front of the notebook it bends the motherboard around the GPU area.

Tesla · 9 Jul 2008 at 12:17

Thanks guys. I have emailed the company we bought it off as it's only 5months old (re-con).

Septh · 10 Jul 2008 at 14:56

Voodle said:
It's the usual problem of the GPU's BGA connection to the motherboard, because the way its designed, that chip gets stressed and the connection weakens, the only way to fix it is either get IBM to fix it under warranty (best option), heat the chip using a hot air gun (same as the RROD hot air gun fix) or buy a replacement motherboard.
I didn't think the T43 could suffer from that problem since it was mainly the T40 that suffered from this but I guess it's an inherent fault of the motherboard design, every time you pick it up by the front of the notebook it bends the motherboard around the GPU area.

Oh god I'm always picking mine by the front lol, I shall stop as of today!