Sounds like that will cost more than the machine is worth. Anyone know
0) is there a test I can perform to confirm that it's bad vram? (I've r+r'd
the
video driver as step 1)
then if so
i) can one buy a reliable mb for a machine this old
and
ii from where and how much?
- thanks
Re: [Thinkpad] Strange video issue
Monday, November 15, 2010 7:17:39 AM
From:
"" <[email protected]>
To:
"" <[email protected]>, "" <[email protected]>
You're looking at VRAM corruption. That machine needs a new motherboard.
Good luck.
Cheers,
George
-----Original Message-----
From: Laurence <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Mon, Nov 15, 2010 2:13 am
Subject: [Thinkpad] Strange video issue
My T40p, which has been quite reliable until recently, has started to become
unstable with a strange, repeatable issue. So far I can't tell if it's hardware
or software.
After being on for a number of hours - variable, from a few hrs to >8 - the
video becomes corrupted in a specific way. This leads to difficulty shutting
down, risking file corruption.
Details:
The lettering, but not graphic content in the top window is replaced by
straight
lines or on one occasion Arabic characters.
Taskbar buttons may lose their lettering. The battery icon almost always loses
its numerals.
Windows may lose their titles, but that tends to happen after the initial
corruption.
Task Manager will (usually) not launch but can be selected if already open.
Some options such as Shut Down / Restart are greyed out in task mgr, though
they
usually work at least if attempted a couple times.
Ctrl-escape may not produce anything, or it may provide ghosts of the log off
and turn off options but with no lettering at all. If I catch it right away I
have been able to shut down, but after a minute or two the only out is a hard
reset.
The screen does not flicker or go black, and the desktop icons seem to remain
intact.
After a reboot it runs fine, unless it had to crashed with a power cycle. In
the
latter case some program settings get flipped. On one occasion the display
reset
itself to 16 instead of 32 bit color depth - I hadn't touched the setting.
Also strange is the the display settings gives me options up to 2048x1536,
while
the LCD is 1400x1050. Display Properties|Settings also seems to think I have
multiple monitors, with the current one being capable of 2048.
ATI PowerPlay applet, Displays tab shows the correct LCD panel tho.
So far I've run PC doc tests from within windows and from a boot disk, though
not extended times. I have run memtest for a few hours. Neither produced any
errors. I also ran chkdsk and system file checker, neither found errors. I
don't see any sign of a virus or other malware, at least nothing obvious.
I have heard that this model has an issue with the graphics chip, but I've
never
heard of it presenting like this.
So... at this point I am not sure whether it's a hardware or software issue nor
of what is a reasonable way to diagnose it. Event Viewer comes up with nothing.
I'll try deleting the video adapter in Dev Mgr and see what happens.
How can I tell if this is hardware or software
and
in particular what is the problem?
thanks!
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Fw: Re: [Thinkpad] Strange video issue
Re: [Thinkpad] Strange video issue
Monday, November 15, 2010 12:27:29 PM
From:
"Mitchell Yee" <[email protected]>
To:
"" <[email protected]>
I agree with what George says.
On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 4:17 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
> You're looking at VRAM corruption. That machine needs a new motherboard.
>
>
> Good luck.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> George
1. Re: Strange video issue ([email protected])
2. Re: Strange video issue (Mitchell Yee)
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