T61 Blank Screen as Windows Starts

[LostatCal]

I purchased a Thinkpad T61 about 14 months ago and it worked fine throughout the duration of the 1 year warranty. Then about two weeks ago, the screen starts turning completely black as Windows Vista starts up. I tried rebooting it a bunch of times until it started up normally again. The problem would repeat itself. I thought it was a problem with Vista so I uninstalled Vista and installed XP. The graphics card that game with the computer was the Nvidia 140m Quadro, which does not have an updated Vista driver. It worked fine and ran without a hitch until today, where the screen, once again, turned black during start up and would stay black. I know the problem is with my screen because Windows loads up completely fine (I hear all the sounds of Windows starting up and when I press keyboard keys, the computer would respond accordingly- e.g. Alt F4, followed by U would turn off the computer once it's started up.) The screen would be black during start up, then light up (but would still be blank), and then would go black again before windows loads up.

I tried rebooting numerous times but the result has always been the same- black screen, lights up (still blank screen though) before black screen again, as Windows starts up without a problem.

I called Lenovo Support but they hooked me up to a Call Center in India with a rather impatient (and difficult to understand) operater who said it was an LCD problem- one that would require 600 dollars to repair. While that's certainly a possibility, I am reluctant to believe that it is the problem. I mean... the display on a 1600 dollar laptop dying out after one year- requiring an additional 600 dollars to fix is simply unbelieviable!

I was wondering if there could be other factors causing this problem to occur. Perhaps a software problem or maybe even a loose cable that I could somehow open up and fix? I am sure there are others who have faced a similiar problem and I would greatly appreciate any advice or help that could be provided. 

Thanks! 

[mixz1]

Perhaps you are having the same problem, and may find the same solution as in this thread: http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T_Series_Thinkpads&thread.id=27848

[eggnogs]

Exact same problem happened to me too. I would turn on my T61. All system are working. I can hear all sounds etc of windows loading up but the screen remains black.

The back light does come on but the screen remains black. I will post a video to show exactly what i mean.

i have had this problem before but after a few "on/off" the screen would return to normal. Now i am not getting anything.

I will try to connect it to an external moniter to see if that works but for the meantime i would hate to think that my screen needs changing and at that cost.

Please if anyone had any suggestion feel free to post.

[eggnogs]

Ok i connected it to an external monitor and the display was very messed up. The bios screen loaded up and even on that i was able to see a lot of pixels and the bios screen didn't at all look like its in english. I will post a video of how it looked. I was able to get it into safe mode and i tried to revert it to an earlier date. On restart though it wont log in to windows normally. It will keep giving me "nv4_disp" error. Keep in mind that i am seeing all this on the external monitor. My actual screen on t61 is still blank

After doing some search on net i decided to unstall the nvidia drivers and reinstall it with new version from thinkpad support website. Still it hasn't fixed the problem.

I am running out of options as to what to do next soplease help me out.

Is there a way i can do a clean install of the whole system and will that fix the problem? Also anywhere i can buy the nvidia quadro 140 n card and try to replace it myself?

All the experts out there, please help me out

[Ace417]

Is it possible there is a bios setting to startup on the external screen?

[eggnogs]

Hi Ace, i can get into bios setting on the external monitor but the display is very messed up. I tried updating the driver for  nvidia quadro 140m card. I removed the previous driver, removed it clean with driver cleaner pro and then installed the new version. however it still hasn't fixed the problem. I tried calling the lenovo cus support aswell and the guy was clueless what could be wrong with the laptop and wanted me to send it in. i am having my local computer shop to have a look at it hoping like crazy that they fix it. is there a way i can replace or remove the nvidia quadro 140 m card in my laptop?

[Kervin]

How did it go?

I have the same problem, been trying to fix it for about 3 weeks with no avail. Have had issues like this twice with the T61 before during the past half year where I sent the laptop in to Lenovo to repair every time. At those times I couldn't even get into Windows. But now I can, so that's why I'm seeing the possibility to fix it, but I'm giving up soon. Even if I send it in again, I believe the next motherboard they'll give me will fail again in a couple of months. My reasoning behind this is because of the defect nvidia chipsets.

I'm now considering contacting the retailer/Lenovo to get a refund or some sort. So tired of it all.

Message Edited by Kervin on 03-12-2009 11:37 PM

[zachareth]

Start in safe mode, then turn back the graphics driver. If doesn't work do a clean restore with discs and be careful not to update driver automatically with windows update.

Message Edited by zachareth on 03-14-2009 04:26 AM

Message Edited by zachareth on 03-14-2009 04:38 AM

[eggnogs]

yep turned out i had a three year warrenty on it and they replaced the whole mother board. i had the fan cleaned aswell and there was a lot of dust in the fan and in the fan vent. mke sure u have those cleaned and if the fan is making grinding noise etc or is generally loud just replace it.  My system used to run at around cpu temp of 65 C when  running bare minimum applications on the old motherboard, now its round 45/ 46 C.

If ypou keep having the same problem where you are just having to replace the motherboard all the time try replacing the fan on the system, it costs about $20 for a better fan for t61. there are two on the market for t61. i believe its the phillips one which is the better of the two. Also download tpfancontrol and let it run in the background. The way i understand is that my motherboard got fried cos i had a faulty fan and the laptop was heating up a lot. so new fan and choosing a higher setting on tpfancontol will help keep the laptop a lot cooler and hopefully stop any further problems. 

[writelou]

I have the identical problem, and it's September, 2011! Was there ever any final resolution? I've already bought a Mac Air to replace this poor old thing. (Maybe it got insulted?!) But I'd like to keep this as a second computer. At this rate, though, it's going to be useless. I never know if the screen will come back when I boot up!!

Thanks for any updates you can provide!