T61p NVidia 570m Failure

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

Ctbear,

The one long and two short beep fail is not the type of failure widely associated with Nvidia issues.

I've sent you a PM that you haven't responded to, and now an email today with further offer of assistance.  I hope we can connect next week and see if we can help you out.

Best regards, 

Mark

[drjoestan]

To congfucius and all others with similiar problems,

First, I cannot address the beeping noises as I did not encounter such on my own laptop.  They may well be indicating a different problem other than the graphics card.  But for those who suspect it is the GPU, here is my story.

I have a T61 with the nVidia NVS 140M graphics card that failed on me several days ago.  I too am out of warranty.  For a description of what I encountered please read http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T_Series_Thinkpads&thread.id=36089

To be frank, I have been dissappointed in Lenovo's treatment of the graphics card situation.  First I was told the LCD cable and display was defective, which was not the case as the display worked after the laptop was off overnight, albeit only for about 15 minutes before the colors on the display turned funny (when the laptop got sufficently hot, I assume).  I called again and the customer rep said it was a graphics card issue, but like in your case, the graphics is soldered to the motherboard so the whole thing will have to be replaced...for a whopping cost of nearly $600.

I argued that nVidia publicly admitted this batch of graphics cards were shoddily manufactured so the cost of replacement should not be on me, but the customer rep stood firm.  He said that the higher ups made no mention to him and his peers about the issue.  

I called Lenovo parts and my motherboard, part # 43y9047, costs $454.  However, this is the retail price.

My father found an ad for a computer repair shop that repairs IBM/Lenovo.  The person diagnosed it as a graphics issue (he seemed to be able to access a "secret menu" of some sort...) and told me he would charge me $129 to fix it.

Bewildered, I reiterated to him that the motherboard in its entirety needs to be replaced, but he said he understood.

I asked if he was going to use geniune Lenovo parts and he assured me he would, saying that is the correct way to do things.

So the bottom line, in my opinion, is that Lenovo will probably not do anything in terms of taking on the cost of replacing the motherboard on your laptop; you are better off finding a repair shop that can get Lenovo parts at a cheaper price.

P.S. I am 100% sure its the graphics card issue in my case, because it has degenerated to the point where I see the nVidia "face" when I turn on my T61.

[ajkula66 Guru]

@drjoestan:

I'd be extremely skeptical of a motherboard replacement on a T6x unit for the price that you have been quoted.  Should you choose to go that route, make sure that you get a nice written warranty on the parts and labour...

Good luck. 

[mreigle]

I have the same exact issue.  This is obviously a bug affecting loads of these things.  I have a T61P I bought brand new a year and half ago for $2200.  It has the nVidia Quadro FX 570M. 

My problem arose after my laptop fell off the coffee table and the LCD cracked.  I'm about 3 months out of warranty, so I decided to fix it myself.  Got an LCD on eBay and installed it myself.  Also upgraded the hard drive and RAM while I was at it.

Did a fresh install of Vista with my $45 Lenovo recovery DVDs.  The computer installed Vista OK, but I had to finish the install with an exernal monitor because whenever the nVidia drivers are installed, the LCD does not work.

If I try to boot Windows on the Thinkpad LCD with the nVidia drivers installed, the green loading "status" bar is the last thing I see.  The screen goes black after that.  I can tell Windows is booted and running fine, just no LCD. 

In order to use the nVidia drivers, I HAVE to use an external LCD.  If I uninistall the nVidia drivers the Thinkpad LCD will work with the standard Windows drivers, but the performance is shotty at best.

So far here are the problems I have had with my Thinkpad T61P in the year and a half I have had it.

    - The door on my PCMCIA slot broke off

    - The hard drive failed

    - LCD cracked (my fault I guess... even though it only fell 2 feet onto carpet)

    - I am on my 3rd power cord

    - I am on my 2nd battery

    - My Lenovo DVD-RW broke - it will not boot the Lenovo recovery CD no matter you do.  I had to perform the Vista install with a USB DVD drive

    - My last problem is the one I am facing now... the problem with the nVidia driver/GPU

All that stuff aside... believe it or not... I still really like the machine.  The look, the feel, the power, the trackpoint nipple, etc.  I just wish there were less problems and more accountability from Lenovo.  These things should be like rocks for what we pay for them. 

I am currently looking for a new laptop as a backup (learned my lesson here), but I seriously have to not consider a Lenovo. 

Message Edited by mreigle on 07-29-2009 03:22 PM

[mreigle]

,

Today my problem progressed to the point that my machine is unusable.  So, I have to bite the bullet and pay the $575 and go without my laptop for a week or so.  Here's my letter to Lenovo.

---

My Letter To Lenovo:
Hi Lenovo,

Thank you for taking the time to fix my laptop.  I am currently having several problems with it.  Here they are:

Problem #1:

Three weeks ago this computer fell 2 feet off my coffee table onto carpet.  The original LCD cracked when it hit the ground.  The original LCD was replaced, but after the LCD was replaced, I could never get the nVidia 570M Vista driver to work with the new LCD.  The LCD would work fine with the standard Vista VGA driver, but when the nVidia 570M Vista driver is installed, the machine will only boot into a black screen.  At that time, Windows would boot fine, but the screen would be black.  I would have to boot into Safe mode, disable the nVidia driver, and then the machine would boot fine using the standard VGA Vista driver.

For the past week I had been using the machine through the external VGA port on an external monitor.

Today, the problem progressed further because when I turn the machine on, the LCD is constantly black.  The external display is constantly black as well.  No matter what I do, everything is black.  The machine will light up, but there is very little hard drive activity that I can see. 

Could you please check to see if the LCD is installed correctly?  If it is, there is probably a problem with the nVidia 570M display adapter or the main board.

Problem #2:

About two weeks ago the hard drive developed bad sectors.  I believe the hard drive in this machine is bad and needs to be replaced.  I do not need anything on this drive, so feel free to format it.

Problem #3:

Palm rest has a crack just above the PCMCIA slot.  PCMCIA slot is missing the door.  Could we replace the Palm rest and PCMCIA door?

Problem #4:

No matter what I do, I cannot get the OEM DVD-RW drive to boot from the Lenovo Recovery CDs.  When I previously restored the system, I had to use an external USB DVD drive to do the recovery.  Can you test to see if it will boot recovery CD disk 1 and replace the drive if it is defective?

Thank you very much.  I can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX if you have any questions.

  

---

Hopefully they can fix the machine and will send it back in like-new condition.  I will update with my results.

Message Edited by mreigle on 07-25-2009 03:20 AM

[mreigle]

Just found another guy who's T61P has the same issue:

http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T_Series_Thinkpads&message.id=31978

I am still waiting to receive my box to ship back my laptop.  I think it's dumb that Lenovo won't allow me to use my own box to ship them my laptop for the repair.  I saved the original box the machine came in for over a year just in case I ever needed to do this one day.  One more thing I can throw away in that closet.... I bet a considerable amount of money is lost on shipping the boxes next day air twice instead of only one time... especially to Hawaii.

Plus, the stupid "can't use your own box" rule stacks and extra two days on top of when I get my laptop back.   Thanks again Lenovo.  Looking forward to receiving my box so I can box up my laptop, send it to you, and have it returned.  I think the option of having a box sent is a good idea, but should not be mandatory.  Just my optinion.

Thank you and have a good day.

mreigle

[shoe_120]

Hi guys. I too ran into this problem 2days ago. Last year I got my mother board changed because the wrongly desiged mother board 42W7653(the screen would freeze when gaming). Two days ago, I turned on the T61p as usual and it showed one long beep and two short beep. I searched the syptom and found I'm not alone on this issue. Now I figure the only way to solve the problem is to get the mother board changed AGAIN!!!! I will update the post when the issue is solved. Now my biggest concern is that I will have to change the mother board again in the future...........

[mreigle]

Same thing on mine.  One long beep, two short beeps.  Nothing but a black screen.  LCD lights up but no HD activity.  LCD on right of machine (under DVDRW) lights up.

Still waiting on my box so I can send my paperweight of a laptop.  Hopefully it will come today.  I called on Thursday and today is Monday.  If Lenovo let me mail the machine to them myself instead of waiting for their stupid box, they would have gotten it Friday (at the latest Saturday) and I would be waiting for them to fix and ship it back.  Instead, I'm still waiting on the **bleep** box to get here.

[ultragc]

All,

I posted a similar issue (http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T_Series_Thinkpads&thread.id=37796) before I saw this this thread.  Similar to others, I am experiencing the same issue.  The only different is that I didn't notice any post beep sounds.  Wonder if anyone have resolved their issues with Lenovo?

Thanks

[jonram]

I have the exact same problem as drjoestan but with a Quadro FX 570M (and no warranty). The odd part is that it has happened to various people in recent days, as if it was meant to be.

It will be a disappointment for me to have to pay that amount of money specially if the laptop looks as good as new.

I've always been arrogant when I talk about IBM/Lenovo products, saying they're one of the best, but this kind of situation is a sad one.

Shame on you Lenovo and nVidia, you can't do this to loyal customers.