Fixing an IBM T40 with no Video (In North Vancouver)

For fixing the T42 Thinkpad with red screen, I bought a LCD from a T40. The seller gave me the LCD together with the T40 which had video problem. Unfortunately, the LCD screen had several white spots that I could not use but the T40 gave me the chance to rebuild it.

When fixing another T42 which had video on external monitor but not on LCD screen, I bought a new LCD screen for it. The original LCD had backlight burnt out. From the LCD screen with white spots, I took out the backlight and put it into the T42 LCD screen.

Out of the lot of 5 hard drives that I bought, one had bad sectors but still usable.

I got all the parts but the T40 motherboard required reflow. I did it on 25Sep2011 with all the steps that I used on HP.

I used the AC adapter from the T42 with red screen. I powered up the T40 and tried to install the IBM Preload image to it. The recovery did not run through because of hard drive error. I switched to Ubuntu OS. Although Ubuntu reported hard disk problems detected, it allowed me to continue the installation. When the Ubuntu desktop came out, I found that the LCD screen also had a bright arc near the bottom right hand corner.

For this T40 which had LCD screen defect, no CD/DVD drive and failing hard drive, I did not sell it but used it at home for connecting to TV and audio system. The original wireless was 802.11b. I upgraded it to 802.11g. It provides wireless access and feeding video and audio to TV and audio system. With a wireless mouse, I could enjoy videos in a 46" TV screen.

On 12Jan2012, it started having video problem occasionally. I did another reflow at the back of the GPU on 30Jan2012. It works again. I replaced the hard drive and loaded the IBM PRELOAD partition. When I open the T40 again, the the power shut down switch on the screen cable got loosen. I tried to replace the cable by another one. It brew the fuse and the T40 could not be powered on.

I checked all the fuses and located the shorted one. The fuse is very small. I tried three times to get the fuse from old motherboard before I could get one. I soldered the fuse to the T40 and it works gain. Instead of changing the screen cable, I just fixed the little power shut off switch.

It was picked up by an artist for a low price as broken laptop on 23Feb2012.