Fixing a Dead IBM T41 (In Surrey)

I picked up this IBM T41 on 25Nov2011 which was listed "Comes with AC adapter, no HD. Issue might be with the mainboard, a fan, or possibly the ribbon connector the display. I don't have the time to fix it, maybe you do? "

When I first tested this T41, it did not have video display. The motherboard worked in another T42. I suspected that the backlight was gone and ordered one for it. When the backlight came a month later, I powered on this T41. It displayed the IBM Logo. So, the problem was not on the backlight. When I used it more, the video disappeared. When it was booted up again, it gave 1 long beep and 2 short beeps. It indicated GPU failure.

I did a reflow on the GPU on 31Dec2011 and tested several rounds of boot up. The beeps were gone. I put in a 60G hard drive which has one bad sector. I tested the wireless and ran several Youtube videos. When it was working, I removed the old thermal compound on CPU and the dust in the fan. When I booted up the T41 again, it crashed while XP was loading. It flashed a blue screen and shut down in a second that I could not read the error message. I observed that the fan was running the highest speed. It looked like overheating. I took the T41 apart again and readjusted the screws on the fan. This time, the T41 was running good. I continued to run the Youtube videos while battery was charging for over an hour. No problems encountered.

On 12Jan2012, it started having video problem occasionally. I did another reflow at the back of the GPU on 30Jan2012. It works again. In Feb 2012, the video failed again. I bought a working motherboard in March 2012. When it came, I installed it. When the T41 was powered on, it displayed the IBM logo but very dim. I replaced the backlight.

Finally the T41 is working. I installed the drivers from Lenovo website. For the ANATEL wireless card, the driver is under IBM G40 ThinkPad Wireless LAN Adapter Software (11a/b, 11a/b/g). The driver file name is 77wc39ww.exe. I updated the Windows XP to SP3. The motherboard is good.

I have two batteries for it. When charged to 100%, the power meter showed 1.45 hours and 1.33 hours. Over a year of testing, fixing and observing, it is good to serve again.

On 23 April 2013, a student who immigrated from Middle East has picked it up. Knowing that it was for doing his school work, I gave him 10% discount.