New T410 Internal LCD Issue

Well...I decided to take the plunge and get my first Thinkpad. I was looking for a durable, high performance, relatively long battery life machine and settled on the T410 with the 9 cell. I'm hoping that I won't come to regret that decision...

I've had the machine for about a month and suddenly the internal LCD no longer displays a picture. The backlight still comes on but the LCD doesn't display anything. If I connect an external monitor to the VGA port I can get my picture as usual. What is particularly strange is that the internal LCD doesn't show up as a device in windows. It isn't present in the Nvidia control panel, nor does it appear in the Lenovo PC Doctor system information page. It's as though the internal LCD magically disconnected.

I've hardly used the machine and I'm fairly frustrated that my new, high quality Thinkpad is now unusable. Obviously sending it back to Lenovo is an option but I need it and don't want to wait a month for them to send it back. I also don't want to end up with some refurbished replacement so I'd like to explore fixing it.

The only think I can think of is an option I saw in the bios to choose between internal display, external display or internal+external display. I've never touched this setting but if it were somehow set to external-display only, would that cause the internal LCD to disappear as a device?

Does any one know how to reset a bios to defaults from windows or through some kind of key combination? I can't get into the bios on the external monitor because the external LCD is only initiated once I get to windows.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

this problem could be either due to cable, LCD or the motherboard. In any rate, you would need to send it in for repair.

 

All good possibilities and I'll probably end up sending it in but I'm still curious about the bios. Can anyone confirm that there is an option in the Bios to exclusively use an external monitor? Anyone have an idea on resetting to defaults without actually accessing the bios screen?

 

You can try a few things before sending it for repairs:
1) Open it and re-seat the LCD cable/s.
2) Re-flash the BIOS with the latest version (from a bootable CD/DVD/USB, not from windows).
3) Re-set the BIOS by disconnecting the BIOS battery for about a minute.
*** for 1) and 3) you can use maintenance guides from Lenovo for reference.

Also, just in case, try a power drain:
Unplug the power cord, remove the battery pack, press and hold the power button for 20-30sec, insert the battery again, plug the power cord and see if it helps.

Good luck.