Problem with T42, hmm...

After 1.5 years of extreme use'n'abuse of my T42 and never having a problem, just found a huge problem today and curious if anybody seen the same. All of sudden in a middle of my work, the screen start "running down" with color lines and display went blank, only "z" status light (below LCD screen) stayed on. After rebooting the system, it came back up to WinXP with a message about "System recovered from a sever error", I clicked OK and than 30 seconds later screen went blank again. I shut down laptop for 15-20 minutes to give it a break since I had it on for the whole day. Later power it up again and even hooked an external monitor to make sure its not a problem with LCD display ribbon cable connector. Still had that intermittent problem with "running" color lines on screen and than everything going blank. Now, its constantly goes blank after the bootup and 30-40 second use. I called IBM tech support and I will have to send my laptop back for checkup/repair. To me, this looks like a video card problem to me. The similar things happend to me with desktop video card. And, since I have ATI Radeon 9600 Mobile with T42, this could be similar?

So, what do you guys think? Has anybody had anything similar with their Thinkpad? Does this sound like video card problem or the mobo?

 

My hard drive crashed, but that is about it. Make sure you have backups or take the hard drive out before sending it off if you don't want to lose any data.

 

So, I assume nobody else had anything similar? Now, I'm thinking its probably a mobo problem, cause laptop boots-up/warms-up, works for 4-5 minutes and than goes blank Waiting to get a shippment box today to arrive to send it back for repair...

 

Guess what Twister, I have the exact same problem that you have and ironically, it just started to happen out of nowhere with my Thinkpad T42 about a day ago. All of the sudden my screen will go blank and the harddrive stops, and all I get is the Z indicator just like you said. When it first happend I turned my computer off and then restarted it and it worked for about 30 min to an hour, then it went off again. However, today it won't even stay on for 5 minutes. The problem, whatever it is, has gotten worse.

I just called IBM and they are sending UPS to pick up my computer on Monday for repair. I'm a lot like you in that I use my ThinkPad all the time, probably at least 8 hours/day. I've had it for about 1.5 years or so.

 

I've been reading other posts on this site now and it look like some other customers are having problems similar to ours. I wonder why our motherboards are failing at around the same time? Is it just coincidence or did IBM just order a bad batch when they made our computers?

 

"" did IBM just order a bad batch when they made our computers?""

No, it is by design. Bad batch would not fail at the same time. Yet, it might happen, it was developed and incorporated into the bios to make sure IBM stays up the top of everyone's list for service and support of their own customers. They knew they would sell laptop to someone else, so to once more say they are the bestest out there they had to make sure their last product will turn customers to them in the future for whatever product they will come out with no matter what it might be. They will fix your problem and will mention that you are the best customer they have and would like to have you back for more. All of the older models have no such issues, so guess you are the lucky ones ;o)

PS: sarcasm.

 

The same thing happened to me this week. The screen would blink a few times a day then boom, it's done. I got it on long enough to run diagnostics and found no problem which led IBM to believe that i need a new motherborad...after NINE MONTHS!! However, I called this morning and the new motherboard arrived this afternoon...talk about fast service. The IBM technician is coming tomorrow to install it. Hopefully it works.

 

Hello there, I am a new user on this forum and the reason I joined is because I have been having problems lately with my t42 notebook. Just recently I had my logic board replaced and now after only 3 days since being fix it is expierencing more problems. When i try to turn it on the computer all it does is show the "z" button and the battery light. This is becoming frustrating since i have had the computer since august of '05 and only until recently it has been behaving eradically. I was just wonderning since others have been having similar problems, what you did to solve this problem?