Strange display problem with T41 when i press around keyboard etc.

I recently started using a borrowed T41 from one of my European colleagues. I had to swap the keyboard to a US keyboard and the drive for me to be able to use it. I had to do these a couple of times for me to get the right setup. I have been using the laptop fine for a month or so. Yesterday after I hooked it up with my office docking station and started working, I suddenly start to see intermittent flickering or 'disturbances' in the middle of the screen. It would be there for a brief period and then go away for a while. Later in the day I had suspended the laptop and brought it home. When i tried to start it I noticed the display is not coming, even though I can hear the fan running and I am able to open the CD bay. I had no idea if the boot screen was up or not. After a number of restart attempts I was able to get it working. but then i noticed if I press on the top surface area of laptop , in and around the keyboard I would mess up the display. Even changing the angle of the screen would mess it up and the screen would flicker and either freeze or go black. At that point I would just have to reboot.

Once I got the laptop to somehow start ok with the display working, then my best option seems to be not to rest my palm on anywhere on the surface and not to move the laptop much. I just touch the keyboard with my fingers and nothing else.

So has something come loose inside when I replaced the keyboard and the drive ? The unusual thing is this problem did not show up for a while since I changed these. But I also took couple of international trips last week with this laptop. May be something happened during the flights.

Any ideas about where to start looking would be most welcome.

many thanks
d

 

Sashimi3,

Did you ever get a reply to your post or find an answer? I have had the same problem for the past year and I really just gave up on it. My t41 is now a "desktop" with an external keyboard and mouse, though I would really like to be able to use it as a laptop again.

I have opened up the keyboard a couple of times and suspected this cable to plugs into a slot in the middle area (I can't remember right now, but maybe the mouse cable). However, inspecting it, it does not appear to be that loose or missing pins or anything.

By the way, I own a T41 from about 3.5 years ago. Purchased refurbished but in excellent condition. I traveled around with it a lot for the first two years, but one day it got sat accidentally by a friend and the LCD shattered. I ordered a replacement and installed it myself. Maybe a few months later I tried turning on the computer one day to see only a black screen (despite, as you say, hearing the fan and basically seeing power going to the unit). Pressing around the space bar and 'v' 'b' key areas seems to do the trick!

 

No I did not get any ideas to followup on. I was hoping to take it to a servicing center. It is basically sitting around. I am not sure an external keybpard would help. I did try to hook up and external monitor and i see the same thing. But I did not hook up an external keyboard. However after hooking up the external monitor I am not sure it will help because I think something is messing up the normal operation of the mobo. It is odd how suddenly this happened without any apparent reason.

I have a T40 which has a somewhat similar problem where the lcd display cant stay on for more than few minutes or may be 10 min at most sometimes. If I hook up an external monitor then it stays on fine. if I suspend and come back out then the lcd display turns on for few minutes then it is gone again. I am guessing some lcd connector or circuitry is messed up. may be putting in a new panel would help. Not sure how easy or hard it is for me to do it myself.