T61 dead / blank screen?

So today I tried to wake up my t61 from sleep. I hear all the sounds and can even log in with my fingerprint but the screen is blank. I tried restarting it and I hear it booting up but I can't even see the post screen. Another weird thing is that I can't seem to make it go to sleep again when I'm logged in and press fn+f4. Oh and I can see the backlight lit up.

A few days ago, I replaced my fan and applied some new thermal paste but it has been working fine until now. I have done this before so I don't think I screwed anything up. Could my nvidia gpu be dead?

I would appreciate any insight as I'm in a foreign country now with no laptop

 

I would try and connect to an external monitor if you have the chance to see if the NVIDIA chip had really given up. Normally the system will post some beeps indicating the GPU had gone but from your description there seem to be a small chance of something being dislodged from the system when you reapplied the paste a few days ago. It wouldn't hurt to back track the steps again and ensure all the connectors are tightened up.

 

Ugh hooked it up to a monitor and there are lines everywhere. I think the gpu might be dead.

 

Yeah those are the signs of a dead NVIDIA GPU i'm afraid. Really sorry to hear that, the timing is unfortunate as Lenovo just finished their extended warranties for systems with the faulty NVIDIA chips, its a lottery to when the GPU on these system finally gives up.

 

Can you give me more details about this extended warranty? Maybe I can still email them and see if they'll do anything...

This is ridiculous. I don't want to have to (can't afford to) buy a new laptop in Germany, and it's like 200+ to buy a new motherboard.

Thanks

 

This was posted by Mark@Lenovo at the official Lenovo forums, though the deadline for the extended warranty period was 31st March 2011.

 

Laptop motherboards are highly specialized and since you can only source them from a few places, they tend to be expensive. A new board is probably the only thing that'll fix it. I'd suggest getting one with the Intel GPU. The 140m is old and if you put in another one, it's a problem waiting to happen.

You've got a laptop that's now four years old and has served you well. It's not unheard of for things to go bad on a four year old laptop. It sucks, but it's best to plan for these eventualities. I feel your pain, but there's not a lot of good options in this case.

 

As it's been stated, that is the classic symptom of the Nvidia GPU failure. If you like your machine, I would get one with the Intel Crestline integrated graphics or just flat out buy a new machine (T400 can go for 350-400 on Ebay still in warranty).

 

Yeah...thanks guys. I don't know if it's even worth it to fix this. I don't think it is.

 

And am I retarded, or can you not PM someone on the Lenovo forum? Trying to PM Mark, as it says to do in his post, but I swear there is no way to PM anyone on that forum.