Windows only works in VGA Mode.

My problems started right after I opened up my Laptop to clean the fan, so clearly I did something, but I can't figure out what.

I have a Lenovo T60. The cooling fan had been making noise for a while. The other day I got an error message saying "Fan Error" and my computer wouldn't boot. I waited a few minutes and tried again and it booted up this time, but after a little while the fan started to make a lot of noise so I shut it down. I decided before I buy a new fan I would try cleaning this one and hopefully that would fix the problem.

I followed directions I found online and in the Hardware Manual. I opened up my T60, took out the fan and sprayed it with compressed air to clean it. (I've read you shouldn't do this. Could it be bad for the fan?) I also sprayed and blew with my mouth in few other places where there was a lot of dust. I put everything back together and turned on my computer.

Immediately I saw trouble. The screen had a green line going down the right side and there were dotted lines behind the windows logo and any words. After continuing with the start up, the screen eventually goes black. I'm pretty sure the computer's fine it's just the image on the screen is black. That's when I got the "NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error" message. I've turned my computer on a few times since and I haven't seen that message since, but I also haven't been able to get past the start up without the screen going blank.

I tried starting in Safe Mode and that worked fine. I then tried booting up in VGA Mode and that works too. When in VGA Mode the screen looks fine. No lines or dot's where they shouldn't be at all. As soon as I try to increase the resolution, though, the screen goes black again.

Does anyone have any ideas what I could have done to cause this problem? And any ideas how to fix it. I've tried taking out the RAM and putting it back in and there was no change in behavior.

Thanks,

Steve

 

Steve,
I'm sorry you were caught. Whatever is wrong is not fixable by you. It's time to think about sending it in sans disk. Before you do though, try a memory check. I'm a vista user so I don't feel right about telling XP users guidance on the machines.

Renee

 

Thanks for responding Renee.

I'm pretty sure you're right that I will have to get it looked at professionally. Do you have any guess what you think could be wrong given the symptoms? What could I have done that would leave the computer working seemingly fine except the graphics card can no longer handle anything greater than VGA?