X200 Graphic Issue

Tried to search, but couldn't find anything, too many links about graphic cards.

I have a x200 that was purchased several months back and have love the little guy. But I have run into an issue.

The computer boots up and runs perfectly fine, but the graphics are screwed up. This graphics issue occurs during the boot screen and persist through windows and ubuntu. The issue is that text on the screen looks ghost and black pixels seem to have been replaced with green ones. Pure white pixels also seem to have been replaced with magenta.

What is wrong with my laptop?

 

does this problem occur on external lcd?

try to uninstall the LCD driver and the graphics driver, and let it reinstall. Did you do anything like installing new hardware or software recently before this problem occured?

Also, what do you see in the bios menu? does the image also have problem?

Your problem indicates a problem either with the LCD or GPU. Do you have warranty that you can use?

 

Going to attempt to reinstall the graphics drivers, but this issue occurs in both ubuntu and windows 7. The issue persist in bios.

I will try with an external monitor when I get home.

As for warranty, I have the one year limited:
"This product has a one year limited warranty and is entitled to EZServ/Depot service. Customers may call their local service center for more information. Dealers may provide carry-in repair for this product."

 

if it's in ubuntu and win7 AND in bios, it's almost definitely a hardware problem

time to use your warranty!

 

i would highly recommend that anyone whom is experiencing problem at the end of 1 year warranty, to extend their current warranty to 3 years. The reason been is that sometimes the depot can be bit slow is dealing with warranty repair, where there are large parts (i.e. LCD, motherboard, etc) need to be replaced. And there is also the chance that you may need to send the laptop to the depot more than once to fix the issue.

its only 100 odd USD for a 1 to 3 years warranty extension, so it is a good investment for a piece of mind.

 

It's 99 USD, but I have to agree, that's a good price for such an extended warranty, it's very well worth it IMHO.

 

Yea, I think I am going to extend my warranty. Just not especially happy with the fact that I have to now go figure out the warranty process 2 weeks before finals.

Any tips on making the whole process go faster?

 

Did you try using an external monitor? Coincidentally, this just happened to mine too in which the whole screen turned very white as if the brightness has been increased 10x. However I can still plug an external monitor and it works fine.

It happened a few months ago and it turned red. The Lenovo guys came twice, coulnd't figure out what happened, and concluded that it was a software problem which I have to do a clean reinstall. I did and it happened again even though I did not install any new software/driver!

 

you have a grace period of one month after warranty expires to extend the warranty. And the repair date starts on the date that you call in about the problem, even if your warranty expires, you can still get warranty repair on this problem, just need to use the first quote number for the previous repair (tell them that it was not properly repaired).

But for 100 USD i think it is quite cheap for an one to three year warranty upgrade, when you would spend that much for the courier fee for two way transport to the depot.

Warranty needs to be extended through Lenovo customer service, and not Lenovo warranty services. It usually takes 2 to 4 weeks to go through.

Right now just call Lenovo and initiate the repair process.

try to backdate or update the bios. Also does this problem occur in bios mode or safe mode or in recovery console?

 

lead_org, just finished chatting with the customer service. The guy was very patient and via remote access for about 10-15 mins he concluded it was not a software problem. Drivers and bios are all up to date. I even uninstalled a few drivers yesterday as I thought it was a conflicting issue but nothing happened.

I am not sure if it's the BIOS problem as when the first time it occured, I was using an older BIOS. The recent update was in late Dec and the problem occured agian.

They are sending the hardware guy tomorrow and see what happens. Hopefully they wont say the hardware is working fine and ask me to reinstall again.

 

Anyone has any ideas?