[Archived] Ibm Thinkpad T41 Display Driver Problems

[James No. 7]

I have a severe problem with my laptop and I really am stumped on this. It is driving me crazy and there is little way out of it, unless things go my way and I act quickly.

It looks like my display driver has stuffed up. Now what happens most times is that I can't get my laptop going. It turns on, but it is just a blank screen. Using an external monitor does not help.

In the few times it does come on, it usually freezes in too short a time for me to do anything. Sometimes it does get into desktop, but not long enough so far. I know it is a display problem because at one time I got a message about it before it froze.

Now I am hoping that I can get in long enough to fix the problem. That is either my installing a driver I downloaded, or wiping the disk and installing windows. The latter seems the easiest solution with the least potential problems.

A slight problem is that on this laptop I have no idea how that is done. I don't know is the CD/DVD drive boots first, and if not, how to change it. If it does boot first, will my Windows CD just load itself and get me through this problem?

Any, ANY help is appreciated. One driver problem and the whole laptop is rendered useless!

[James No. 7]

I'm formatting the disk as we speak.

I'm still worried as it's going in and out of blackness. I think tilting the laptop may decide whether it is black or normal, so I'm worried it might actually be hardware after all. I'm not worried if the reinstallation turns out to be a waste, because that's the least of my problems.

[James No. 7]

Lines are going through the screen and sometimes blanking out whenever I move the laptop from the bottom right-hand corner. Obviously there is a hardware problem there. It is not blanking out or freezing completely like it once was, but the problem is still there.

Installing these drivers are a pain. I have not installed even one successfully so far.

[James No. 7]

It looks like it might be a motherboard problem. D'oh.

[James No. 7]

Wee. Five consecutive posts. Last one. It's a crack in the video card, which is part of the motherboard, so it looks like the whole thing is stuffed.

Also, I learned there is a way to get a Windows reinstallation by pressing the "Access IBM" at start-up and choosing the "factory default" settings. Wish I knew that at the start. Fixed that part, but the laptop works on and off. It needs to be still on a table and work on start-up to be able to use it for long periods of time. It works best when leant back a bit, rather than forward.