Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

Infrequent visitor here because I an not a PC enthusiast but have appreciated the ruggedness of my ThinkPads at work and at home.

My T61, type 6466-9MG, which I bought about 2010 as new-old-stock, has developed a graphics issue. The screen apprears to be flickering, in brightness, and between its normal resolution and a poorer version of the same (I have just notice this occurs when I try to do something - move the cursor, scroll down, type etc.). Along with that, the cursor has become draggy, sticky and unresponsive and, when the typing, there is a delay to the characters appears on screen (it is best not to look as it forces mistakes). A colour stripe, magenta with intermittent cyan, has appeared across the top of the screen.

It never was a great graphics performer - I think that is normal? - but I am not that demanding, as long as I stay away from photo editing.

The machine took a bit of a tumble last week but the issue only occured in the last 24 hours. It was originally supplied with Vista 32. I switched to Win7 Professional 64 a long time ago.

My apologies for not searching previous threads but using the PC for in depth searching and reading has become uncomfortable.

(I have just found that connecting to another monitor vis SVGA, and running duplicate screen, the problem does not occur on the external monitor whilst remaining on the integrated screen.

With thanks in advance for and advice and help,

Yours is the 15.4" widescreen model, with WXGA (1280x800) screen.
If you are happy with using the external monitor, leave things be.
From your description you definitely need to replace the LCD, and while you're at it, also the inverter.
You now have the option to upgrade to WSXGA+ (1680x1050) or WUXGA (1920x1200).
Get the manual from the HMM link above, it has all the parts and how-to in it.

Thank you. At least that sounds fixable; I had feared the graphics processor after first google so trying the monitor, and your response, reassured me. The poor old thing has been a good work horse.

Away from work, I hardly ever sit at a monitor so I shall look into the new screen but I might retire it for a while. I do have another, a W500 (IIRC) that I also bought NOS in 2017, and updated to Windows 7 64 from Vista 32. I shall need to wait for lockdown to lift to retrieve it from storage at my friend's house pending house move. Meanwhile, I shall need to order a new screen inverter for that too; the first one failed early on and the replacement didn't last either - perhaps it wasn't a good one. Do you know of a reliable supplier? I am in the UK so local-ish would be good.

Other offences to be taken into account:
One consequence of the Windows 7 builds on both machines (they were clean builds because of the 32 to 64 bit upgrade, onto SSD) is that I was not able to get the docking station working despite installing the full driver pack from the Lenovo support site. I know it is only useful with a monitor but I liked to use my plasma screen (I like old-tech) to scroll through my digital music library.

Thanks again.

Bumblesale on eBay is in the UK (with free shipping), he got e.g. this: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/231519227370
They've been around many years.
LCD fits both T61 and W500.

These inverters from parts_justlaptops also fit both: https://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... r&_sacat=0
Get them before they are gone!