Member Avatar for rameneater90

Alright, my Thinkpad T60 decided to stop booting. I've tried all the obvious already. Anyway, when I start it up, it shuts down in 3 seconds. All the lights act normal, but no display. To get it to boot again, I need to remove the A/C and the battery. When I plug in the external VGA, it boots like normal. If I hit FN+F7 (LCD/External toggle), it powers off. What could the cause be? I was thinking a shorted out ribbon, are blown fuse or a faulty LCD, but it may be something else. Thanks in advance.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by mcdsavid01

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Nice troubleshooting so far — the blown SMD on the 3.3V LCD feed that found explains the symptom (machine senses a short and cuts out; it will run with an external VGA because that path does not load the failed LCD rail). Below is a practical, safe workflow to finish the repair and make sure the fuse doesn't just blow again.

  • Verify and isolate first: confirm the part is an open fuse with a DMM (continuity/low-ohms). With battery/AC removed, disconnect the LCD cable and recheck the fuse pads on the motherboard — if the board is fine with the panel unplugged, the fault is likely in the panel/cable. Inspect the LCD connector and flex for corrosion, pin damage or crushed wires; these are common causes of repeated fuse failure.

  • Replacement procedure (with a rework station): identify the fuse package and current rating and buy an identical SMD fuse. Use ESD protection, flux, fine tip iron or hot air, and magnification. Clean pads, pre-tin or tack one pad, place the new fuse with tweezers and finish the joint. Keep heat/time minimal to avoid damaging nearby components. After soldering, clean flux residue and inspect for bridges.

  • Safe testing: on first power-up, use a bench supply set to 3.3V with a current limit (start low, e.g. 0.1–0.5 A) or use the laptop power but be ready to cut power if it trips. Do initial tests with the LCD disconnected; only connect the LCD after the 3.3V rail is stable. If the new fuse blows immediately, do not replace repeatedly — that means a downstream short (panel, inverter, chafed cable or shorted component).

  • Warnings and options: avoid permanently jumpering the fuse (piggybacking removes protection and risks further damage) — a temporary jumper can be used only for controlled diagnostics with current limiting. If replacement is fiddly or the fuse continues to fail, replacing the whole LCD assembly or using a known-good panel is often faster. If uncertain, take it to a board-level repair shop as suggested.

This approach focuses on finding the root cause (panel/cable vs. board) rather than just swapping fuses and should prevent repeat failures.

Recommended Answers

All 22 Replies

Member Avatar for jingda

Have you see this except it is not a lenovo thinkpad laptop

Edited by jingda because: n/a
Member Avatar for flagstar

Can you get at least boot into BIOS?
If so, might be either windows fault or something else...

Member Avatar for rameneater90

I can get into the BIOS on the external VGA. Windows loads while on external. Again, it doesn't even start without the VGA cable.

Member Avatar for flagstar

so now you can't boot normally except plug in external vga and it would boot normally...

sounds like you got monitor faulty (internal)

Member Avatar for rameneater90

I was thinking that, but even without the internal LCD plugged in and the external VGA in, it fails when I hit FN+F7, so I think it might also be something else. Any suggestions?

Member Avatar for sahityacm

your problem looks like there earthing short circuit internally.
It could happen due to watter fall on lappy or due to ants sitting inside lappy.
So its better that you give it for the repair.

Member Avatar for jingda

Er, how can Ants be inside your laptop cause the problem?

@ rameneater90
Your problem is your laptop will shut down after 3 seconds it is turn on, right? And you said you have to remove battery and power cord to book again. What do you mean by that? When you say plug in the VGA do you mean VGA connector?

1) Reset your Bios settings first and see whether you can boot up normally.
2) Is your power supply voltage set correctly for the laptop/

Member Avatar for sahityacm

Why not ants be inside, due to the flex inside lappy ants will attract in it.
and I faced same problem and rectified
that problem comes due to the internal lappy board tracks (On SMB PCB)

Member Avatar for jingda

Beep codes can help you identify the problem better. Unfortunately the problem you stated is a bit broad.


I need to know what steps you have try to resolve the problem. Hope to hear a reply soon

Member Avatar for rameneater90

No post beeps. No signs of any damage on the board (including ants xD). I meant a VGA cable, the one on the exterior of the laptop. So, a clearer version of what happens:

If there is a external monitor plugged in, it boots to the external monitor, no problems. If I try to use the key combination to switch to the internal, it powers off and it won't respond to the power button until the battery or/and AC have been removed and plugged in again. If there is no external monitor, it just shuts down after a couple of seconds and then, it won't respond to the power button again.

The steps i've already taken are:
-Diagnostics on external monitor, all parts passed.
-It doesn't boot with barebones (mobo,keyboard,ribbon,lcd,cpu,heatsink)
-Reset power, drain capasitator.

It's not dead, but it's turned itself into a desktop. Thanks, I really hope I can fix this. Just so you guys know, you don't have to write your responses in simple terms, I can understand 'tech' language :)

Member Avatar for flagstar

It could be that your driver for internal monitor is missing/corrupt. That may explain why it won't boot your monitor normally and perhaps generic pnp monitor has been change to default by mistake...

It could be anything including BIOS setting...

One more question... or maybe two...
is your problem already solved?

Member Avatar for rameneater90

I booted from external disk, no change, it can't even start up with internal only. Problem isn't solved yet, but I bought a new LCD ribbon, I'll let you know the results.

Member Avatar for tigerbright

ok , if the replacement video signal cable does not work, i suggest update the BIOS driver as this may have become corrupted, so overwriting the firmware may correct the errors

Member Avatar for rameneater90

Alright, I found the cause of my problems, a blown fuse. Only problem now, is that it's less than 1/2 cm long, and is soldered to the mobo. Any ideas on how I can replace it? I was considering piggybacking it. The fuse is 3.3v, which provides the power to the LCD. Thanks.

Member Avatar for flagstar

If you don't have enough experience in handling such task (moreover if it was neatly soldered), just send it to local repair shop and they'll do it for you.

You don't want to mess up more than it would have right now...

Member Avatar for rameneater90

Alright, I'm going to repair this myself, I have access to a rework station and fuses, should hopefully be enough. Thanks :)

Member Avatar for tigerbright

Hi - you have isolated the problem as being directly or indirectly an onboard display issue but is it a software or hardware device fault ?
To test your computer you can run a Ubuntu linux operating system in live/try first mode
This is a non-micr0s0ft tamed for home-system owner freeware operating system based upon enterprise Unix concepts
Unix has around since day one of computing and Linux has been in development for many years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
You can create a self booting dvd or cd disk via distributable iso file download which can be booted using try mode which creates a virtual drive in system memory space - ram memory
running in try mode will not alter any current c-drive (hard disk drive) files
Now presuming would normally boot ok if the computer works as normal then is most likely a Windows driver/system file issue but if it remains the same then is most likely a hardware device incl power supply related issue

However would have been much better to have run this before any problem to ensure boots ok - as does not support some chipset/device combinations (ie could not get one distro to boot on an acer sk50)

To create a self booting disk just download the iso file and burn to a cd or dvd disk using iso burning mode or order the disk online or via pc auction sites for a few dollars

http://www.ubuntu.com/

works well once procedures are sorted - using Ubuntu try mode now to write and send this reply

Member Avatar for rameneater90

I know what Ubuntu is, a fuse is blown, causing the PSU to detect a short in the machine. Therfore not booting :(

Member Avatar for tigerbright

ok , now we both know

Member Avatar for mcdsavid01

Laptop may also be stored internally, or may exist only until the next power-down

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