Re: screen goes black
> > loose. It's nothing to be concerned with at all. It's directly related
> > to how many times you drop or squeeze the case in your bookbag. =)
> >
> > Simply moving the screen on it's hinge will sometimes be enough, and
> > other times you may need to press the sides of the screen casing
> > together gently and it should work.
> >
> > If all else fails you'll have to take it apart and do some reconnecting
> > or even replace a cracked screen.
Can't be this, he reports video restores when he only takes software actions.
However, just to note, IBM is pretty friendly about repairing things, so if
time heads onwards and you do get "aging" problems like this, he has a much
better chance than most of being able to get repairs.
When considering repairing rather than replacing, factor in how expensive the
repairs will be, how easy it would be to find a repair depot who any idea
what this hardware is, and whether other general features of this laptop are
"in style" so it would be easier to purchase a logical replacement. E.g.
my magio has an unusually small form factor and a full set of ports, small
notebooks have just come back into fashion and most of the mini's don't have
decent ports. So that feature is hard to replace.
> > I haven't used that exact model of thinkpad, but I can asure you it's a
> > common thing. Laptops aren't made to last very long. I've had maybe 3
> > in 2 years, so it's important you can repair them so that you can resell
> > them to buy newer, faster ones.
>
> No it is definately not a wiring issue. The entire screen goes blank but any
> text being displayed appears. So if I keep typing then anything I type
> appears, but the rest of the screen stays blank until I take some action to
> cause a re-draw (IE switching virtual terminals or scrolling a text-mode
> screen).
>
> This is some sort of software issue.
I suspect screen saving features? Under X (Xfree86 3.3.6) this is controlled
by using xset to turn off (or restrict) dpms settings. I'm pretty sure that
the console driver knows how to honor these too. But you might also be able
to adjust the feature in your cmos/bios screen, with some power saving entry
about blacking out the screen when things seem idle. After all, it could be
quite delusional about what makes "idle" when it's probably only been tested
under That Other OS...
* Heather Stern * star@ many places...
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