My neighbor has an IBM R40 Thinkpad that was left on the couch with a pillow on top of it while he was at work. Now of course this caused it to overheat and discolor the LCD then shut off and now won't restart completely. What happens is the monitor comes on and then shuts down again but the drives spin and all.

Now my opinion is it a power supply issue and it can't put out enough to run everything plus the monitor...basically FUBAR'd.

So if you have an idea lets hear it.

 

Hook up an external monitor to it and switch the screen from the notepad screen to the external monitor(Hot keys. Function + one of the F keys)

I'm guessing PSU, or mobo got too hot and warped/fried some components.


Edit: But yeah. If the PSU is gone and the screen is messed up, ditch it. Screens are expensive. For that one its from 250-300.

 

Yeah he says he did that and it booted for a sec then turned off the same way.

That is my guess as well.

 

Could also be the video card.

Most laptops have a sensor that will shut it down before it gets hot enough to do any damage.

 

did he let it sit and cool off before resetting?

 

I dunno it has been sitting around for a month or two since it happened so my guess is it has cooled :chuckles:

He is just trying to figure out how not to have to buy another but I think he is s.o.l. without sending it out for big repairs.

 

How much is the laptop worth in working order? Is it relatively new?

 

No I think it's worth about 200 right now in working order he is just crying because he spent 600 on it 4 years ago or something.

 

Laptops = 3-4 years of life

It wouldn't be worth changing a harddrive for that, much less a new screen, PSU, video card, or Mobo.