Talk:Problem with video related system lockup II

My T42 (type 2378-EXU) exhibited pretty much the problem described in the technostate link discussion - sudden blank screen, hard reboot required to clear up. One long - two short beep POST code sometimes on reboot. Happened more often after warm-up. Screen blanking happened after random flexing of the laptop - lid open/close, twist frame, press or squeeze on palm rest area. After reading the technostate discussion on the graphics chip (an ATI 9600 in a ball grid array (BGA) package), finding a similar discussion about problems with the graphics chip on mac ibooks, and concluding that it was hardware by proving that the problem still occurred at first BIOS boot screen with laptop disassembled as far as possible, I began to look for a solution. Out of warranty, so the $$$ for a new system board was hard to swallow. Heat gun rambo seemed like a low probability of success route. I dug around and found a repair house (http://www.protronics-inc.com) in our area that could handle BGA reflow work. I scheduled a visit, broke the T42 down to the system board, and took it in. They worked on it about an hour (2 x reflow, video scope, xray = $75). On inspection, the BGA solder did look odd on one side, with the balls looking more like two half silver balls squashed together, rather than the more appropriate single half-ball. I took the board back home and reassembled the T42. It booted up with no errors and passed all the pc-doctor diagnostics. I Flexed the laptop a bit with no problems. Woohoo! So far, no glitches since 12/5/2006 in daily normal use (boot, suspend, open/close, travel to work & back).

Had the reflow failed, the wisdom at the board house was to get a new system board, as the problem could be a bad connection pretty much anywhere.