[ltp] broken graphics hardware on ThinkPad A30

[Tino Keitel]

On Mon, Aug 16, 2004 at 23:49:17 +0200, Martin Hermanowski wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 16, 2004 at 11:11:04PM +0200, Tino Keitel wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> > 
> > some weeks ago I noticed blue graphics errors while movie playback
> > on my A30. I found out that it's not a software but a hardware
> > failure. Pressing on a certain place on the bottom of the case will
> > chage the look of the graphics error or sometimes make it go away.
> > 
> > Later I also noticed errors in firefox (misplaced rendering areas),
> > wmaker menus and the mouse pointer. The machine still runs
> > absolutely stable, only the graphics is trashed. Since sometimes
> > the errors show up in the BIOS, it is not a driver problem.
> > 
> > Has anyone else heard of such things? I think the only way to fix
> > it is to let the motherboard replaced, which will cost me ~780 EUR,
> > but maybe there is a more simple solution.
> 
> I had exactly the same error on an A30. Using the VESA-Driver makes the
> system usable again, but since the problems increase by and by, I cannot
> say how for how long.

Hum, it looks like only some hardware acceleration parts of the
graphics are broken (video overlay, blitter, hardware cursor etc.).
When I don't use video overlay for watching movies (mplayer -vo x11),
there are no blue graphics errors.

Yesterday, I disassambled it completly and discovered that there is
some kind of spacer at the point where I had pressed on the bottom of
the case, and it's also just beside the Radeon chip. I connected a
monitor to the RGB out and the hard disk and the keyboard to the naked
board, booted and the errors didn't show up. It looks like as soon as
the spacer in the case touches the motherboard, it will destroy the
graphics. Maybe there is a little chance to fix it.

Regards,
Tino