[ltp] T41: garbled screen

[Eben King]

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005, Alex Deucher wrote:

> On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 21:21:59 +0100, Paul Bolle <pebolle@tiscali.nl> wrote:
> > 
> > 1) I recently purchased a T41 (model 2373-9FG) with a 14.1" 1400x1050
> > screen and (as far as I know) an ATI Mobility RADEON 9000 graphics card.
> > 
> > 2) On this T41 I installed Fedora Core 3. I do not dual boot with some
> > other OS.
> > 
> > 3) Every now and then the screen of this T41 is totally garbled. This
> > happens directly after starting this T41: even the BIOS splash screen is
> > unreadable! I more or less have to guess what is happening when it boots
> > and log in and do a poweroff "blind". The screen can stay garbled for a
> > number of boots and then (seemingly random) it will be just fine right
> > from the start. Quite annoying, to put it mildly.
> > 
> > 4) Has anyone experienced similar problems?
> > 
> > 5) Is there any chance this is not a hardware problem (I'm guessing a
> > faulty graphics card) but somehow related to my Fedora Core 3 setup?
> 
> Sounds like hardware to me. especially if is persists across power cycles.

And occurs in the BIOS after a cold boot.  However, if you send it back to 
IBM for service, back up everything important first.  The first thing they 
will want to do is wip the hard drive and make it "as from the factory" 
fresh, even though enny fule no it's not the lack of XP that's the problem.

-- 
-eben    ebQenW1@EtaRmpTabYayU.rIr.OcoPm    home.tampabay.rr.com/hactar
VIRGO:  All Virgos are extremely friendly and intelligent - except
for you.  Expect a big surprise today when you wind up with your
head impaled upon a stick.  -- Weird Al, _Your Horoscope for Today_