ThinkPad R40 problems

We've been getting a lot of IBM ThinkPad R40 laptops in for repair lately. Some of the issues are easy fixes, some mean the end of the road for the old R40.

Fan Error. We've seen hundreds of R40 laptops over the years but something must be in the air as we had several of these in last week for a "Fan Error". We normally have the fans in stock and they're typically around $99 installed.

Scrambled video, no video or distorted video. This seems to happen most often to the Celeron or P4 versions of the R40. The problem is the ATI graphics chip and it requires a replacement of the motherboard. When the boards are available they're normally around 369 installed. Most people do not opt to get their motherboard replaced but we still replace them to people who need them or want them replaced.

The above two issues are the most common on the R40. Other little/less common issues include: no display, bad AC adapter, missing keys, broken CDROM, bad Ethernet port, touchpad (mouse/cursor) problems, cracked screens, etc.

IBM ThinkPad T43: Fan Error

An IBM ThinkPad T43 was in this week with a Fan Error. This is yet another laptop that passed through with a little Best Buy sticker on it. Anyways, after our customer was (mis)informed that his laptop was junk, he went home and went online to find out the truth, which is when he found us.

It turns out this T43 was still under warranty. Our customer could've had it repaired for free by IBM but he wanted the repair expedited and we had a fan in stock. He left the unit with us and came back by 4hrs later to pick the unit up, fixed.

It just needed a new fan!