Hello. I started experiencing issues with my thinkpad on friday and it's only got worse. On Friday Morning with out any kind of notice, the machine just froze and if you tried to move the trackpoint, the screen would shake. I turned the machine off, thinking nothing of it. However, the next time I turned it on...the computer started, however there was no video. I tried restarting again, and the machine froze at the windows bootup screen after the bios.

I went home and it seemed to be working fine again for a few minutes until it decided to freeze again. Afterwards I tried restarting it and I got 1 long beep and 2 short beeps. I started taking the machine apart, to see if anything looked out of the ordinary, which nothing does.

I have my machine completely updated with IBM Updates and Windows Updates. The process went w/o a hitch, so I decided to bolt everything back in. It's weird, if I choose to have the keyboard screwed in, the machine freezes up. However, if I have the keyboard loosened and resting and clamped in, it seems to work.

I'm completely stumped. Here's the specs on my machine.

IBM Thinkpad R40 (about 2 1/2 years old)
Model: 2681-GMU
Pentium 4 Mobile 2.0Ghz
Radeon 7500 32MB Video Chip
768 MB of RAM and a Cisco 802.11B Mini-PCI

I've also had my machine on for about 2 days straight before this started, but i've done this before, so i'm not sure if this is a problem.

Any kind of ideas would be helpful. Thanks.

If you have been removing the keyboard, you may have put one of the screws in the wrong place. Some of the screws are a little longer than others, and if put in the wrong place, can damage the keyboard. Check the bottom of the keyboard.

You can go to IBM's (now Lenovo) web site and get repair info and POST beep code explanations.

98% of the population is asleep. The other 2% are staring around in complete amazement, abject terror, or both.

Do you have the "hardware maintenance" manual from IBM?

Did this all start BEFORE or AFTER you took it apart?

Possibly long screws in wrong place.

Shield or other obstruction "warping" board, causing short or open.

Some hardware not seated in maching correctly, causing keyboard to warp

Bad keyboard, intermittent?

Poor connection at one of ribbon interconnect cables

Again, what led up to this?

I have no idea what led to this. Around friday at 11am, the computer froze without notice. I forcefully shut down the PC, then restarted it.

I have the IBM HMM with me and was with me when I took apart the PC. About 2 months ago, I had to repair the speakers and that went without a hitch.

All this happened before I started taking it apart. I'm not sure if it's a bad keyboard, since all the keys are working.

It has to be something short-circuting inside. I'm going to do some more repairs tomorrow and see what happens.

Thanks for your help.

Video IC broken.

1. Replace the IC; or
2. Replace the Motherboard; or
3. Replace your laptop.

Video IC is what exactly?