[Thinkpad] 770 ED problem fixable?

     Hallo. I've mentioned before that I had a 770 ED that was not working
well, but sort of limped along. Well, it's given up the ghost entirely now,
and I'm wondering whether maybe anything can be done to restore it at least
well enough to retrieve the files on the hard disk and move them somewhere
else. (There's no reason to think they're damaged, but they are
inaccessible.) Ultimately I will be looking at a more recent computer, but I
need this in the shorter term for access to the files.
     If I describe what's gone wrong, could anyone offer a prognosis, please?
     According to the boot-up tests (in that funny screen with the twittering-
bird mouse pointer) the system board had intermittent faults (which have been
there for quite some time), and, all of a sudden, the memory had faults that,
the few times I tried, seemed permanent.
     These are the messages I got for these faults:

--------------------
First screen:

  032192 KB OK
  8611 [intermittent]
   225

Next screen:

  ERROR
  08611 [intermittent]
  00225

Result of boot-up tests:

  SystemBoard Memory

  DEV 086 DEV 002
  ERR 22 ERR 83
  FRU 0010 FRU 2010

[SystemBoard
intermittent.]

(All other tests okay.)
--------------------

     Then the screen went: first, in the screen's display of those boot-up
tests, everything showed in shades of blue only, no red or green components to
anything on the screen; then, a couple of tries later, the screen went
completely blank - just a bright white screen.
     Oddly enough, after that, when I tried again, I heard the floppy disk
drive (empty) start up briefly, then the hard disk worked a little (according
to the little display showing disk activity), like booting up when there's no
disk in the floppy drive. (This didn't happen on the occasions when booting
up failed, and it went to the screen with the tests on it.) So I don't know
if, after all that, it finally booted up regularly or not - but with a blank
screen I couldn't see what it was doing, so I just turned it off again.
     I don't know if there's a chance that all that needs doing is for chips
inside which have become loose to be inserted properly again. This has been
suggested to me, but I don't know how to do this, or even where to find them.
     Is another possibility (if it did resume booting up again and will do so
again) to connect another screen? Again, I don't know how to do this.

     A prognosis would be appreciated. Thank you.

                         Regards,
                          Michael Edwards.

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Received on Mon Feb 6 08:56:17 2006