I bought a Tecra M5 ages ago and then took ages to put linux on it and very soon after that the display went. Research tells me that the graphic chipset has come away, too much heat and the solders melted... but I'm not sure.

Basically the display has only the top 15mm working so I see the very top of the UbuntuStudio start screen while the rest is light grey lines. A
 monitor plugged into the side and f5 pushed does nothing. I think I remember having to load a windows driver into Ubuntu so it may be that
but people have said, techies, that it's most probably the card coming away that needs to be resoldered... and want between 150 and 200
 bucks to fix it.

I'm not adverse to paying people for their good works but what I am keen on is doing things for myself and at the least I can get some more
 info, from here, that the chip is indeed in need of what I've already surmised and then pull the laptop apart to expose the work to be done
which hopefully I can do myself... or watch someone else do.

I've done quite abit of electronics with regular sized components, even etch my own boards, but smd isn't something I've had to go into
....yet!
Cheers, Sean.