t41 graphics issues

my fiance has had her t41 since 2004 and just last week it started having some graphics issues. it looked "static-y", almost like the gpu was overheating. It disappeared for a few days and came back tonight. I opened it up and tried to clean out all the dust but it was actually pretty clean already and didn't make any difference. It seems to mostly do this while in 2d mode but i did run 3dmark01 and saw the same thing in a few of the 3d tests (and in almost every 2d screen). I didn't pull up the heat sink, but does anyone have any other ideas as to what could be happening?

Could a cable be partly unseated, giving a partially corrupted signal to the monitor?

moving the monitor doesn't have any effect, same with moving the laptop itself around. And it isn't constant...what is really odd tho is it seems to effect 2d more than 3d. when i ran 3dmark01 the only 3d test that i saw the "static" was in the first truck scene...after that it was only the 2d info screens between the tests that had it.

Hmmm, that is odd. Have you tried applying new thermal paste and reseating the HS?

Could probably call lenovo and ask there opinion on the problem. They should at least be able to tell ya what it could be.

no i didn't put new thermal paste on. might give that a go tonight, but it looks like a thermal "pad" is used and when i looked at it last night it looked like simply using some AS5 might leave a gap.

The issues with simple 2D make me think it's simply run it's life tho.