As I right this, I have a large white strip on my screen from top to bottom
 

Its there when the BIOS loads, its there in the console, KDE, and MS windows. It does disappear for a short moment when loading the windows environment.

I assume its hardware. I just did a partial backup, and have decided not to use this computer for a while. It is an IBM thinkpad R52.

If you have any suggestions please post them.. I may not read them for a few days, because this is the only computer I have access.

It sounds like there is either a loose connection somewhere or some damaged circuitry (for example, memory decoder circuitry in the video RAM, or output drivers on a block of RAM).

Have you connected the Thinkpad to an external display to see if the problem still exists? Also try using different screen resolutions and dual buffering.

If the stripe doesn't appear on an external display, the high-density rubber-like connector on the edge of the LCD is probably at fault. If the stripe remains but changes with a change in resolution then it's a problem with bad memory. I've never seen memory fade with such coincidence as to produce a broad stripe on the display though, so I suspect it's the LCD connector.

I went to an authorized IBM repair center, and then to a chop shop. they told me I had to replace the screen. Yes, it works fine with an external monitor.

I want to buy another IBM ThinkPad, my understanding is that Lenovo bought IBM's personal computer devision.

I've spent the whole day looking for a sweet laptop. I have no fixed price in mind, just high build quality. I need to make my decision today. 4 hours to go...

And suggestions are very much appreciated, are there any linux laptops out there (save the cost of buying Windows?), is there a Linux compatible hardware list?

Thanks

I have had absolutely no problems with Linux and HP or Toshiba laptops - Linux has drivers for almost everything so I think you have to be a little unlucky to get a non-compatible system.

Despite all that, I do look carefully at the documentation for the particular laptop I want and check that Linux has drivers for all the chips (except perhaps for the software modem) before I buy a machine.

Vendors such as RedHat maintain compatibility lists. You can also look at www.tuxmobil.org to see if anyone has posted a review of a particular laptop you are interested in.

Most (if not all) Intel support chips work very well; Intel has put in a big effort in the past few years. Of course, all AMD support chips also work very well. Some VIA chips are reported to be strange (so be careful with VIA chips - but having said that, I've used embedded microcomputers with VIA chipsets and had no problems). Some NVidia chipsets are strange and I'm not sure if they are all 100% supported by Linux yet. The NVidia graphics chips definitely are not 100% supported by Linux (but I use NVidia + the proprietary drivers on my desktop system).

Thank you, pinniped.