About a year ago, I got a Thinkpad X220 for £49 just to see why people liked these Thinkpads so much. They've got a bit of a cult following. It was also a nice excuse to install Libreboot. Flashing BIOS chips looked fun.
Then I got it and found out that the previous owner spilled milk inside. It was working but the smell was... not good. So I took it apart and cleaned it all out. Then I put it back together. It worked for like two seconds before the display went out, never to come back on again.
I later found that I inserted the display connector just very slightly crooked. Inserting correctly was not enough to fix it, so damage happened. I was really busy with university at the time so I just cut my losses and stored it away.
Today, I felt really inspired to try and re-visit it. I took it apart and inspected the board. It had lots of fuses (I have never seen so many fuses in a motherboard). Most importantly, I found two near the display connector. They were both blown.
The thing you are supposed to do in this situation is solder new ones in. But instead, after checking that the fuse inputs are not shorted to ground, I risked it and bridged them with solder instead. I connected it back on and boom, the display worked! Such a happy ending after a sad one.
Just to note though: Never do what I did. Bridging the fuse pads was risky. They are there to essentially prevent fires. And that's why I responsibly powered it off quickly. I'll order new fuses for it. I mean, since it works, immediate danger is probably minimal. But if there is a future fault (like a capacitor deciding to die and short itself to ground), then fire hazard happens. So, I'll be a responsible person and put new fuses in.