Thinkpads Forum

Good morning. I have a strange thing that has suddenly started to happen when I plug my T23's power brick into the wall outlet. All lights to the left of the power button light up, as well as the lights showing battery charge, etc. The fan also comes on. Sometimes the unit will remain this way for three to four seconds and then power back off. Usually though the computer will continue on to
completely boot up, just from plugging into the wall. Has anyone else ever seen this or have any idea what the cause might be? Thanks.

No one has any thoughts?

Stuck or shorted power button, along with a dead main battery?

Keyboard connector problem (since the power button is part of the keyboard)?

Problem with the power controller chip(s) on the motherboard?

That's all I can come up with at the moment. Is your main battery fully charged and does it operate the laptop as it should without the AC adapter connected?

Hi Ray. The battery gauge in the system tray is showing 100% as usual, but when I just shut down and tried to power back up with the brick unplugged, it didn't work. I got the same thing happening
as described in the OP: all lights at the top of the keyboard light up for a very brief time, the fan runs, and then nothing.

Just wanted to add that I recently updated the BIOS to v. 1.20 and
the Embedded Controller to v. 1.06a. Is it possible this could have
something to do with my issue, even though it did not start acting
up immediately afterward?

goofyGAguy wrote:I got the same thing happening as described in the OP: all lights at the top of the keyboard light up for a very brief time, the fan runs, and then nothing.

So the battery alone cannot power up/operate the laptop at all? If so, then I would say your battery is dead/depleted despite what the Battery Meter says in Windows. I understand that a couple of people have reported strange things concerning their battery information after upgrading to BIOS 1.20. Try pulling the battery out of the laptop for a few minutes then plug in the AC adapter to see what happens. If it still powers up by simply plugging in the AC adapter, then I would say there's something wrong with the keyboard and/or the motherboard.

edit: Reference this thread in T2x/T30 forum about BIOS 1.20 upgrade:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=33252

Oh well, reflashed back to BIOS 1.18; still screwy.

While working on my T20, my T23 that was off AC but had a battery installed, magically turned on hours after I had turned it off. I think it was just a glitch, hopefully your problem is too!!

dsigma6 wrote:While working on my T20, my T23 that was off AC but had a battery installed, magically turned on hours after I had turned it off.

The test engineer in me would ask: "Was it plugged into a live ethernet cable?"

rkawakami wrote:The test engineer in me would ask: "Was it plugged into a live ethernet cable?"

The genious in you..

I don't use it directly plugged in...and the pcmcia wireless card was removed. I did remove the card while it was in standby, but it didn't turn on for another half hour after that. When you take out the ultrabay when in standby it'll turn back on...but pcmcia, I didn't think so.

goofyGAguy wrote:Just wanted to add that I recently updated the BIOS to v. 1.20 and
the Embedded Controller to v. 1.06a. Is it possible this could have
something to do with my issue, even though it did not start acting
up immediately afterward?

The new BIOS has an update on the WakeOnLan function, and as Ray has pointed out some members have experienced battery problems. I'd check for a start the "Wake" functions in your BIOS. Also, check the health of your battery. If normal, I'd be tempted to clear the CMOS.
Cheers

This afternoon I had the idea to restore the laptop back to the state it was in when I received it, using ConfigSafe. No joy. Ray mentioned that this could maybe be a motherboard problem. Is it possible for a computer that works fine once it boots to still have a bad board?

The new BIOS has an update on the WakeOnLan function, and as Ray has pointed out some members have experienced battery problems. I'd check for a start the "Wake" functions in your BIOS. Also, check the health of your battery. If normal, I'd be tempted to clear the CMOS.
Cheers

Is clearing the CMOS just a simple matter of unplugging the CMOS battery for a bit?

goofyGAguy wrote:Is clearing the CMOS just a simple matter of unplugging the CMOS battery for a bit?

You can reset to factory default in BIOS but the hardware route is to take off CMOS, take off all power and press power-on button for a number of times. You've succeeded if on boot-up it asks for date/time.
Cheers

goofyGAguy wrote:Is it possible for a computer that works fine once it boots to still have a bad board?

Given what I have to do sometimes with one of my T23s, yes.

I've taken this system apart about three times now looking for a problem which still eludes me. The problem is this: often the system will not fully power up unless I "torque" the left side of the laptop, just underneath the PCMCIA cage. The symptoms are: no beeps, no blacklight, no external video, no apparent hard disk access (i.e. the HD LED remains off), the CPU fan is spinning normally, the CDROM initializes (laser carriage seeks), the power LED is on. If I put upward pressure with my fingers under the PCMCIA cage, while at the same time pushing down on the front left corner of the case, the system powers up fine. Once running, no matter what I do to that area, the laptop works like it should. No errors, hangs, shutdowns, etc.

As far as the CMOS clearing goes, I'd simply take out the backup battery for a minute or two, plug it back in, boot up into the BIOS setup, reset the date and time, load the setup defaults, save and re-boot.

Okay, the problem has been narrowed down. Just on a hunch I removed the mini PCI modem card from the bottom of the unit, and it booted perfectly from either the battery or the brick. Of course as soon as the card is replaced, it starts misbehaving again. And reinstalling the driver didn't help. I really don't want to replace this card, as it connects at a much better speed than the crappy no-name card that was installed when I received the laptop. Is there a good possibility that a new PCI card will solve my problem?

Thanks to everyone for the replies .

goofyGAguy wrote:Is there a good possibility that a new PCI card will solve my problem?

Well found! These cards are a real menace! The new card should fix the problem...temporarily... Have a look at your modem and network ports and make sure that the pins are not out of place and that the ports are clean.
Cheers

vlyne wrote:

goofyGAguy wrote:Is there a good possibility that a new PCI card will solve my problem?

Well found! These cards are a real menace! The new card should fix the problem...temporarily... Have a look at your modem and network ports and make sure that the pins are not out of place and that the ports are clean.
Cheers

Thanks vlyne. I assume by modem and network ports you mean the RJ-11 and RJ-45 jacks on the rear of the laptop, correct?

goofyGAguy wrote:Thanks vlyne. I assume by modem and network ports you mean the RJ-11 and RJ-45 jacks on the rear of the laptop, correct?

Yes, on my machines one or the other of the ports tends to get grotty from not being used. It's usually the modem port as I don't use it unless on the road and even them most places are setup for wireless or network. It's probably not the problem but worth a quick check.
Cheers