h e l p - T22 Sporadic Boots and Freezes

[silverfish]

For about the past year or so my Thinkpad T22 has been giving me a lot of trouble. When i boot it up, all the status indicator lights come on, then it goes to the power light only (unless the battery is in, and that light stays on too). All sounds seem normal, no beep codes or anything, but the lcd just remains off. The weird thing is, sometimes it will boot up completely fine, lcd will come on, but then the system will never stay up for more than about 10 minutes. If it makes it into windows, sometimes it will give me a blue screen and sometimes it will just freeze where it is, but i cant see any kind of pattern to the freezing, its just completely random.

I've thought it might be memory because of the frequent blue screens and such, but perfectly good memory does not fix it. The problem doesnt seem to change at all with AC or battery power either.Lately i've only been able to get the screen to come on about 1/30 boots.

Needless to say my laptop has been completely worthless since this began, so i'd really appreciate any kind of help or advice.

Thank you very much,

SF

[GomJabbar]

I suspect you have a hardware problem. Probably the motherboard. Go to the IBM driver matrix for the T-22 and download and run PC Doctor for DOS (if you have a floppy drive). Run the diagnostics and see if anything shows up.

You can also go to: Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer. Look for any error messages and see if there seems to be a pattern. Perhaps it could lead you to where a hardware problem lies.

If you have a poor circuit connection somewhere, that could cause the intermittent behavior. Also, I've read that some T-20 to T-22 owners were having problems booting up - which was related to bad capacitors on the motherboard. These bad capacitors were circulating among various manufacturers, for a year or two, around the time of the T-20 to T-22's manufacture. These owners claimed that the green LED lights would flash a couple of times, then that's it. Sometimes they could get the laptop to boot-up. See the following link regarding this:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/ibm ... 1288ebb2b3



I hope this helps you locate your problem.

[JonathanW]

Very, very common with T21/22's as I found out when I suffered the same issues with my T21. I decided to 'bite the bullet' and purchase a reconditioned motherboard (from a T22). I was lucky to chance across an Ebay seller with one and paid £110, sad when I had already paid £230 for the T21.

Anyway, best thing I ever did. The machine has been absolutely rock solid since and whilst I have ended up paying nearly £350 for a T21 at least it is now useable - which is more than it was before!

New motherboard for you I am afraid ....

Jonathan

[bengal571]

I have a T22 which is exhibiting the same syptoms. I first tried reseating the memory cards and network/modem cards. The problem remained. Finally, I removed the keyboard, heatsink/fan, and reseated the CPU. I have not had the problem since. The process takes about 15 minutes and is relatively simple. The service manual (PDF format) is available for download on IBM's website. It shows you step-by-step how to remove items.

I'm not ready to say it fixed the problem, but it costs nothing to try. It very well could be the capacitor issue above, but it might save you buying a new board. I do know that some of the older model DELL Latitudes can be fixed by reseating the CPU. It was a common problem with those models.

Bengal571

[bengal571]

I have since cycled power to my laptop about 50 times over the last few day and I have not had it freeze yet. It looks like reseating the CPU has fixed my problem.

Bengal571

[Nolonemo]

I may have to try reseating my CPU too. My T22 has suddenly stated freezing at times, never happened before. The thing that makes me suspect CPU seating is that it has happened a couple of times when I've picked it up and carried it to different place (table to the couch) while it's on, and I tend to hold it by the left front part of the palmrest in my left hand, with my fingers supporting the left side underneath.

[beeblebrox]

Oh, it is a common problem with the micro-pga2 slots and the early Intel chips using that socket.

Just take off the CPU, clean the contacts, re-seat the CPU several times for moving the socket connectors a bit. And then you should be fine.

Otherwise clean all card contacs with a rubber and then some alcohol. Quite sure, your system will work afterwards.
I fixed a couple of friend's Thinkpads that way...

[verktyg]

I've concluded that the "2 Green Lights of T2x Death" syndrome is caused by either a capacitor problem in the startup circuitry or the CMOS battery. When you hit the start button 2 lights flash and then nothing. Some folks have been able to fix the problem by changing the CMOS battery, for others, it's a new mainboard.

Problems while the system is running or partially boots are more likely caused by the CPU working loose in the ZIF socket. Reseating it seems to cure most of these problems. It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the additional ambient heat may be adding to the problem.

Additionally, laptops are subject to a lot of vibrations and shock so while it appears that the CPU should not need to be reseated because of the way that the heatsink/fan sits on top of it. It appears that there is enough room for the CPU to loosen and cause problems.

BTW, on the newer style heatsink/fans, make sure to clean off the old thermal paste and apply new stuff. Only use a little and spread it thinly over the top of the CPU. I recommend Arctic Silver 5. It's expensive ($8 to $12 USD for a small container) but it works better than most of the other thermal pastes.

Original T20 Fans use a piece of gray rubber like material about 1-2mm thick between the fan and the CPU. If you are opening your system and have one of these older fans, I'd recommend replacing it with one from a T21 or T22.