Dead T42p

[Gonzaleitor]

I bought a t42p (2373-GVY)a month ago (T42s are pretty common, but "p"s are pretty rare), it was supposedly for parts, with a dock but no PSU. That was not a problem, I have a few. When i hooked it up the laptop powered on normally, but crashed in windows startup. I tought it was the HDD and replaced it, Windows Install stalled in one stage or another. Swapped out the RAM, everything went smooth. I repasted the CPU, took the pink pad out of the heatsink and put a 2mm thermalpad on the GPU. Fan seemed to be flaky for starters but after one "fan error" it had no problems.
The start of the laptops demise came with a "plop" one day, when that happened, the screen brightness fell to a minimum and CPU multiplier went down to x6 (x18 is the normal multiplier), I restarted the system and everything was ok for some days. But the laptop started to turn on to a black screen(not even lightning up) and spinning fan, I did the power button pressing thing and it started.
But yesterday, I hooked it up to an ethernet cable to run some LAN tests with UT99 and other thinkpads. After the tests I closed the program and checked temps in NHC, they were around 70/71c on use and after 10 minutes of idle rest, went down to 49c. I always let them cool at idle after some "hard" use before turning them down, like an old car. After all this tests, the laptop doesn't want to turn on, only no screen and spinning fan. No ram beeping if I take the RAM out, doens't responds to taking out the HDD. I pressed the North Bridge (this one gets hot), South Bridge and GPU(even though the GPU never gave any problems) but no signs of life.
Any leads?
Sorry for the long post and my bad english and thanks in advance!
Regards, Gonzalo.
PS: Getting a new Mobo with this specs in this part of the world is next to impossible without paying hundreds of US dollars and waiting a couple months, so I don't consider it an option.

[TPFanatic]

The p’s have the hotheaded firegl T2 128mb, which is just a Radeon 9600 with CAD drivers and double VRAM. Graphics doesn’t really matter, the high res LCD is of greater practical benefit. Replacing the board with a regular T41/T42 motherboard shouldn’t hurt the character of the machine. T40 series is notoriously unreliable from the lead free solder, chassis flex, and hot graphics causing the dreaded BGA detachment of the southbridge and/or the GPU. My dad used to buy R50p and T42p machines for personal use by him and the kiddies (he wasn’t tech-lit enough to know he should have bought the superior T60p or Dominic’s T61 Frankenpads instead). Out if the combined total 9 T42p and 3 R50p units purchased between 2004 and 2014, all the R50p and all but one T42p died from BGA detachment. Annoyingly the southbridge will function for about 10 minutes after a cold boot, so preliminary tests may appear to yields a functioning laptop. Then you use it for awhile and I/O just stops working.

Worst ThinkPads in my opinion.

[Gonzaleitor]

Thanks for the reply!
You mean that even after a reflow/reballing the GPU theSB will be dead anyway?

[TPFanatic]

You might get a temporary restoration with the at-home methods. There are or were places who you could ship the board to and have it reballed, I would hope with non-vulnerable conventional solder, as opposed to the crap IBM was compelled to use.

I feel there may be additional nefarious ways that a GPU can fail.

There’s also the possibility that it’s neither the southbridge or GPU and it’s simply another circuit that has failed. I have a T43p with a failure in the power delivery, maybe a blown capacitor? Powered off, it achknowledges power and lights up the Battery indicator, but pressing the power button on the keyboard or the dock makes it comatose. Like your T42p it had initially worked when I got it and I was able to boot my old Windows XP hard drive in it, it would have been fun to play with more. But nothing lasts forever, after the warranty period it’s really a gamble what will keep working and for how long.

[Gonzaleitor]

I don't want to try the reflow method, I read the whole thread and my conclusion is that although it might work, if it doesn't kills the board with no reballing option.
The solder, as you Say, it's a valid point. It wouln't make sense to reball it if the solder is not going to be reliable.
Another idea that I have, is to get a working T42 mobo and replace the GPU for the Fire TL(if the chip isn't dead) of my Mobo(All this gibberish I'm saying can't do it myself, I have to get a pro with adequate equipment to do it).
It's sad that the T42p is SO flawed, being the "top" of the series. I have a T42 and a T43 un working order, but this laptop was difficult to find and I want it to work, as I wrote earlier, they are scarce in this parte of the Globe.

[ajkula66]

It's sad that the T42p is SO flawed, being the "top" of the series. I have a T42 and a T43 un working order, but this laptop was difficult to find and I want it to work, as I wrote earlier, they are scarce in this parte of the Globe.

Truth be told, the entire T4x generation is flawed in a variety of ways, but to this day I'll state that the 14" T4x was the most beautiful ThinkPad ever made, at least for me.

Good luck with resurrecting that T42p.

[Gonzaleitor]

Thanks, George! I'm trying a couple of things, not losing hope yet!

[Gonzaleitor]

Well, it revived on it's own. I don't know why or for how long, only moved it to a different tablet. Perhaps the motherdoard flexed a little and came to life (Now I don't know if I sholud love ir again )