T40 won't boot up.

[wayneb59]

I forgot and left the laptop on during a storm with phone jack plugged
in. When I came back the animated screen saver had frozen on the
screen. Now when I try to boot up I get a black screen, no sound or
lights from the hard drive. The Cd drive does spin up and the fan
runs. I have tried unplugging the CMOS battery, memory, and hard drive then replugging them but had no luck. Also tried putting in a XP
installation CD to see if it could boot from it-----still nothing. The
T40 thinkpad worked perfectly before this happened. I have no recovery CD. Should I remove and test the hard drive next?
thanks,
Wayne

[Harryc]

Remove the hard drive and hold down the F1 key while booting. The machine should go into BIOS. If it does not, then you have bigger issues, probably a bad system board.

[richk]

I assume you also removed the main battery along with the CMOS battery. To completely discharge everything, unplug it, remove the main battery, remove the CMOS battery. Then press the power button 10 times. On the 10th time, hold the power button for 20 seconds. That will completely discharge capacitors. Plug everything back in. If it won't start, you're screwed.