Power Up Problems

[muskrat]

I probably didn't do my search right, but I didn't find and results for (power+up+problems) and any combination of these words.

So here goes.

I have purchased several T41 thinkpads, and one common problem I have is that they don't power up properly. The last one I bought last week. When I got it, it did nothing with the AC cord plugged in, when the on switch is pressed. But it would power up on the battery. After several boots. It won't do anything now. Except charge the battery.

I have another that will turn on the power light, blink the cap lock and number lock lights then just set there, no systems beep nothing.

The manual says that one is ether a bad memory chip or systems board, Or posibly loose connections. Last night I was messing around checking all the connection, and did get it to boot once. but couldn't get it to boot again. I was thinking about getting some electronic contact cleaner, What do you all think?

And the last one I have will boot fine, but the reset or power off function doesn't work. If the system hangs the only way to totally shut it off is unplug it and remove the battiery. I was also messing around with it last night, and now it does the same as above, just truns on the power light and no more, except once the powers on, it still has the power off problem.

[jdhurst]

Are you buying T41's with known problems? A properly working T41 (hardware-wise) will run XP Pro perfectly for years on end, starting up and powering down properly every time. ... JDH

[muskrat]

I'm buying good used thinkpads from ebay each one from different people, but all have good feedback ratings.

As for using XP, This problem is a bios or system problem it has nothing what so ever with the OS because it doesn't even get that far. But at any rate I use Linux.

[rkawakami]

Awhile back I received a lot of T41s from eBay. A couple of them were easy fixes but there's three systems which exhibit no signs of receiving power, either by battery, AC adapter or through a docking station. No LEDs lit and nothing happens (sight or sound) when the power button is pushed. When stripped down, there's several places on each motherboard where there's remnants of a white powder. If I had to guess, I'd say that those systems had seen some spill damage. I'm pretty sure that I checked the major fuses and didn't find any blown but this was some time ago so I'm fuzzy on that detail.

If the systems you are buying off of eBay are supposed to be fully working and that you are seeing some power-related problems, I'd check the AC adapter you are using. It should be 16V 4.5A. A lower current rated supply (3.36A) would probably be okay for running the laptop but I wouldn't use it for too long since you might overstress the supply. A supply which is outputting more than 17V shouldn't be used. Some might say that anything up to 20V or so is fine since the power circuits in the laptop are probably designed to withstand that much overvoltage but having measured many Thinkpad AC adapters (usually around 16.6V) I'd be suspicious of anything that is "out of norm".

To diagnose the system, you should also remove all of the memory and all of the plug-in hardware (MiniPCI card, any other communications daughter cards, hard drive, Ultrabay drive) and see if the system gives you the 1-3-3-1 beep code. That would at least say that some of the motherboard is operating properly. You should also realize that some T4x systems are susceptible to having loose graphic chips and that it results in either no display on the LCD or a scrambled signal. According to reports, it can even cause power-related problems. With the possible jarring that occurred during shipment of the system, that might explain why a "good" laptop is now having issues.

I've moved this thread from Forum Notices into the T4x conference as that seems to be a better place for this discussion.

[muskrat]

Thanks,


I the one I just purchased I didn't want to work on. But since I took so long to pick it up from the shop where I had it delievered to I don't think he will make an adjustment on it. (being about a week after UPS delievered it) So I took the keyboard off and it did have a spill stain on the back of it. I replaced it with another board I have and it seems to work now. We'll see for how long?

But I still have the other two. I'm formialler with the vidio chip problem, and have had one reballed, it's working fine. I don't believe this is that problem, but I suppose it could be. I'll try srtipping them down Like you say. And get back with you.