IBM Thinkpad T43 random hang issue HELP!

[metreon]

I have a refurb Thinkpad t43 I got about a year ago. About 4 months ago, it started having some strange things happen. Sometimes I push the power button and it fires up just fine.

However, most of the time when I push the button, the indicator LEDs turn on, the fan turns on, and nothing else happens- I am presuming a BIOS hang of some kind. Monitor stays blank, (not even the backlight turns on) and the fan keeps running until I turn it off.

I tried EVERYTHING that I could think of. The only things I had done inside the machine prior to this was apply new thermal paste to the heatsink system and up the memory to 1 GB. It worked fine until this started happening.

Using the VGA output changes nothing.

It will do this whether plugged in or not, with or without battery. I even tried putting the original RAM back in... no dice.

I even tried pulling the RAM and putting in RAM it didn't like. Sometimes I get the relevant beep code and sometimes it hangs as described.

Any suggestions? I need to get at least another year out of this thing...

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

It sounds to me like your T43 has a Southbridge chip going loose, a fairly common problem on these machines. Re-flowing/re-balling the chip, or replacing the motherboard are your only options.

Good luck.

[metreon]

Thanks! Ok. I figured it was something with the board. I am pretty good with hardware, (though messing with integrated components is a bit outside my ball game) and I know I don't have the coin to drop on a mobo.

How would I go about re-flowing/re-balling the southbridge?

[metreon]

I did something similar on an old ibook's graphics chip a while back. Involved a hair dryer, a lot of tinfoil, and hot candle wax. Same sort of deal here?

[goofyGAguy]

Sounds a bit kinky.

[ajkula66]

You'd have to clean the epoxy from the Southbridge area first...and am not quite sure that the old Mac routine would fly...

Good luck.

[EchoFox]

My T43p recently developed a similar problem. It kept freezing intermittently, and on some occasions just completely froze and needed a hard shutdown. I also had problems with USB ports not functioning properly.

Thing is, the last two times I used the laptop, it was fine. The only problem last time was that it took an infinite time to shut down (at least, I gave up waiting after ten minutes).

Other than that, everything functioned perfectly. Even picked it up and moved it around and gave it a shake while it was playing a video. Nothing wrong at all. It's totally random.

In other words: WHAT'S GOING ON?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?AOIRHGVOGOAGUBAOIGBVAP9RGH'P9GHP

[Harryc]

Sounds like the southbridge on the T43p has a cold solder joint. Contact Nick (member name poshgeordie) in the UK for repair.
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_USB_2.0
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=73945

[EchoFox]

I see, and is it also possible that the GPU is to blame? Whilst I've seen loads of complaints about the GPU solder breaking on T41/T42 model ThinkPads, I've never ever heard of it happening to a T43 or T43p. I haven't completely ruled it out yet, though. Thoughts?

[ajkula66]

T43/p units tend to suffer from Southbridge failures a lot more than from GPU detachment. Take it from someone who has owned several hundreds of them.

Also, GPU failure doesn't affect the functionality of the USB ports.

[ccc123]

i have a old T41 and recently developed the similar problem.
it's fresh installed windows xp from ibm recovery CDs and when it's boot up, just let it sit there, the windows will hang and no response to mouse or keys. the windows shows no crash and just display what it was.

2nd problem is boot up. If i have battery in with AC, the thinkpad will not boot up by pressing the bootup button (the big one with white dot).
then if i take off the battery and have AC plugged, press the button, it may or may not boot up. then I unplug the AC, hold the boot up button for 20s or so, then plug in AC, it booted up.

or if I disconnected AC, and have Battery in, press the button, it booted up smoothly.

it was running all good for last few years and just recently half year it developed such problem.

i've also scan-fix the harddisk.