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T21 shuts off randomly

T20-T23 Series and T30. NOT for T25-Retro.
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astral
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T21 shuts off randomly

#1 Post by astral » Mon Jun 27, 2022 12:33 pm

My T21 is having more startup issues.

1. Starting shortly after I fixed the 0175 error, it would sometimes shut off randomly after being on for between 40 minutes to an hour. I would be using the laptop, it would work fine, and then the screen would go black, everything stops responding, and the battery charge and disk access (I think) lights would stay on solid. If I unplugged the power adapter, various lights would start flashing, but this doesn't seem to happen anymore. Unplugging power and the battery for a few minutes to let it cool off would fix this, and it wouldn't happen again the next time it was on. I assumed it was an overheating issue at the time, because it did get quite toasty, and I hadn't replaced the thermal compound yet because I was out at the time.

2. It continued happening after replacing the thermal compound, and it got more frequent.

3. At this point, it isn't turning on most of the time. It doesn't have the blink of death (it's never done that), it just immediately goes into the symptoms described above. Sometimes it will POST for a few seconds and then do it. The only way I can get it booted is to leave it off for a while. While in this failure mode, the power sounds like it gets cut over and over again, the hard drive will cut out and restart constantly, so will the fan, and the DVD drive re-initializes. It's all super inconsistent too, it only does that sometimes. One time it even gave the one long two short beep error while in that state.

Here's what I've tried to fix it:

1. Reseating RAM
2. Minimal boot (no HDD, no RAM, no ultrabay drive. It gave the RAM beep but still ended up cutting out.
3. Reseating the display connector.

I have another CPU I can try, but I doubt it will do much to fix the issue at this point.

Any ideas? I haven't been able to find this problem online before.

astral

edit: just tried the other CPU with the same results. It even does the same thing with no CPU at all, which probably isn't a good sign.
Your average ThinkPad collector.
Owns: T480, Yoga S1, modded T430, T61p, R60e, T43 14" SXGA+, G40, T30 SXGA+, T23, A22p, T21, i1260, 385XD, 560, PS/Note 425

SMA
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Re: T21 shuts off randomly

#2 Post by SMA » Tue Jun 28, 2022 10:13 am

Most likely the symptoms you are observing now, is what caused the CRC 0175 error to begin with.

If the battery is removed then - due to SpeedStep - the CPU will run at a lower frequency and therefore generate less heat.

Does the AC Adapter get worm?
Do you have another AC Adapter to try with?

astral
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Re: T21 shuts off randomly

#3 Post by astral » Tue Jun 28, 2022 10:54 am

Thank you for the reply.

My battery does work, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether or not it’s installed. Should I try disabling SpeedStep in the BIOS next time I get it to start up? I have been using multiple known-good IBM power supplies with the ThinkPad, and I did try a different one just in case the one I was using decided to die, but no dice I’m afraid.

Also, if it matters, I don’t have a working CMOS battery at the moment. I was meaning to buy one but didn’t want to if this instability can’t be fixed.

Just to clear up one thing that I could see as confusing, by disc access light, I mean the rightmost light on the central set of lights, not the HDD light.

When I can manage to make it POST, it shows the IBM logo for several seconds, then the display goes out and the aforementioned disc light and the ultra bay light go on solid, and that’s it.
Your average ThinkPad collector.
Owns: T480, Yoga S1, modded T430, T61p, R60e, T43 14" SXGA+, G40, T30 SXGA+, T23, A22p, T21, i1260, 385XD, 560, PS/Note 425

SMA
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Re: T21 shuts off randomly

#4 Post by SMA » Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:44 pm

It doesn't matter if the cmos battery is working or not.

Forget about SpeedStep. I was trying to suggest you to try running without the battery,
but as you mentioned, that has been tried already.

If you hit the ESC key when the IBM logo displays, then you will see what is going on.

astral
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Location: Ohio

Re: T21 shuts off randomly

#5 Post by astral » Tue Jun 28, 2022 3:19 pm

I got it to boot into Windows, but it locked up after a minute. No disk activity, couldn't even move the cursor. The second attempt got to the Windows startup screen, where it also locked up. After a minute the display backlight shut off, but I could still see the image for a few seconds before it slowly faded out. Rightmost of the middle lights and the right side ultrabay light both on solid. Both boots I hit escape to get the verbose BIOS boot, but it passed with no errors. When the system does fully POST, it gives the normal time and date errors along with some resource error that I always assumed was due to dead CMOS battery. I can't check it now since I can't get it to POST fully.

As I was writing this I tried another boot, and it went into this state while testing extended memory. I don't think that necessarily means the memory is at fault since that is the longest part of the POST sequence by a long shot.

When the system POSTs fully, it gives the time and date errors as expected with dead CMOS battery, but it also shows "Resource Conflict - Allocation error static node # 01"
Is this normal?
Your average ThinkPad collector.
Owns: T480, Yoga S1, modded T430, T61p, R60e, T43 14" SXGA+, G40, T30 SXGA+, T23, A22p, T21, i1260, 385XD, 560, PS/Note 425

RealBlackStuff
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Re: T21 shuts off randomly

#6 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue Jun 28, 2022 11:42 pm

Check this (from 2006): viewtopic.php?t=3508
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

astral
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Posts: 215
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Location: Ohio

Re: T21 shuts off randomly

#7 Post by astral » Wed Jun 29, 2022 12:12 pm

Seems related to the missing CMOS battery then. Only strange thing is that my error is #1 and not #0 or #2. Still no luck on solving the power issues though.
Your average ThinkPad collector.
Owns: T480, Yoga S1, modded T430, T61p, R60e, T43 14" SXGA+, G40, T30 SXGA+, T23, A22p, T21, i1260, 385XD, 560, PS/Note 425

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