Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

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astral · #1 Post by **astral** » Thu Aug 25, 2022 3:20 pm

Picked up a super cheap untested T30 and surprise surprise, it’s dead. It powers on, the fan begins to spin, and the power light stays on, but it never posts and never beeps. I already tried reflowing both RAM slots but no luck. Any ideas before I part it out?

#2 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Fri Aug 26, 2022 12:30 am

Tried an external monitor?
Take out battery and wifi?

astral · #3 Post by **astral** » Fri Aug 26, 2022 9:02 am

Tried all that but still no luck. No external monitor output at all, stays off. If it was just a video issue I’d expect to still here a post beep, but oh well. I also managed to bridge some pins on the lower RAM slot, higher up on the plastic part and I kind of melted it a bit fixing them, so even if I could get the board working I’d likely only have one working slot. The bridge happened on a second attempt at reflowing though, and it still didn’t start after I tested it the first time.

It’s also missing the hard drive if that matters.

solidpro · #4 Post by **solidpro** » Sat Aug 27, 2022 10:46 am

Isn't this one of those machines where the solder joints on the RAM cracks?

astral · #5 Post by **astral** » Sat Aug 27, 2022 2:45 pm

managed to get it to POST. I damaged the bottom slot though so only 1GB of RAM, but it's better than nothing. Not sure what fixed it.

kfzhu1229 · #6 Post by **kfzhu1229** » Sat Aug 27, 2022 3:46 pm

astral wrote: ↑
Sat Aug 27, 2022 2:45 pm
managed to get it to POST. I damaged the bottom slot though so only 1GB of RAM, but it's better than nothing. Not sure what fixed it.

The annoyance with this thing is that if one slot is cracked enough with the solder joints, even if you leave the slot blank you'd still get a power on and no POST no beep situation. You'd have to push that slot in just to hear the no RAM beeps

astral · #7 Post by **astral** » Sat Aug 27, 2022 10:04 pm

luckily that hasn't happened with mine. If it quits booting in the future I can always reflow it again, but I'm not going to mess with it for the time being. 1GB is honestly plenty for my uses for the T30, and it's been a pretty nice and snappy system so far. The problem is that I bridged some pins on the lower slot with solder (on the plastic area) and trying to unbridge them melted the slot slightly. RAM still fits fine but isn't recognized. It's possible that something is still shorted, not making contact or needs to be reflowed but I'm not pushing it when I've already gotten this lucky. At least for now.

solidpro · #8 Post by **solidpro** » Thu Sep 01, 2022 1:13 pm

I reflowed one once. It was a bit unnerving, but the trick is to try and do a single, clean sweep and don't go back for more...

astral · #9 Post by **astral** » Sun Sep 25, 2022 2:42 pm

1 month Update: Since it randomly began working, it has continued to, and not once failed to start. The second RAM slot may not work but I'm more than satisfied with what I got out of it for how cheap it was. 1GB is plenty and it's nice and fast.

Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

Re: Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

Re: Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

Re: Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

Re: Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

Re: Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

Re: Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

Re: Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

Re: Dead T30 - powers on, no post, no beeps. Any ideas?

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