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IBM Thinkpad T30 Power issue

T20-T23 Series and T30. NOT for T25-Retro.
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CallumsComputers
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IBM Thinkpad T30 Power issue

#1 Post by CallumsComputers » Mon May 25, 2020 7:41 am

Hi, could anyone help me to get this power issue solved because I think I nocked something’s off the motherboard. I thought it’s something to do with the power rails but, I’m not a computer electrician in motherboard repair could anyone help to supply a problem with the capacitors or resistors. The problem with the laptop is that the battery charge light flashes green quickly and there and there is quite click when the light flashes from around the power port /processor area. If you could help that would be very appreciated and then were have a thinkpad back to life. Thanks, Callum

kfzhu1229
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Re: IBM Thinkpad T30 Power issue

#2 Post by kfzhu1229 » Tue May 26, 2020 3:44 pm

If it is near the power port, then it is possible the click came from the MOSFET's that cut down the power when it detected a short.
In this case you should see the battery stop charging and absolutely nothing having power after the click, and since this is Pentium 4 based machine, it is entirely possible you are dealing with a bad overheated capacitor that is shorting down the power rail.
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Re: IBM Thinkpad T30 Power issue

#3 Post by RealBlackStuff » Wed May 27, 2020 12:45 am

You can download schematics here for free: https://elektrotanya.com/ibm_thinkpad_a ... nload.html
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kfzhu1229
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Re: IBM Thinkpad T30 Power issue

#4 Post by kfzhu1229 » Wed May 27, 2020 3:19 pm

Hmm moreover, see if the trick of forcing 3.3V onto the pwrshutdown pin makes the computer stay on. And then if so you need to identify what is sending a pwrshutdown signal.
See here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=130498
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

H-Atkinson
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Re: IBM Thinkpad T30 Power issue

#5 Post by H-Atkinson » Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:35 pm

I had a machine with identical symptoms, and it turns out that one of the big VRM-looking things near the CPU port had been ripped off of the board by a previous owner who was forcing the heatsink in/out and ripped it off. Resoldering it fixed the issue. Check contacts for the VRMs. If one is missing/damaged you will get this weird power state on T2x and T30.
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