T20 Monitor won't turn off (See topic)

[Dark Savant0]

As of yesterday, I am no longer able to manually shutdown just the monitor using "FN+F3." I cannot recall doing anything bad to stop that from working, and the two buttons function as usual if not used in a combination.

Is there any way for me to shutdown just the monitor by itself or some sort of fix for this? I can't imagine there is a big problem with this but I hope someone has encountered this before and successfully solved the problem. Thanks.

[rkawakami]

Perhaps you are having this issue:

IBM note about Windows Media Player and Fn+F3

(note is about Windows ME, so it's possible XP or 2K will not have this problem)

[Dark Savant0]

Seems as though I may have broken something within the thinkpad. I just booted into Win2K and the same key sequence does not work. This is starting to trouble me, because the same laptop also does not want to turn on on occasion.

The thing about turning on, in case it helps, appeared about a month ago. I usually left the bugger on to download stuff from the internet while I was away or asleep, and then one time I rebooted it. I turned it off fully and then tried to press the power button a million times. No go. Disconnected the power cord and battery, left it about 2 hours, and it worked. The same process goes now, except sometimes I can make a mad dash at the button and it will randomly turn back on. I think maybe there might be too much power within the system or something, because disconnecting the battery and cord helps.

Is there some other key combination I can map in order to duplicate the function of "Fn+F3" on the Thinkpad T20?U

[rkawakami]

Ah, the "blink of death" syndrome, it sounds like. Do a search on this site for that phrase and you should find a couple of posts that I have responded in.

If, when you press the power button, all you get is the hard drive LED blinking once, then that may be your problem. I have a T22 that does the same thing. It could power up fine one day, but when shut off and re-started, it merely blinks at me. Removing ALL power (main, AC adapter and CMOS) for several days sometimes helps, but as of now, no known solution (to me at least) is available. It may be interesting to see if and when my T22 does power up again, to try the Fn+F3 keystroke sequence and see what happens.

[Dark Savant0]

I don't know if the two are related because the "FN+F3" thing happened very recently and the "blink of death" started a while ago. I remedy the blink of death by disconnecting all power sources while away (either on trips or school or whatever) and using my 600e when I can.

[Dark Savant0]

I was reading the literature online and it seems that the same problem with "FN+F3" showed up for Bruce Markowitz here. I fixed the problem by installing the Thinkpad software installer and letting it install the drivers itself. Everything works as normal now.

Is the system board really the problem for the Thinkpads? Could the capacitors be replaced so that they do not overload with electricity?

[rkawakami]

Good to hear it's working correctly AND to have a piece of information for a solution.

Is the system board really the problem for the Thinkpads? Could the capacitors be replaced so that they do not overload with electricity?

Most probably yes and most probably no. "Yes" for the problem being contained on the motherboard. Systems have been "repaired" by replacing the entire motherboard. "No" for the capacitor replacement simply because the average (strike that), not even most electronic hobbyists will have the required surface mount de-soldering stations needed to do the job correctly and safely. There are at least two dozen capacitors which I would assume to be part of the power conditioning circuit. As nobody seems to have a schematic on these beasts, a shotgun approach (replacing all of them at once) could work, or if one takes the time, one capacitor replacement at a time to see if that particular one fixes the problem.

As of yet, I am not convinced that the problem is actually due to "overcharging capacitors" in the first place. My primary suspicion is that it is a problem which has been reported before: a bad solder joint. A secondary cause would be with one of the power controller chips which I have found on the board (Maxim MAX1631 and/or MAX1715). Either one of those components, if defective, would seem to me to be a valid source of the problem. One could say that a capacitor connected to one of the power controllers is causing the "blink of death" problem. However, I would suspect that it is simply disconnected from the circuit and that re-connecting it would solve the problem.

[Dark Savant0]

Good to hear it's working correctly AND to have a piece of information for a solution.

Is the system board really the problem for the Thinkpads? Could the capacitors be replaced so that they do not overload with electricity?

Most probably yes and most probably no. "Yes" for the problem being contained on the motherboard. Systems have been "repaired" by replacing the entire motherboard. "No" for the capacitor replacement simply because the average (strike that), not even most electronic hobbyists will have the required surface mount de-soldering stations needed to do the job correctly and safely. There are at least two dozen capacitors which I would assume to be part of the power conditioning circuit. As nobody seems to have a schematic on these beasts, a shotgun approach (replacing all of them at once) could work, or if one takes the time, one capacitor replacement at a time to see if that particular one fixes the problem.

As of yet, I am not convinced that the problem is actually due to "overcharging capacitors" in the first place. My primary suspicion is that it is a problem which has been reported before: a bad solder joint. A secondary cause would be with one of the power controller chips which I have found on the board (Maxim MAX1631 and/or MAX1715). Either one of those components, if defective, would seem to me to be a valid source of the problem. One could say that a capacitor connected to one of the power controllers is causing the "blink of death" problem. However, I would suspect that it is simply disconnected from the circuit and that re-connecting it would solve the problem.

Is the blink of death common on any other Thinkpad models (T23, T30 etc)? Perhaps it is limited to a certain type or even a certain model (referring to the numbers on the bottom). Maybe that could help some stay away from problematic models.