T30 Won't Power On *small PIC*

[afiwannariot]

I was looking for a spare hard drive today at work when I found a pile of old(er) laptops, one of which was a ThinkPad T30 - I figured it was still good enough for some use (probably linux with VMWare so I can use it as a staging computer of sorts). I went to CompUSA and grabbed a universal power adapter so I could fire it up and see if everything was still in working order but when I got back the T30 would not power up.

It looks like whenever I plug the T30 in, the power adapter shorts and cuts off power immediately. At first I tested the cable and adapter on other laptops, and even the adapter on a Toshiba (if I recall correctly) worked properly, so I was able to rule that out.

My next thought was that there was something wrong with the ground connection on the laptop. I have begun to disassemble the laptop to see if there is anything I can do in the way of resoldering the connections, or if something immediately jumps out at me as far as it being a faulty mobo/cpu. I went through and removed the HD, Ram, DVD-Rom and everything else I could to see if removing those would help, but to no avail.

I guess my question more or less is, has anyone had an experience like this with a T30 before? I would really love to get this laptop working, because it still would be a perfectly capable laptop, and would be nice to set it up for some use and just stash it running in a closet somewhere.

If it is not the ground connection than I am out of ideas on what could be wrong with it. Also, one of my coworkers is coming in tomorrow with a legit IBM power adapter so hopefully by tomorrow I will be able to officially rule out the generic power adapter as the problem.

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Generally I do not recommend using a universal AC adapter unless you know FOR SURE that you have all of the bases covered:

- proper voltage (16V in this case)
- proper current capacity (4.5A)
- proper polarity (center positive)
- proper size plug (5.5mm OD, 2.5mm ID)

Assuming that you have all of those correct and have removed all of the "extras" and still are not able to power up the laptop, then there's probably a problem with the motherboard. If, on the other hand, your universal supply is/was set to more than 18V OR has/had the wrong polarity, then you may have caused some damage. If the supply can only deliver an amp or so, then that might also explain the problem you see.

You indicate that you think the power supply is getting "shorted". If that's the case, then I wouldn't use ANY other power supply on it until you locate the cause of the short. You can put one lead of an ohmmeter onto the center pin of the power jack and the other on the metal frame or screw on the I/O panel. You should measure something more than 10K. A T23 of mine measures 500K. A 600X shows 150K. Do the same on the battery terminals as well, although the resistance measurement will probably be different.

There are many things that can go wrong with the motherboard which present themselves as power-on problems. When you have a proper power supply, some basic things to check are:

- assuming you have a battery for the T30, does any of the LEDs light up when you plug in the AC adapter (keeping the system powered off)
- again, assuming you have a partially functioning battery, does the laptop turn on with just the battery alone
- if no battery is available, do any of the LEDs light up when the power button is pushed

[afiwannariot]

- assuming you have a battery for the T30, does any of the LEDs light up when you plug in the AC adapter (keeping the system powered off)

I do have a battery, and no, no lights come on.

- again, assuming you have a partially functioning battery, does the laptop turn on with just the battery alone

no, it looks like the battery is dead.

Another thing to note is that I was told something along the lines of "I think the power button might be broken, because the laptop won't turn on." Which to me indicates that it was never a faulty power supply or battery in the first place. I will look for an ohmeter around the office, I doubt we have one though, I might just end up scrapping this for parts if worse comes to worse.

Thank you for your suggestions and I will try to look into everything.

[afiwannariot]

I got everything stripped out this morning when I got to work, I completely removed the motherboard from the casing, upon inspection everything on the mother looks like it *should* be normal.

I tried plugging in the power supply with the ground screw still in to the power port while it was disconnected from the mobo and the adapter did not short out. When I plugged the mobo back in and tried it, it immediately shorted, which leads me to believe that it is not the power supply which is causing this, but rather, as you said earlier, the mobo OR this piece:



Sorry, I only have a cell phone camera. So it's either a motherboard, in which case I guess I am pretty much screwed, or its this board (power, usb, nic, etc).

I am still going to see about grabbing another PS to rule that out completely, and look for an ohmeter to test the power output. I guess if this doesn't work then I will officially announce my fire sale.