ThinkPad T30 2366 will not power on.

[irobotix]

ThinkPad T30 2366

Note: For all cases, except Case 2, the computer will not boot. But will sporadically boot. When it finally boots, I test it two to ten times in a row by cycling the power to verify the computer will not reproduce the problem. Unfortunately, after two to ten times the problem comes back and the computer will not boot. And Case 1 happens.

Case 1: Powers on intermittently and rarely and will not power on anything other than the lights and the speaker. Able to hold the power button for 1 second to power off. Sometimes it will power on and off properly [without booting], meaning when you press the button to turn it on, the lights [all lights, including the cd drive light, come on and go off except the battery and power light, they stay on] and speaker will come on. When you press the button to turn it off, it will turn off after a second.

Case 2: I took everything apart and cleaned the connections. Pushed down on the motherboard under the PCMCIA slot and the computer would power on perfectly. If I took the pressure away, it would not come on, it would go back to Case 1. I investigated the area under that part of the board and there was an unknown type of chip, it kind of looks like a tiny round cmos battery glued inside another piece, that was un-soldered [the solder was broken]. I re-soldered the connection. After putting everything back together, the screen [intermittently does not come on], the lights, and the speaker comes on. It won't power on like it was when I was pushing on the board under the PCMCIA slot. If I just kept some pressure there I might have been ok. The only difference here is now the screen sometimes powers on.

[RealBlackStuff]

Check all the other inductors (that's what you describe), they could be poorly/bad connected as well.

[irobotix]

I'll do that again more carefully, I suppose. I haven't been able to find anything apparently wrong.

In addition to Case 1 and Case 2, I noticed that the GPU gets hot and some other unknown microprocessor almost right next to it gets hot. The CPU obviously doesn't get any power. I figure this can't be good for the GPU so I keep it off as much as possible while troubleshooting.

Also I get different results when using the AC vs. THE BATTERY. The screen does not come on when the battery is being used. It reverts back to Case 1,

except that I still cannot shut off the computer without pulling the power to it, [this is a new issue, started after I Case 2 when I resoldered the broken connection]

NOTE: I forgot one thing about Case 2. When I first tested it after the fix, when powering on, it would power off immediately. It seemed to me that something must have been shorted. Either some metal fell on the board, which I doubt, or the solder sneaked into one of the nearby holes. Which might have burnt something out which isn't noticeable. And that's when the power would come on and the screen would come on with the AC plugged in.