T30 2366 wont power up, no light, nothing-please help

[gery350]

hello gentleman,
ive been on this website many times reading and learning. i have 2 t30 2366 laptops.
i gave one to my son this xmas. yesterday we swapped batteries. everything was fine.
he used the laptop for a while and powered it down. about an hour later he tried to turn it on and nothing. no power no lights, nothing. with the charger connected the battery/charge light doesnt even light up.
is it possible we may have blown a fuse or something. economic times makes it impossible to buy another laptop now and he uses it for college. i tried swapping batteries back but to no avail. no lights ever turn on. no response whatsoever. need help. any response would be greatly appreciated. thanks, gery

[sncdrvr]

I'm guessing problem caused by blown SMT fuses on motherboard, or power jack pigtail wires have a continuity problem. But 1st, verify you have good charger and battery on your 2nd T30. If problem machine wont boot with known good charger/battery, then remove optical drive, wireless card, modem card, ram, and harddrive from problem machine, and reboot. If it now powers up, reinstall hardware piece by piece until you discover the defective item, guessing no joy, but its step in troubleshooting process. Next, download Hardware Maintenance Manual, and study the step by step instructions for removing the motherboard. Inspect the motherboard for burnt SMT components(use good light/magnifying glass), and carefully inspect the power jack and pigtail for good continuity and integrity. Could be as simple as a broken jack, or pigtail not plugged firmly into board. Finally, if you cant find any apparent damage, reassemble it carefully, making sure that each electrical connecter is firmly/properly attached. You may be pleasantly surprised that it now works!

[gery350]

hey guys,
thanks for the response on my earlier post. well it appears that the motherboard on my t30 took a dump. ive been watching several on ebay. my question is the following: my motherboard part number is 91p7697/fru91p7698, ive seen several with part number 91p7695. will this work and/or will i lose any functionality by not using the exact number.
thanks in advance, gery

[RealBlackStuff]

Read this post: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=73062

Also: rather than create a new thread, you should answer in the same/first thread you made.
That way the whole 'story' stays together.

Admin note: Threads merged together

[gery350]

thanks guys.
i read a few threads and it appears that the difference in part numbers is with/without security chip. both part numbers are system 2 boards so it appears it will work(2.4 ghz).
thanks, gery

[gery350]

hello gentleman,
ok. i purchased a motherboard on ebay part number 91p7695. my understanding is that this MB (system2) works without the security chip(9678 with sec.chip/9675 w/o sec. chip). ok i compare both MB and the 9675 does have the slot for the sec.chip. my question is do i leave it empty(i believe that the orig. sec.chip is married to orig. MB). so do i assemble it with no sec. chip or does it in fact require a sec. chip in that slot.

thanks in advance for any help.
gery

[RealBlackStuff]

You leave the slot empty. Any chip in there will stop it functioning.
And you guess right, you can not swap sec.chips between mobos.

[sncdrvr]

I hope the new board fixes the machine. As some additional info, I recently bought a $29.95 T30 on EBay with same problem as yours. It was totally dead, fresh batteries and charger would not light any of the LED's or power it up. I found the problem after following the steps I gave you in 1st post and additionally checking all fuses, large caps, and inductors, everything looked great, so I reassembled it, and yes, still one dead T30. So, I plugged in a known good keyboard from one of my other T30"s, plugged in the charger, and the power LED which is actually mounted on the LCD ribbon cable assembly was lit! I pushed the "On" button, and the machine booted into Bios giving me the Date/Time needs to be set error! The origonal keyboard was bad. This as far as I've gotten in troubleshooting, I'm thinking loose ribbon cable connection or bad solder joint inside keyboard, will have to drill out the plastic rivets, seperate the halves, and find fix the problem. **As a further test, I plugged the bad keyboard into the good T30 I had pulled the good keyboard from, result, 1 dead T30, even with charger plugged in no LED's lit. This didnt hurt it, put good keyboard back in, using it now!** Without a doubt I can say bad keyboard cause of problem. Job demands keep me from investigating this any further right now, 3-4 weeks I'll update cause of bad keyboard and any additional related problems getting $29.95 EBay T30 running. Hope this helps.

[gery350]

hey guys,
thanks for all your help. i just got back from work and put it together. thank god it worked. at first i was just getting the ibm screen as if it wasnt recognizing the hard drive. i selected f12 to boot from temporary device and it worked and has been working since.

i updated the bios(not sure if i needed to)but i have 2 questions:

1.the battery light flashes green once every 2-3 seconds with the charger connected. my other t30s dont do that. is there something wrong there?
2.being it is a new motherboard should i do any other updates/configurations?


also i want to thank everyone who replied and helped me with this. i really couldnt afford to buy another laptop and my son needed it for school. so thanks qgqin, gery

[Harryc]

The battery LED behaves as such under normal conditions:

Charging -> Green, intermittent blinking
Charged, and still Plugged in -> Green, constant on
Running on battery -> Green, constant on
Running on battery, low -> Orange, constant on
Running on battery, very low -> Orange, steadily blinking

So in your case the blinking green light means the battery is charging. It should go solid green eventually.

[gery350]

The battery LED behaves as such under normal conditions:

Charging -> Green, intermittent blinking
Charged, and still Plugged in -> Green, constant on
Running on battery -> Green, constant on
Running on battery, low -> Orange, constant on
Running on battery, very low -> Orange, steadily blinking

So in your case the blinking green light means the battery is charging. It should go solid green eventually.

awesome thanks. wasnt sure cause my other t30 has a solid green as its charging. just wanted to make sure that it wasnt a fault message such as overvoltage.
thanks again, gery