T30 and the blue shock absorber

[burns334]

How do you get to the blue shock absorber (for removal) ? Is it the spongy one on the bottom of the unit?

[Neil]

The rubber button on the bottom of the machines isn't blue it it? There is a blue foam pad attached to the underside of the motherboard to act as something of a shock absorber between the motherboard and the inside bottom of the case. You would have to completely disassemble the laptop to get to that. What are you trying to accomplish?

[burns334]

Right, the bottom one is not blue on the outside, just thought that might be it. I thought the consenses of opinion was that to protect one's RAM slots the blue one should be removed. I have not seen any directions on how to do that. Can you remove keyboard and see it? do you have to dig deeper?

[jronald]

I have been into maybe 20 T'30s, I have never seen one. Somebody take a picture please.

Ron

[Neil]

Come to think of it, Ron, I've only seen it on one of the T30s I've recently taken apart. I would gladly shoot a picture, but I destroyed the two remaining motherboards I had, and have since given them away for parts, so no pictures.

And, burns334, no you can't see it with only the keyboard removed. You will have to remove everything including the motherboard to get at it. That's why I wrote "completely" disassemble earlier. Plus, if you already have RAM socket problems, removing the shock absorber won't help. It "might", and only "might, improve air flow enough to prevent a problem from developing, but I'm of the opinion that flexing, and not heat, is the primary cause of the RAM socket solder joints breaking.

[jronald]

I have used cardboard shims to "fix" two boards I have (and have kept). All of the T30 that have 2 good slots that I currently own I have installed at least PC2700 in and then shimmed them. I figure with the extra headroom of the higher PC ram and the shim I probably cant go wrong. Hammerhead Tech's repairs have impressed the heck out of me, they specialize in T30 memory slots.

Ron

[sncdrvr]

The blue hard drive shock shock absorber is glued to the cicuit board under the hard drive cage, consult the T30 Hardware Maintenance Manual for disassembly instructions. Approximately 1/3 of the boards I've seen still have it installed, never seen it on a IBM refurbished or warranty board. I've found them most often on 1.6 or 1.8 never opened for repair machines. Refurbished or warranty boards often have newer FRU stickers over old origonal ones, round clear amber sticker tape over replaced electronic components, and all appear to have resoldered ram slots. I'm thinking the ram slot problem warranted boards were "remanufactured" by IBM and then reused for warranty work. IBM apparently had determined that the absorber stressed the ram slots, so they removed it.

[RealBlackStuff]

3 out of the 5 T30 mobos I have, also have this blue foam pad under the HD cage.
All 5 of them are original, and all came with 2.0GHz CPU.

[richk]

The blue shock absorber was removed from later boards. It contributed to slot failure by slightly flexing the MB. If you thad your board repaited under warranty, (long ago, and far away) they removed it. They also installed the thicker slot cover.

[jronald]

Someone, PLEASE post a picture of the stupid thing.

Ron

[RealBlackStuff]

It's a blue rectangle of about 1/2" x 1-1/8", situated under the plastic foil of the HD cage, or plainly visible if there is no HD cage.
You either have it, or you don't.

[RealBlackStuff]

OK, here's a picture of it: http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt56 ... bumper.jpg

[jronald]

OK I call BS, I would need to see some sort of "deflection report" signed by someone a whole lot smarter than me to agree with this. I was expecting something the size of the HDD.

Ron

[Neil]

Ron, I don't have the credentials but, the picture RBS put up is exactly what I've seen on a couple of the T30 motherboards I've removed from the base. That IS the shock absorber that all the fuss is about.

[jronald]

Dont doubt for a moment thats it, but to cause all the problems it does? Geez.

Ron

[burns334]

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt56 ... bumper.jpg

I think I've gotten a lot smarter on this "blue shock absorber" and after looking at RBS's picture above I was wondering if you guys think you could see this "blue shock absorber" if you remove the hard drive and look into or under the slot? ie to determine if you should disassemble your machine.

[RealBlackStuff]

You need to remove the HD cage to see if that bumper is there or not.

[burns334]

Well that's a lot less work than taking the mobo out just to see if you have it!