Thinkpads Forum

Was working sitting on the couch using my T60 wide and moved the laptop and heard a "zzzzt." Took me a minute to see that the power adapter cord right at the end (that plugs into the laptop) was frayed right at the end of the cable. Unplugged it immediately and went and got another, wondering all the while how long it had been that way.

When I plugged the good adapter in, it would not show as being plugged in. The machine worked fine, on battery. But it will not charge with any adapter I tried.

Is this the charging circuit (F2 I guess) fuse? Is this a Radio Shack part? I'm willing to try piggybacking since the unit is pretty useless to me otherwise.

Thanks for any help you can give. I have accumulated 12 Thinkpads for my 3rd grade classroom and I'm always working on one of the other to keep them working. This one was my "baby" that I relied on at home.

David

The F2 fuse protects the DC input jack. If it goes, then you can't run the system via the AC adapter at all. If you remove the battery while connecting a known good AC adapter and there's no signs of power, then it could be the fuse. However, based on past experience, a "zzzzt" sound, if it indeed came from within the laptop and not from the damaged DC plug, is more serious than a fuse. Before buying a fuse, I'd look inside the system and see if you can see any other obviously damaged components. Pay particular attention to 8-legged chips that look something like this:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t2x/let.jpg

Those are transistors (MOSFET) and there should be a couple of them near the F2 fuse. I doubt that Radio Shack would carry a Littelfuse 7A fuse. I get mine from Mouser.com or Digikey.com. Part number should be 576-0429007.WRML:

http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.asp ... 29007.WRML
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/e ... 29007.WRML

Murphy's Law says that, "A transistor protected by a fast-acting fuse will protect the fuse by blowing first.".

The zzzt was from the adapter cable. It is toast. The ground wrap is frayed and the inner core is almost broken.

I guess I'll have to open the old guy up.

Thanks

So the machine works on A/C but won't charge the battery. Another battery swapped in and it works fine until the battery runs out. Given my workload I'm not going to have time (and really micro soldering isn't a strength) to try and suss the fuse.

So should I just swap in another MB, or base w/MB?

Or just part it out..

David

you have 12? pull the hard drive and put it in another t60

Already did that, but this one is my personal favorite as it is a widescreen.

I could probably get you a new board, but if you want to upgrade I could get you a T61 board and you can make a frankenpad, or we could use a T61 base and transfer your parts over to it. The T60 board would be the cheapest option, but there are others.