Fried T60, passworded drive and hacked cable--what to do?

[Shadowpool]

Hello everyone!

My T60 is about six months old. I've been loving it until a few weeks ago when my power cable developed a broken wire. I had to carefully place the cable in a certain position for the laptop to get power, so I decided to send it in under warranty. Unfortunately, before I finished backing my stuff up, all the lights on the laptop lit, the OS froze and I had to remove the battery and power cord to turn the laptop off. It wouldn't turn on again after that. Maybe it shorted?

I spent a week trying to get my laptop to turn on again. I've tried pressing the power button a bunch, holding it down for more than a minute, I've left it without power for a few days, I've taken it apart, removed the cmos battery, etc. --It's really dead. No lights, fans, or spinning hard drive.

I have a lot of important confidential things on my hard drive so I can't just send the laptop in without backing up and wiping that drive. I tried plugging the drive into my regular computer, but I just get a no OS error even though my regular computer's bios recognizes the drive. I'm assuming this is because the drive is passworded--my computer doesn't seem to know to prompt for that drive password so it can't read it. I suppose I need another Thinkpad to read my drive.

So I get desperate and cut my power cord where the broken wire is--right next to the part that plugs into the laptop--and I soldered the wires together then epoxied the soldered connections to the part that plugs into the laptop. I plug this in and the power cord and battery charging lights turn on--but the laptop stays dead no matter what.

I'm faced with two problems: I can't send the laptop in with that hard drive and I can't send it with my hack job power cable. Or can I? Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

[ryengineer]

1. If the defect was merely with AC adapter in the first place, you could've requested IBM for a replacement. For that you did not have to send out your machine for repair services, IBM would've had sent you a replacement in the mail.

2. Misuse of your machine or any of it's part is one's own business and should be done on own discretion of the user.

3. T6x uses SATA HDD's

4. You don't have to send out anything to repair services with your machine that is not part of the problem. You can safely remove, HDD, user installed additional memory modules, Ultrabay battery, media bay, battery, AC Adapter.

5. Kindly call IBM at 1-800-426-7378 (24/7)! to arrange repair arrangements.

Good Luck!

[andyP]

Shadowpool wrote:

(snip)...I suppose I need another Thinkpad to read my drive. ...(snip)

You will be able to use your hdd in another TP, also if they renew your mainboard in service. When you start the TP, the PW prompt will appear.

[carbon_unit]

I would start by contacting IBM and having them send you a power supply. After you get the power supply contact them and send the Laptop in for repair minus the hard drive and power supply. When it gets back I would try the hard drive and if it is dead they will send you one.
If you lost your data then you just learned the importance of backups, no one can help you there. Don't destroy the hard drive before you send it back or they will charge you for one.

[jamesqf]

Also, there are disk recovery services that may be able to recover the data even if the disk is damaged.

[carbon_unit]

That depends on how valuable your data is to you. Most of these services run anywhere from $500.00 to $1000.00 to recover your data.

[ryengineer]

If you were to return the abused AC Adapter to IBM, consider yourself fortunate if you don't get charged for the misused equipment.

[barrywohl]

If you were to return the abused AC Adapter to IBM, consider yourself fortunate if you don't get charged for the misused equipment.

I agree. Also, I never buy a ThinkPad with only one AC Adapter. I've got several for my soon to be delivered T61p. My minimum would be one for work, one for home and one extra for backup and travel.

You can get a USB enclosure for your hard drive and attach it to any handy USB equipped computer to try to read it.

[andyP]

barrywohl wrote:

You can get a USB enclosure for your hard drive and attach it to any handy USB equipped computer to try to read it.

This will unfortunately not work, because

shadowpool wrote:

snip..this is because the drive is passworded..snip

see this thread

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

it is possible to use the drive in another TP or if needs be delete the PW and then use the hdd in a USB caddy.

[Shadowpool]

I just wanted to say thanks for the advice. This is sort of an old thread, but I hate it when people just take my advice and leave. So here I am. Anyway, I think I'll call that number. My poor T60 is still sitting cold on a desk collecting dust.