Thinkpads Forum

Edit: Money will be donated to this forum

The backstory: I was on my computer, using the IBM 20v 90w AC adapter when I heard a loud pop from the adapter. Immediately I hear a loud high pitch whine from the lower left, I think, of the computer. I unplug the AC adapter and the whine is still present. Plug it back it in and the computer shuts down and will not restart. I reset the system board with the 10 power button presses and it starts back up but the screen is flickering. Then it shuts back down and will not reset, even using the system board reset.

When I plug in a new adapter with computer off, its seems to partially boot. I hear the h/d working and the computer gets hot on the bottom.

I ordered a new system board and installed it without drama. Once installed, the charge LED illuminates. When I attempt to boot it, the caps lock and other various LEDs briefly illuminate, correctly, and the activity LED stays illuminated. However no further booting progress is made. No error beeps either.

I have tried plugging it into an external monitor and still nothing appears, which would seem to rule out that the screen is defective. Does that seem correct? I took it to a repair place for them to load the serial number and such, but they were unsuccessful because they couldn't get the computer to turn on.

My question is: what could be causing the booting problem? It seems that the processor is the most likely culprit, but don't want to just buy one to find out. Was the repair place I took it to wrong and the computer will act this way without the serial number loaded into the system board? Any other suggestions?


Thanks!

It´s nice to see more and more people willing to donate to TP Forum

First, if I help you, you can give the $50 to charity or buy your wife a gift. A question: Who did you buy the board from? Are you sure it is good? First, remove the battery, hard drive and optical drive and try again on A/C. Assuming nothing changes, remove both memory chips and try again. You should hear beps in a 1-3-3-1 pattern. If nothing shanges (no beeps), remove the wireless card, WWAN or Turbo memory (if you have them) and modem (the other parts connected to the bus). If you do get beeps after removing memory, try the memory chips one at a time.

Hmm, good point

Edit: Richk, I'll give it a go and let you know. If your answer proves helpful, I'll donate the money to this site. This goes for anyone else.

PatrickE wrote:If your answer proves helpful, I'll donate the money to this site. This goes for anyone else.

Dude, you rock

Sigh....I really don't like to see money changing hands for technical advice here because it sets a dangerous precedent. It's quite against the idea of free data exchange upon which this forum was built. We'll allow a donation to charity however. Any attempts to discuss pay for technical advice will get this thread locked.

Harryc wrote:Sigh....I really don't like to see money changing hands for technical advice here because it sets a dangerous precedent. It's quite against the idea of free data exchange upon which this forum was built. We'll allow a donation to charity however. Any attempts to discuss pay for technical advice will get this thread locked.

Fair enough. Original thread edited. Back to the technical discussion at hand, I followed richk's advice. Removed optical drive, hdd, wwan, wireless, modem and both memory chips. Still no beeps or any change. I purchased the system board through IBM parts if it matters.

Reading through the HMM, its places blame on the memory chips. Guess I will go pick up one and see what happens.

If there are no beeps with no memory, the problem isn't memory. You should get a "no memory" beep patter: 1-3-3-1. Is it possible the speaker isn't plugged in or is muted?

richk wrote:If there are no beeps with no memory, the problem isn't memory. You should get a "no memory" beep patter: 1-3-3-1. Is it possible the speaker isn't plugged in or is muted?

The speakers are plugged in. From what I can tell, they are not muted. According to the HMM, "No beep, power-on indicator on, and LCD blank during POST" possible remedies are 1) Reseat DIMM and 2) System board. Reseating the dimm didn't work and the system board is new.

It sounds like it could be the CPU. If you have another I would give it a try. If you don't send me a PM and I can send you one to try.

Brad

First, if the initial problem was a loud noise from the AC adapter, don't use that adapter unless you have the ability to test it. If the adapter caused high voltage and wrecked the first board, using it on another machine seems wrong.