T60P No Ac Power - Will boot off battery - Dead in the water

[2000ZxT]

Ok so here's the whole story. My original charger wore through where the charger plugs into the laptop, after I saw some sparks I cut it off and duct taped (it was legit (for a while)) the connector onto the appropriate connections. Now this worked for about two weeks when I was in bed and it died suddenly, it had stopped charging. I am pretty sure the wires came loose and the charger was shorting out. I do not know exactly what this would damage.

I bought a new charger but it will not accept the AC power. I plugged it and AC power light does not come on. With the battery in it will start to boot normally but soon dies because the battery is dead.

I have tried everything. Completely dissembled and visually checked and I did the "static discharge" feature to no avail. I tried unplugging the motherboard completely and everything but it seems I have fried some kind of voltage regulator (or something of the like?) on the motherboard.

If anyone has had this problem and knows generally where/what the problem is I would be interested to fix the board myself, or at least attempt as the repairs cost as much as the motherboard itself.

This is a T60P with ATI Firegl 5200 integrated video, I think this might present a problem when trying to locate a new motherboard. Any and all advice is much appreciated this laptop is my main computer and I am at a standstill without it. Thanks in advance.

[Harryc]

There's a 95% chance that you blew a fuse on the systemboard. How are you with a multimeter, a soldering iron, and very tiny electronics? It's bad mojo to run a Thinkpad on a marginal AC adapter.....as you found out.

[richk]

There are fuses, mostly on the bottom of the board, under a plastic sheet. The thing must be completely disassembled to get at them. You might have blown a fuse and you might have "cooked" something else. The fuses are surface mounted and the solder is lead-free, which has a high melting point. It is not a job for a "radio shack" soldering iron. Is your machine a traditional 4:3" (14" or 15") machine or the 15.4" wide-screen model? The MBs are more expensive than others, but the 4:3 ones are easier to find than the 15.4" ones.

I'm not sure I agree with Harry. I think that the chances are 50%-50% that it is a fuse.

[2000ZxT]

I have it all apart. I am very good at soldering, I don't have a RoHS iron but Ill have to buy one, just one more tool.

Anyways I took some macro pics of the board but can't upload them yet cause I have no software on here. Ill try to get them up in a bit. am really hoping its a fuse.

I gues my next question is what is what on the power socket. I assumed the pin was the positive and the sheild was the ground, but it looks like the two red wires which come off the sheild of the power connector are the ones that are fused coming right onto the board and therefore the power feed. That is labelled "F2" and is grey/very deep blue color. I suppose the colors might indicate the condition of them but these are unlikes fuses I deal with.

It is the 15.4" model.

[richk]

I always believe you never have too many tools, but I suggest testing the fuses with an ohm meter before you buy anything. It is hard to unsolder things with an iron. It is a multi-layer board that acts like a heat sink. If you were a repair shop, you would use a preheater and a temperature-controlled, fine-tip air gun. People with irons often solder a 2nd fuse on top of the blown one.

[2000ZxT]

Soldering a fuse on top of it sounds like a good idea, I don't think there should be a clearance issue as they are so tiny anyways. And yes you can't have too many tools. I'll pick up a new multimeter today and test the fuse(s).

My biggest question is where can I buy those fuses, and/or what is the rating on the fuses, ...mouser or digikey probably? Is there any Lenovo "shop manual"? Thanks again guys, I am pretty confident it's the fuses based on the way it will boot normally for a few seconds.

[richk]

The manual doesn't have circuit diagrams.

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 137_02.pdf

[kiefer]

I have the exact same situation except that I have a T60 X1400 board.

I believe at least it's the broken fuse ( F2, Littelfuse 429007 http://doc.chipfind.ru/littelfuse/429007.htm). However I haven't figured out how to fix that and I'm not skillful to replace 2mm*4mm little fuses on a motherboard. Maybe I'll just try to short cut the fuse.

If anyone need a full diagram of T60 board, PM me pls

If anyone or you know someone around Monreal, Canada can do this for cheap, pls PM me too.

Update: I have found a really nice guy and he replaced the before mentioned small chip from another Thinkpad board for just a very little fee and my troubled T60 works like new right now!