Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
I have a Thinkpad W500 which has unfortunately died, getting nothing, not even starting POST, no lights, noises, nothing. Looking at various forums and the Lenovo website it sounds like my motherboard has passed away.
I have some information on the hard disk that I'd like to recover, it's a 160GB SATA disk (FRU 45N7251).
Is there anyway I can connect this via USB or other means to another PC - I don't have another Thinkpad - to extract the data?
I've searched around and although there are various caddies out there, none of them - that I've found - would allow me to mount the disk and connect via USB to another PC.
Any help / advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Welcome to the forum.
Something like this will do the trick: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-5-SATA-USB-2- ... 0798201015

Have you tried:

1) removing the battery and unplugging the W500
2) pressing the power button on and off for 10 counts and then holding the power button down for 10 secs
3) repeat X3
4) put your battery back in and plug the W500 to AC
5) try powering on the W500

Let us know if it worked or not.

Hi,
emeraldgirl08, tried your suggestion, it made no difference.
RealBlackStuff, thank you, I've found a local equivalent and ordered one.
Thanks both for your prompt responses, much appreciated.

NP. Sorry to hear about the W500

Wish the results went the other way- as in laptop coming back to life! Extracting data with an external should not be a problem. Good luck

1) removing the battery and unplugging the W500
2) pressing the power button on and off for 10 counts and then holding the power button down for 10 secs
3) repeat X3
4) put your battery back in and plug the W500 to AC
5) try powering on the W500

It's also usually necessary to remove the CMOS battery while doing this- as that's it's job; to save the data for the BIOS even when both sources of power are disconnected. The CMOS battery is underneath the keyboard, plugged in. You'll need to take off the palmrest, then the keyboard to get at it- it looks like this: http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/ ... VfEkFQ.jpg

The reason emeraldgirl asked you to do this is because if your ATI chip is the problem(as it usually is on these machines) then doing this process causes the BIOS to reset, and boot into Intel graphics only. Hopefully it will allow the machine to post.

But indeed- regardless, getting your data off will be easy, and even if the motherboard is toast, the W500 has loads of goodies in it- the screen is pretty valuable provided it's not a cheap 1280x800 replacement, heatsink is pretty valuable, and RAM too. Really sorry to hear your W500 has decided to bite the dust... W500s are pretty nice machines.