Salvaging T400

[Cola]

Hi

I bought this T400 which wont start.

It shows the standard LED's when I press the power button, shotly after, it shuts down. Tried another DIMM, this time I get the 1-3-3-1 beep code error, which is either the motherboard or the DIMM, but as the DIMM came from my W500 which is in perfect working order, I figured it'd be the motherboard of my T400.

Opened it up, looks like it's waterlogged.


Now!
Is there anyway this is somehow salvagable? I mean, there must be some kind of way to fix the motherboard, or at least finding what exact part is causing the problem.

What would this require?


Thanks
Regards; Frederik.

[Neil]

It's not easy trouble shooting a liquid spill...almost anything, anywhere on the board could have shorted out. Most of the integrated circuit chips that can short out or burn up will be very difficult to impossible to replace anyway, even if you locate them.
But, you could start by checking all the fuses for continuity.
Much easier and less costly in the long run, to replace the planar.

[Cigarguy]

If you are lucky it's as simple as replacing the MB. Water damage and electronics can be down right nasty and very hard to diagnose and fix.

[Cola]

Hmm, my plan was to not do the easy solution by just replacing the motherboard.

Did some troubleshooting, to find out it was either the display connector on the motherboard or the display cable which is the problem.
It started up perfectly on an external monitor.

Got meself a weekend project now.

[Cola]

Update!

I had it all torn completely apart yesterday, now after trying different ram setups, different hard drives and various other things, I threw in an old hard drive which had run in an old Dell laptop with a P7250 CPU in it, so currently it's trying to repair windows. Can't wait to see if it boots.

[Cola]

Another update..

I put the T400 back together, tried installing both Windows 8 and Windows 7 on it (tried both X86 and X64 versions), but everytime after it restarts and configures the final stuff, it shuts down with a statical'ish sparky sound (Pretty sure it's the harddrive), and I have to restart the install. Has anyone got an idea of what this could be?

[emeraldgirl08]

Hmmm... if you haven't got a spare a hard drive then perhaps running a Linux Live distro (Ubuntu or Linux Mint) to see how stable your T400 runs after Linux has loaded the operating environment. You can either put the bootable Linux OS on any type of flash memory (USB stick, SDHC card, etc), CD, or DVD and push F12 when the ThinkPad splashscreen comes on at boot. You should then be able to choose from what device you would like to boot from.

Congratulations on your perseverance! I got a T400 as a project (pretty much devoid of internals and would not boot correctly) and after working on it here and there I have it running and it is my desktop replacement. It works extremely well for me now

[Cola]

Hmmm... if you haven't got a spare a hard drive then perhaps running a Linux Live distro (Ubuntu or Linux Mint) to see how stable your T400 runs after Linux has loaded the operating environment. You can either put the bootable Linux OS on any type of flash memory (USB stick, SDHC card, etc), CD, or DVD and push F12 when the ThinkPad splashscreen comes on at boot. You should then be able to choose from what device you would like to boot from.

Congratulations on your perseverance! I got a T400 as a project (pretty much devoid of internals and would not boot correctly) and after working on it here and there I have it running and it is my desktop replacement. It works extremely well for me now

Thanks! Really happy I got it running


About the Linux Live distro, actually a really good idea. I have used it a couple of times before, but to be honest, I had forgot all about it. Once again, thanks. I'll go check it out right away.

[emeraldgirl08]

De nada cola

When you get the T400 up and running give it a good scolding! It should not run off and go swimming on its own!

[Cola]

De nada cola

When you get the T400 up and running give it a good scolding! It should not run off and go swimming on its own!

Haha
Anyway, a little bit of sad news now, tried my own Ubuntu 11.10 Distro, didn't work. Tried a friends Ubuntu 12.04, and finally a freshly downloaded 12.10, none worked though. I managed to make it actually load the CD, after this it just shut down and refused to start again until I cut the power and plugged it in again. :S

[Cola]

[censored].. Just did a rather sad discovery while going through the pictures I took of the bare motherboard the other day:

http://i.imgur.com/m4XVg.jpg


Look at the black box with the text "C711" under it. :/
Looks melted to me

[Cigarguy]

RE: C711, hard to tell if this was a recent thing or a bad soldering job from the factory or a host of other issue. May not be a problem at all or the cause of all your problems.

That's the problem with water logged electronics. You just don't know where the Gremlins are hiding. It's a good excercise in problem solving, debugging and, for some, it's a nice project. If there's any sign of dampness at all, I'd take everything apart and leave it out to dry for a week or two to ensure that there's no residual moisture that could be shorting anything. Happy debugging.

[Cola]

RE: C711, hard to tell if this was a recent thing or a bad soldering job from the factory or a host of other issue. May not be a problem at all or the cause of all your problems.

That's the problem with water logged electronics. You just don't know where the Gremlins are hiding. It's a good excercise in problem solving, debugging and, for some, it's a nice project. If there's any sign of dampness at all, I'd take everything apart and leave it out to dry for a week or two to ensure that there's no residual moisture that could be shorting anything. Happy debugging.

Yeah, they can be quite the pain in the behind to figure out.
I have considered leaving it to dry for a while, but I'm pretty sure that the laptop was running when the liquid was spilled into it, also the previous owner probably tried starting the laptop as the first thing after spilling the liquid in it, which must have killed something.
I've found that the spill is especially around the WWAN card, WLAN card (PCI thing) and the display connector, so these are currently all disabled, making me able to actually install an operating system on the machine, but only until it actually has to read from the drive. Dunno if it's the S-ATA connector or just the hard drive. I have'nt tried my SSD yet (which is normally in my W500), as I'm too scared I'll kill it or something..

[Cigarguy]

I wouldn't risk your SSD in this machine just yet. Pick up a used HDD from the local classifieds. Last week I picked up two 7200 rpm 250 GB Hitachi HDD for $20 CDN each to experiment on. I wanted to try various Linux distro and don't feel like dual booting from my Win 7 SSD drive. 2 min to swap the drives.

[Radioguy]

You say you bought this. I hope you didn't pay much, and were well aware of the issue beforehand. If not, a return is in order.

DIY is only fun when you know what you're in for.

As for me, I'm waiting to run across an old discarded T4xx/T5xx on a sidewalk somewhere. Hell, I'd attempt to restore any old TP.

[Cola]

Cigarguy:
Thanks, currently I'll wait until I get a new hard drive to test it with, as I'm not too keen on killing my SSD.


Radioguy:
Yea, I paid 500 DKK for it (~85 $), well knowing of the condition of it. The seller told me that he had been given the laptop by a friend after doing some work for him. He said that it didn't have any signs that revieled water damage.. I bought it thinking it was just the CMOS battery or maybe the ram that needed changing, but oh well, I will still be able to get the same amount of money back by just selling it in parts (CPU, Keyboard, LCD, Ultrabay.. All of those still have quite a value to them).

But yeah, I really love spending my time on these laptops. I do find though, that the newer 400/500 series are quite more fun to work with, than the older 40-series.

[Cigarguy]

Looks like you did OK there Cola. You might luck out and find a relatively cheap T420 MB. Regardless for $85 bucks that's pretty good entertainment.....if that's the way you choose to look at it.

[Cola]

What? Why the T420 motherboard?


Anyway, I managed to find a T400 motherboard, chassis and buttom case (all working, including 1GB ram) for 80€ shipping included. Would that be worth it?

That'd mean I have paid around 1100 DKK (190$) for:
T400 complete (the current one with the fried MB),
T400 working motherboard
1GB ram (1 dimm)
Chassis (magnesium/titanium)
Top panel (the one above the keyboard)
Buttom case


Sounds alright to me.. Or?

[Cigarguy]

Oops sorry, typing error.

Assuming the MB was/is the only thing wrong and assuming the new MB is in good working order, then it's an OK deal.

[emeraldgirl08]

What? Why the T420 motherboard?


Anyway, I managed to find a T400 motherboard, chassis and buttom case (all working, including 1GB ram) for 80€ shipping included. Would that be worth it?

That'd mean I have paid around 1100 DKK (190$) for:
T400 complete (the current one with the fried MB),
T400 working motherboard
1GB ram (1 dimm)
Chassis (magnesium/titanium)
Top panel (the one above the keyboard)
Buttom case


Sounds alright to me.. Or?

Does the top panel have the LCD or LED frame? IIRC there is a physical difference between the both of them so you may want to get that information before springing for an WSXGA (not the WXGA) screen.

[Cola]

Does the top panel have the LCD or LED frame? IIRC there is a physical difference between the both of them so you may want to get that information before springing for an WSXGA (not the WXGA) screen.

I have got no idea, as I currently haven't even got a reliable way of testing whether or not display works.