Thinkpads Forum

-- some long selfish intro --
All right, how to begin...
I had different laptops, and always loved the idea of a portable computer that is always with you,
your tool for work and leisure time. It first began with X61t -- after all that crappy (other brands list)
laptops this one -- with the IPS screen was a brilliant machine (and still working perfectly).
Found this forum (in 2008) and read it rather often (without posting though).
Then it was T60p, learned to disassemble and assemble it with eyes closed -- changed everything:
SXGA to UXGA, palm rest with FR (was without one), got a T7600 CPU, Middleton BIOS, 802.11n WiFi.
Then I saw a broken lid 14" T61p (4x3!) with 570m -- got it, gone through swapping planars, got 8Gb RAM,
T9500, made it run at 2.8 (double IDA on ThrottleStop), SSD. On T61p put a new lid and SXGA screen.
Both machines still work perfectly.
I use Visual Studio, but also sometimes do vector drawings (logos and such) and study students. After
watching some absolutely brilliant online courses at Coursera I got it that a tablet is also can be used
to lead the presentation flow and make explanations incredibly more understandable. So when a W700
appeared in Japan without HDDs, HDD caddies, HDD slot cover, AC and RAM grabbed it and after some search bought
HDD cover for 3$ at TaoBao (man, in some shops they wanted almost 40$ for it o_O) and made it go.
What a brilliant machine. Put in bluetooth 4.0 for wireless headphones and mouse
(all BT modules are interchangeable for modern ThinkPads).
Also began some modifications on my own -- will post them as soon as I solve current situation.
-- end of long selfish intro --
So I found on ebay a W701ds for parts -- in Spain (bad motherboard and/or GPU was in description).
Seller was very kind to agree to ship to Russia. And so, laptop arrived in may with 2 230W AC adapters
and docking station.
Well, of course I verified battery works -- put it in W700 -- battery works, check. AC adapters also
work perfectly. W701ds Laptop had no CPU, no RAM -- RAM from W700 is 1333, so must work in W701,
got i7 CPU.

Turning on the W701ds resulted in following:
- No battery, AC plugged -- immediately all LEDs, FP reader and ThinkLight blink for 0,1sec then pause 3 sec, no fans spinning, no beeps no POST,
pressing power button results in nothing;
- Battery in, no AC -- sitting quiet, pressing power button results in the blinking sequence above;
- Battery in, after AC plugging in -- the blinking sequence runs and after disconnecting AC continues, no reaction from power button, to stop must disconnect battery.

Began disassembling -- checked planar and GPU MXM (Quadro 3800M) for mechanical damage, burns, spills -- nothing.
disconnected everything, disconnected HDD IO/ExpressCard sub card, disconnected USB/Audio IO board, WiFi etc -- left only
motherboard, CPU, GPU, keyboard, speaker, primary LCD and leds board connected -- same behaviour, no fans, no beeps.
And what may be important -- battery is not charing/battery led is off when AC and battery connected.
Well that was somewhat expected behaviour -- laptop was sold for parts, so its fair.

Then new motherboard arrived. FRU 60Y5654. In good package, promised by shop to be perfectly working.
Well I installed it -- no WiFi boards and stuff, only planar, CPU & fan, GPU & fan, RAM, LCD, status LED board, keyboard, battery, speaker.
-- AC Plugging in -- power LED on. Pressing power button -- nothing! Ok, disconnecting AC, left battery -- power still on!
-- Battery LED is dark though 100% working battery connected.
-- Removed RAM -- no beeps.
-- Done some static discharge mantra with power button -- nothing.
-- On battery without AC -- all black till pressing of power button then power LED is lit, but blinks every 2-3 seconds for 0,2 sec.
Nice start, huh?

So further investigations:
-- Checking if CPU is bad. But have no i7 gen one quadcore laptops nearby -- what the heck after some (rather unsuccessful googling)
I put out the CPU out of T60, T61 and W700 and checked their behaviour -- if no CPU is present then power manager is working anyway, so before
power button is pressed they charge battery, and several LEDs blink on turning them on (no beeps though) and they can be turned off by pressing the power button again. That behaviour seems to be very more alive, right?
-- CPU was disconnected with its fan, planar was located standalone on a working table on a sheet of antistatic -- however, no progress and same behaviour;

-- Check about if GPU is needed to beep. No spare MXM GPU of course, just disassembled W700, removed GPU with heatsink and fan and turned it on -- fans
are spinning, there are beep sequence. So there is a almost 100% possibility that W700/W701ds also tries to start and beeps even completely without GPU (google didn't provide answer for this too).

So seeking if a CPU/GPU is bad is not smart right now -- there are more severe symptoms with system board.

-- Checked CMOS battery with multimeter -- 3.14 V;
-- Checked AC voltage -- all good.

So maybe this planar is also dead, but symtoms are somewhat different. It is not cheap also.
Found the schematics for W700 (cannot find schematics for W701/W701ds though).
What are the reasonable next steps?

Located a planar KBC embedded controller its Hitachi F2112TE25H H8S 2112V;
Located CPU power controller ON ADP3212;

Any advice to check -- somehow check shortage, maybe measure some pins? I googled that besides 20V main voltage on planar
also 3.3V and 5V voltages also are converted by powering circuitry.

This situation is in some way frustrating and bringing down -- but this is anyway new knowledge.
Sorry for huge post.

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

It appears you have done some basic checks on the system (removing all hardware, including memory and listening for the expected beep code). At this point since you have the schematics, I would check all of the fuses to make sure none of them are defective. I do not have any experience with the W series system but I would check if there is a TPS51221 device as it appears to be the main controller for the 3.3V and 5V supplies. If it is like some other laptop power controllers, if it detects an incorrect voltage or current condition at power-up, it will automatically shut down.

AFAIK the main difference between W700 and W701 is the CPU.
W700: C2D/C2E
W701: i7
The W700 uses that TPS51221 chip.
Presumably the W701 does the same...

What is the 7-character TYPE of your laptop (looks like TYPE 2500-3FU), and what is the P/N of the 'new' motherboard?

Yeah, found a TPS 51222 chip near battery connector. Fuse there seems to be OK.
According to TI specs, it's same by structure and features as TPS 51221 (TPS 51222 appears to have
a little more voltage range though -- input up to 39V, and 51221 is up to 35V by abs.max.rat., etc)

Well, in an hour-two I try to measure and will post pictures of planar and fragments.
Thank you guys for responding.

Ok, here's some data:

Plugged only motherboard, status indicators board, battery. Nothing more, no CPU, no GPU.
After plugging AC power power indicator is on and there are 'blinks' of all leds every 3-4 seconds.
No keyboard attached, no power button pressed.
If battery is attached with no AC -- then everything seems off, and when ac plugged
power and battery indicators are on, but these blinks also occur, and
when AC removed, blinks continue from battery.
Here's section of planar 1 with power controller TPS5122 near battery connector:
http://i61.tinypic.com/140hnpg.jpg
Here's section of planar 2 with power controller TPS5122 near battery connector:
http://i62.tinypic.com/n6t546.jpg

And here's measurements of planar 1 of voltage on pins of TPS5122
-- when blink occur, top pin voltages change during blink's 0,1-0,3 sec --
as long as no power button is pressed -- something may not be right here


Laptop serial is 4323-CTO, so there's not much detail on its initial config.
Both motherboards' FRU is 60Y5654

Also I thought maybe schematics from Wistron Kendo-1 WS (as far as I understand, it's W510)
is closer to W701 as it also has quadcore i7, 4 memory slots, powered usb port, and TPS51222RTV
System DC/DC controller (not sure if its much different from TPS51222 on W701ds planar).

Will keep googling and searching.

Admin edit: Removed two inline images. We request that you limit images to a total of around 50KB AND put a *PIC* warning in the original subject line. Some people browse the forum with mobile devices and this keeps their data usage to a minimum.

Those electronics are well above my paygrade.
If that new mobo does not work, return it for a refund or replacement...