I did something stupid - did I kill my R31? Please help

[willf]

Hello,
Not using my head, I did something really stupid, and am wondering if I killed my machine.
I picked up a refurbished R31 yesterday to replace my dying A30. I pulled the 30GB drive from the A30, and, not thinking, stuck it into the R31 without first formatting the drive.
When I tried to turn on the machine, nothing happened at all. Then, realizing what I'd done, I pulled the drive and replaced it with the original one, only to find that the machine still wouldn't turn on. I let it sit for a while without the AC or battery, and then did the 15 power button pushes and held it down for 30 seconds. This revived the machine, it booted back up to its original state, and I thought I was in the clear. However, after about ten minutes of use, the machine went dead again, which seemed to coincide with my touching the machine underneath, near the HDD enclosure. Then, in order to get it operable again, I had to do the 15 button push, etc. It comes back to life, only to die again after moving the machine or touching the bottom.
Did I fry the mobo in my stupidity? Is there something else that I could maybe try? Any suggestions at all?
I should also mention that I didn't have the computer for more than an hour before I did this, so I'm not able to say if this was maybe a pre-existing condition.
Thanks so much for any help you can offer on this.
will

[JHEM]

Send the machine back to the seller!

Nothing you did could have resulted in the problems you're having.

The HD from your R30 should have booted up and then gone into a flurry of finding new drivers due to the change in MBs.

Regards,

James

[willf]

Thanks a lot. I thought as much.
So it seems this is probably a bad mobo? Or could it be a short of some kind?
Thanks again.

[willf]

I forgot to add that I also noticed the clock will not keep accurate time either. Is this indicative of anything specific? Could the backup battery need to be replaced?
I'm planning to return the machine to the seller tomorrow. Can anyone suggest what might be causing these issues, so that I can relate this information to them?
Thank you much.

[JHEM]

Let the seller sort the problem out!

You bought a "refurbished" system, it doesn't work, send it back.

Don't try to be too helpful, they could wind up accusing you of doing something nefarious under the bonnet!

Regards,

James

[Thane_Bitter]

I forgot to add that I also noticed the clock will not keep accurate time either. Is this indicative of anything specific? Could the backup battery need to be replaced?

Hi Willf,
If the system clock is not keeping time then I suspect that the CMOS battery needs to be replaced; it's located under the keyboard, you can find the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) on either Lenovo's or IBM's websites.

As JHEM said, switching the hard drive is not going to cause the problems you have described. Returning to the seller is your best option, either for a full refund or replacement, it sounds like something is cracked/loose inside. If this helps, I have owned my TP R31 for just over 4 years and I can pick it up and move it about without any issues - I had a friend with a DELL laptop (forgot which series) which had an issue similar to yours and required a new mainboard, as well as a few other parts.

All that said, if your bored you could check out a few things, on the R30/31's the memory, mini-pci and hard drive are all basically in that same area. Check to see of the memory is seated correctly (memory is under the flat panel on the bottom of your TP), do the same for the mini-pci card if you have one installed (it’s under the raised panel, directly under the hard disk).

Likely the previous owner/owners dropped the laptop causing the problem.

Good luck with the seller,

Thane

[Thane_Bitter]

All that said, if your bored you could check out a few things, on the R30/31's the memory, mini-pci and hard drive are all basically in that same area. Check to see of the memory is seated correctly (memory is under the flat panel on the bottom of your TP), do the same for the mini-pci card if you have one installed (it’s under the raised panel, directly under the hard disk).

Hmmm, on second thought, leave things as they are.
If you can, demonstrate the problem to the seller (assuming you bought it from a physical store) - let them try to explain why it will not boot & shuts down if moved.

[willf]

Thanks for the tips, thane. I did check out the memory and mini-pc last night, both of which seemed seated correctly in there.
The seller has instructed me to bring the unit back to him so that his tech folks can check it out. He assured me that the problem would be resolved 100%. I hope that turns out to be true.
But I was mainly just curious to know if this sounded like a mainboard problem or if it might be something else entirely. It's odd the way it just completely cuts out like that. I'm simply hoping to be armed with a bit of knowledge before I show up there tomorrow. Hopefully they'll replace it entirely, but I have the feeling they're going to attempt to repair it, which is why I'd like to have some clue as to what they'll be doing.
Thanks again everyone.

[JHEM]

First thing they should do is replace the CMOS battery.

Regards,

James

[storage_man]

When you R&R the harddrive, there should be some WHITE insulating tape on the drive caddy. Since you said when you pressed on the area near the drive itself, the system crashed. This leads me to believe, that there maybe a short or grounding of the drive. Make sure that the drive doesnot contact any other components in the drive bay.

Storage_man