a21p power problem solved relatively cheaply

[squat12]

I have an a21p, which I think is one of the best laptops ever manufactured. It had served me flawlessly for the past 3.5 years, while traveling all over the globe, until just recently. It suddenly developed a propensity to power off randomly, usually after 15-30 min of use, and would refuse to power back on immediately. The problem I was seeing was very similar to the one described in this forum post:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=2538

... after finding out that I was 2 months out of warranty, and that it would likely cost me $500-$800 to have the problem fixed by a repair center, I thought it was the end of the line for the faithful beast. However, after perusing Ebay for a few days, I found someone selling NEW a21p mainboards for a buy-it-now price of $50. I gambled and bought one, found the IBM disassembly .pdf file on the IBM website, and replaced the board myself.

Result? Upon powering up the a21p after assembly, it worked immediately and flawlessly. I flashed the bios to the most recent May 2004 revision, and after cleaning the keyboard and installing a new trackpoint nipple, it feels like a brand new laptop. I'm extremely pleased, and it cost me virtually nothing. I've seen other a21p mainboards for sale on Ebay for the same price, so I would overwhelmingly recommed this to someone who has an a21p with the same problem, or any mainboard-related problem, for that matter.