IBM R40 2897 - Motherboard replaced - Does not boot ?!?!

[cdrozario]

Hi,

Sorry about this long post. I didnt want to miss any information which might be helpuf in troubleshooting this issue.

Background

IBM R40 Model 2897

I had a spill on my R40 more than a year back. Someone dropped some high quality beer accidently !! :/
I did not notice when this occurred, but it got turned off automatically at some point. About 2 hours later, when I tried to turn it on, the green power indicator flashed a couple of times and finally got dead. It never turned on after that.

The liquid seemed to seep thru somewhere near the power pin and a small portion of the circuitary around the area got burnt off. Subsequently, I pulled off the hard drive and is currently using it on my T40 without any issues.

I suspected that I would need to change my motherboard and left it that way for more than a year. Recently I got a motherboard on ebay (a refurbished one for R40 models 2681, 2682, 2683, 2898, 2899. Mine is a 2897. And this one is of the same size and had all ports as on my R40)

Issue and Symptoms

I replaced the mobo and put back my old processor, CD drive and other parts.

I powered it on and the power inicator showed a steady amber color (It used to be a green indicator when it used to work). The CPU fan started simultaneously and stopped abruptly after 2 secs with a jerking motion. All the while I could hear the harddrive rotating. No LCD display whatsoever. I tried all function keys and no response. I hit the CD tray button and it wont open. I turned it off by holding down the power button for a couple of sec's. Every time I powered it on, the same symptoms repeated.

As I read in one of the other forums, I removed just the CPU along with the fan from the mobo and turned it on. The same amber power indicator lit up. Hard drive rotated. But this time I could open the CD tray using the tray button (not sure if this means anything, but still).

I even tried removing the small backup battery on the mobo. But responses repeated itself.

NB: The laptop battery did not hold any charge even before and I was running it on my charger. And harddrive has no issues as Im using it on my current T40.

Questions

Now my doubts are:

Could this be a defective motherboard ?
Would I have fried my processor after the spill ? Any trouble shooting tricks ?
Has it anything to do with the BIOS/CMOS settings as I left it for more than a year and the backup batteries could have drained ? If so how could I troubleshoot it ?
Could it be an incompatible motherboard (93P3564 against the original 91P7283 part number specified for this model)
Any next steps for identifying the underlying issue ?

Please advise.

Thanks, Craig