G40 won't start up - does the BIOS battery need replacing?

[shanick]

Hi all,

My beloved G40, which I have been using daily for over five years (with no replacements or upgrades whatsoever that entire time) suddenly decided to stop working. I was using it perfectly normally on Thursday, shut it down, and the next morning when I went to check my email it just wouldn't start back up again. Nothing happens when I press the power button - not a flicker, not a whirr.

Relevant information:

• The battery light responds to the power cable being taken out/put back in.
• There's no response to the power button with the battery in, or with it removed and the laptop running from the mains. I've also tried holding the power button down for a couple of minutes in both configurations and nope, nothing.
• I've cleaned the battery, but I don't think it's the problem, as the laptop's not running on AC either.
• However: if I take both the normal AND the BIOS battery out, it immediately responds to the power button, gets as far as the Thinkpad logo and then I get two short beeps and the message 'Fan Error' and it powers off.
• For the few seconds that it's on, the fan does whirr.

I have bought a new machine already (a T500), and I'll buy a caddy for the hard drive, but even so I would like to revive this one for a final hurrah if it's not too expensive. What do you reckon, new battery worth a try? Is that just the error message you get when you're missing the battery? Or is it actually a fan problem do you think?

It was an old old machine, with an inbuilt floppy drive and as heavy as a tank and other such ridiculosities, and I've been vaguely meaning to replace it for ages, but now that it's gone I miss it Before it just stopped working this week I have had absolutely no problems with it and I still kind of love it to bits. Oh dear. What can I say, the T500 is not large enough to fill the hole in my life

Any ideas appreciated!

[RealBlackStuff]

Replacing the CMOS battery is cheap enough to give that a try.
Check its contacts on the motherboard, maybe there is corrosion?
Also see this: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 46018.html