Rebuilding a Thinkpad R51 - Power Off in 4 seconds.

[martiniturbide]

Hi

I have a Thinkpad R51 (1830-PSO). The screen or the inverter is damaged, but the Motherboard and rest of the components was working fine. I was able to work with it with an external monitor.

It had been stored for a while, but now that I tried to turn it on, it turns, but it stay powered on for like 4 seconds and then it shuts down. Since the power-off happens so quick, the monitor does not display any error, it didn't show any error message, the monitor doesn't even get out from the standby mode. Then it does not power on anymore until I remove the battery and disconnect the power supply. It does not make any beep sound. I had tried replacing the memory with other modules, but the result is the same.

If I power it on without any memory module it beeps four times (seems normal)

Does anybody had an idea were can the damage be that generates this turn-Off in 4 seconds ?

Thanks in advance

Martin

[Harryc]

With the battery removed and just the AC adapter connected, the same problem occurs? If yes then you need to isolate by process of elimination. It could be a simple removable component shorting out or a bad CPU fan. Take everything out (wifi card, modem, hard drive, CDROM drive, external cables) and connect to a working AC adapter. If it still fails I'd try powering up the systemboard with the keyboard removed in a dock. If that fails try a fan. It could be a bad stick of RAM too. If you have (2) sticks, try them one at a time. Check the AC adapter for 16VDC with a multimeter.

[martiniturbide]

thanks.

I found the problem. I opened the CPU, and power it on without the bezel. It turned on ok. It seems to be some problem with the button that gets pressed when you close the lid. I reassemble it and started to work as it should.

Thanks.

[Harryc]

A defective lid switch would not prevent the machine from powering up, so whatever else you did I am glad it fixed something.