A31p dead again

[mediasponge]

It looks like my A31p (2653-N5U) may be dead again. About 2 years ago, it had this problem where it would boot normally, then a while later, it would just hang. Lock up like a cartoon character frozen in mid-stride. I replaced the mobo with an identical one, and it worked fine for 2 years. Now it is doing it again, and the last time I tried, it wouldn't even POST. Looking for suggestions and options. As I see it these are the candidates (in no particular order):

1) Give up and offer the thing here for parts (not typical for me)
2) Send the previous mobo to somebody to try the reflow on the Ati chip procedure (questionable)
3) Buy another identical mobo (26P8399, 26P8232) for ~ USD $160 (established process)
4) "Frankenpad" another system with a UXGA screen to combine the best parts from both

On the last option, I see a bare bones 2653-R8U with a 2.0 GHz cpu on fleabay that might go cheap. This has no WiFi, tho. I'm thinking I could use the R8U mobo and faster cpu in the N5U. Is that possible? The N5U has the antennas, and a mini-PCI Intel WiFi card. If the R8U will support that, then it might be a viable swap. Both have the 1600x1200 screen, I would use whichever looks nicer. The R8U has the TCPA chip, where the N5U has the plug-in security chip. Would the disk from the N5U wake up in the R8U and be happy? Would the mini-PCI cards be happy? The R8U has no Bluetooth either, but that is not important. I do have the card and antenna etc.

Opinions?

[Harryc]

I can sell you a complete 2653-H5U for your $160 motherboard budget. It currently has an inverter or LCD cable issue, but the board itself is new to me and works fine..with a 1.9Ghz CPU. If you just want the lower half without the RAM and hard drive, I can sell you that for $100. No cracked plastics, the keyboard has minor wear, and there are very few minor scratches on the outside covers. If you want to ship me your complete LCD assembly I'll even build it for you at no charge. Here's the specs;

Product: ThinkPad A31p 2653-H5U
Original description: P4-M 1.7GHz (512KB) >>Now P4-M 1.9Ghz with the correct fan
256MB RAM >>Now 1GB Kingston PC2100 RAM (2X512MB)
60.0GB HDD - 5400rpm
15.0 UXGA(1600x1200) TFT LCD
8x4x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD >>Now a DVD ROM drive
UB2000 Diskette Drive and an extra blank bezel
802.11b(MPCI)>>Now Intel 2200bg 802.11bg (IBM FRU, no boot errors)
Modem(MPCI)
Ethernet(CDC)
Bluetooth(CDC)
Security Chip
IEEE 1394
TV out
Li-Ion battery (20.75Wh Full / 43.20Wh Design) About 1 hour run time.
WinXP Pro (COA intact, recovery partition intact)

[mediasponge]

Interesting. Technically, all mine needs is the mobo or the stripped down bottom half, but my LCD does have the pink tint on startup. What's the LCD issue with yours? Mine has the original 1.8 GHz cpu, 1.5 GB RAM, and a 320 GB disk. A nice workhorse until this happened (again).

[Harryc]

The LCD is fine, just needs an inverter or LCD ribbon cable. Occasionally the LCD won't light up and I have isolated it to those parts. If you can wait I'll fix it, but I may raise the price ...
If you're interested in continuing this discussion , please send me a PM.

[mediasponge]

Dipping into group knowledge again. My TP is a 2653-N5U, which is supposed to take a 26P8232 or 26P8399 mobo. I'm not finding too many of those on the market at a good price. Are there any other part numbers I should be searching for? Since this is the one with the 1600x1200 display, most of the other mobo FRUs are downgrades that do not apply. Mine has the separate security chip that I transferred over last time, and everything worked. Can one replace a mobo that has the separate security chip with a mobo that has the integrated TCPA chip, or even use a mobo that does not use a security chip as long as the other items are compatible? No security features or passwords have been enabled, except the Windows login password. I'm in the US, if anybody has one to sell. I'll post a WTB in marketplace depending on what I learn here.

[ajkula66]

You can use any A31p motherboard in your shell, it doesn't matter whether it's first or second generation, it will work just fine.

Personally, I'd never buy an A31p motherboard from someone I don't know, since these can be tricky, as we all know...

Good luck finding one for a reasonable amount...

If you run out of other options, drop me a PM. I have a couple of these available, but they won't come cheap.

Good luck.