The T23 works! I'm so happy

[dcfbf]

I recently bought a lot of 5 laptops.
3 Thinkpads: T23, T40, and W500
2 Non ThinkPads: Dell 600m and a Gateway thingy with a Celeron M
(You can probably tell which ones I care more about)

Anyways,
I was mainly trying to get the T23 because it looked very pristine with all the plastics and covers.
Everything else was extra.

Here are the results:
The W500 is completely dead. No signs of life, not even an indicator. I could probably harvest the screen and the other components on it.
The T40 works so that's a plus. I don't exactly know what to do with it because I had mostly bought it parts for my T43, but now that it works, I feel bad.
The T23 is the main star of the show and I'll get into it after this block. Hint: the title
The Dell is well gross and I don't have a power adapter.
The Gateway is the same story.

Anyways, On to the T23. (I'm sorry no pictures because I was too stressed throughout the entire thing.)
The T23 came to me with the fan pulsing and no other signs of life.
I was about to give up after trying to remove some parts with nothing working, but after finding out that the inductors falling off have a similar symptom, I dug deeper.

I tore this never opened T23 apart down to the motherboard and found that indeed, one inductor was loose.
So I deployed my expert soldering skills and got to work.
I say that with a wink because I am pretty sure I did all the soldering steps wrong.
First, I touched the iron onto the solder directly and the solder just balled up at the tip and didn't do anything.
Next, I managed to put the solder on the inductor, but it quickly fell off.
Only on my third try by pushing the solder down to the joint did I finally get it to connect.

I then quickly tested it with the keyboard, motherboard, screen, and power jack connected (not even the cooler) and it WORKED!
I quickly (with a lot of stress and shaking) got it back together without breaking a single plastic piece and everything seemed well.
I had set the time and it was booting into Windows 7 (for some reason) (I was using the previous owner's drive) but then it died.
A minor panic attack ensued as I checked everything that could have caused zero signs of life.
Until I realized that the power supply had disconnected from the wall and everything was well.

In conclusion: always check your PSU first.

I will post nice big pictures in the "Pictures of your Thinkpad & desk setup" area after I install windows 2000 and get that set up.

[RealBlackStuff]

You should start practicing "how to solder" on that dead W500 or other dead motherboard.
From your description, that T23 inductor could fall off again.
As for an OS on the T23, I found that Windows XP works the best.
I had it on most of my (38!) T23 machines that I had over the years.
I sold my last T23 in September 2022 to a forum member, after having used that particular one for 14 years to remove SVP passwords.
It had a new XGA LCD, wifi, a lid with all rubber paint removed, the 'latest' 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and was overall in excellent condition.

And if you haven't noticed it yet, you can get all the manuals for Thinkpads up to 2018 via the HMM-Manuals link at the top of each forum page.

[dcfbf]

Nice! Mine is a stock 2647-9ku so doesn't have a lid with wifi, but it does have the SXGA+ screen. (with a horizontal line through it though )
The best part: rubberized coating isn't sticky.

I definitely should practice soldering, but I just haven't had many good outlets of practicing.
Before soldering on the inductor, the greatest thing I've done with my soldering iron is fix some cracked plastic pieces on ThinkPads. (I'm gonna get lung cancer)
I will resolder the inductor when it does fall off, and hopefully, by then I'll be better at soldering.

For the OS, I was hoping to pm theterminator93 to see if I could get some recovery sets. I will ask for the XP recovery set as well then.

Also, any clues on what could be wrong with the W500? To have literally zero signs of life has to be quite rare right?


Thank you for the reminder.
I usually just go on google and search for "(Thinkpad model) hmm" and I'm linked to the manuals linked here anyways. Same with the drivers.
One thing that I do find VERY useful is MTM search. Before I buy any Thinkpad, I can check what parts are supposed to be on it and compare it to the specs they list to see if the system has been messed around with or not and to know if it's even worth buying.

[RealBlackStuff]

Check the four W500 RAM slots, if anything is in them and if it/they are working..
Each slot is good for up to 8GB DDR3, totaling 32GB.
Without any RAM it will appear dead.
Also, remove any and all wifi/WAN cards and all HD/SSD/DVD drives.
Try an external monitor as well and use a 90W charger.

[dcfbf]

I've just gotten home and I've tested all of that. It seems to be completely dead.
The previous owner seemed to have also been inside here already so it seems hopeless.

Right now is finals season so I can't do much else. I'll definitely post the photos of the T23 after though.