Thinkpads Forum

Hi all,

I bought a 365X recently. Cosmetically it's in fantastic condition. Looks basically brand new. When I turn it on I don't get any signs of life apart from a few of the LEDs - power is green, floppy and HDD are orange, the charging light is green and the battery light is orange. All are solid, not blinking. Any ideas? Bad system board maybe?

Also, if I use any of the function keys the laptop beeps.

Welcome to the forum.
Remove any drives you can find, as well as the main battery.
Then try to boot and press F1 to go into the BIOS.

Thank you.

I removed the FDD, HDD and battery, but no luck. The battery lights aren't on any longer but other than that, same problem.

Get the HMM (manual) here: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... tpvol3.pdf
It has a list of beeps on page 110, check against yours.

The system doesn't beep when powered up. The only signs of life are the status LEDs.

Did you also check to make sure the CPU card is properly seated? (also rotate the volume knob up in case it was turned down, if you get any error codes) Try plugging into external LCD monitor, maybe the screen is faulty?

I had a 365 get damaged by a leaking battery, is there any evidence of battery leak damage to the motherboard? (Also could be bad capacitors, check for leaking/bulging caps when you have the machine open)

Hi,

I've finally had the time to get the machine completely disassembled. I've re-seated the CPU card, tried an external LCD, made sure the volume was turned up - still no beep codes. There's no evidence, from what I can see, of the battery having leaked. All the capacitors look fine - in fact everything looks almost brand new.

Perhaps the CPU itself is faulty. Would a CPU from a 760XL work? I've got one of those as well that has it's own problem (keyboard doesn't work 99% of the time). If that's not the problem I guess the board's dead. Shame.

jack365 wrote:Would a CPU from a 760XL work?

I think I have been through everything and my conclusion is, that the CPU-card was made specifically for the 365X/XD-series.

Your machine could be just fine as a whole. Either traces on the PCB's are cracked (Not likely) or theres a problem with the electronics (Likely)

My very first concerns would be:
- the CR2025 or CR2032 backup battery. Have you checked it ? Replaced it ?
If not. Then replace it with a fresh one and see how it goes from there.
Beware of the battery socket when taking the old one out. It is a bit tricky and you're in risk of damaging the socket. Just be careful and don't loose your temper

If you're still having problems, then use a multimeter and check the electronics:
- check the voltage coming from the 16V DC power supply.
- If it delivers 16V, then check the systemboard/mainboard, without the main 10.8V NiMH battery installed.
- One or more caps in the internal power supply could be dead. It's reasonable to assume that after 20 years.
You need to desolder them and measure them with an ESR-meter. It requires a skilled technician or a selftaught person to do that.

If the machine haven't been dropped onto a floor and if we thereby can rule out cracked traces on the PCB, it's not impossible for your machine to be brought back to life again.