Thinkpads Forum

Hey you gurus....I have a working external charger as it works with another TP600 but my 600E just runs off batteries. The LED does not come on nor does it start on mains alone. Is this a Sub-Card problem or what?

Its the DC card,which is responsible for ac power,and charging the battery....

Check ebay.....

Greg St.L

Is this the same as the Sub-Card or can you indicate a FRU/PART id or what they call them?

open it up and get the FRU, you are going to have to anyway to install the new DC/DC card...

Am I missing something here? I have not seen a dc-dc subcard for the 600e. The subcard in the parts list from the HMM is, I believe, for the speaker and microphone. I reckon from a cursory glance on the soldered components that the dc-dc power conditioning circuits are on the motherboard.

The first thing to check before suspecting the dc-dc circuits is the dc socket soldered to the motherboard. This is a known failure area - the solder connection becoming loose due to strain from the plug/unplug actions. Check also for broken printed circuit tracks coming from the dc socket pins. Sometimes those broken tracks reveal themselves by the blue corrosion products around them, or by a prominent discoloration. The next and probably last practical component level test that can be done is to check for busted fuses. Those are the white, 2mm-square section, 5mm long components with markings like 7A, 4A, etc. which corresponds for their current ratings.

Hope this helps.

Yea I agree, A freind of mine gave me a HP ZE4501US (2.4Ghz Celery, radeon 8500) to work on because she said is was "buzzing" when the battery was in and the A/C adapter was plugged in.

It turns out that the buzzing sound that she was hearing was the lose A/C connector, one of the 3 solder leads had come lose and was black in appearance and cold. The sound was the air ionizing as the current jumped through the air.

Anyway all I had to do was clean the joint and put lots of flux on the joint and resolder it. Put it back togeth, doesn't make that sound anymore and charges fine.

I just agreed with the other guy about the 600e having a DC/DC card because I assumed he knew there was one in it. My 600e hasn't gotten to me yet but will soon.

The 600s have no "DC/DC" card.

The power jacks almost never ever break on the 600s. (Yes, it is very common with HPs).

If you are 100% certain that AC adapter is good the system board is bad.