Thinkpads Forum

I happened to plug in a power supply with the wrong polarity in my 600E. Now it won't start on external power. It starts fine using the battery though. Anyone did the same mistake and recovered? Any idea what I could've blown? A search on the forum find me this thread, but the manual is of no use for this problem.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=polarity

Two possibilities:

- the main fuse which protects the DC input jack has blown
- other component(s) on the motherboard have been destroyed

In either case, the HMM will help you disassemble the machine down to revealing the top side of the motherboard (where I believe the fuse is) or pulling the either thing out of the chassis. An ohmmeter will be needed to test the fuse and if found bad, you have two options:

- obtain a "parts" 600E and hope the fuse on that board is good (and hope that that's all that is wrong with your system)
- determine what the fuse is (manufacturer and current rating) and locate a distributor willing to sell you just one (and again, hope that's all it is)

The first one is fairly easy; just troll eBay, or put a notice here in the Marketplace, or find a local source of used systems. The second one is a little harder but I've been able to order a fuse from mouser.com to fix a problem with a T23 board. I don't know if they ship internationally. You may want to find an electronic parts distributor in your area.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 970#238970
ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 908#269908

Some news on this one. I tried booting it on a battery, then plugging in the DC plug. There are two scenarios: Either it just hangs and the screen goes black, or the screen starts to fade to white in a glitchy way. My guess is that I burnt onf of the switching supplies in the computer, rather than just a fuse.