Thinkpads Forum

I have just acquired a 600E which has the following problem:

- no orange charge light

- power supply is 100% OK (used on my other Thinkpads)

- when you try and boot the 600E , all LED lights briefly light up and you can hear HDD whirl for a second , then everything goes dead

- Nothing at all is displayed on the screen - just stays black

Any thoughts as to the fault? I've searched the archives and got a few clues including:

- possible faulty DC/DC card
- possible damage to docking connector (but looks OK)
- try reset button next to USB (not tried it yet but not hopeful)

Is the DC/DC card the same as the "Sub card"?? There was some previous debate whether the DC/DC card was a separate board or part of the System board. If the fault is due to the DC/DC converter card , any idea of the likely component failure? (voltage reg , caps etc). Full board replacement (especially if the DC/DC card is part of the Systems board) is not really an option.

Thanks

Another two options migt be to:
1. With the battery and power disconnected, press the power button 10 times, and on the 10th time, hold it for 10 seconds.
2. Reseat the CPU. I had cat/dog hair stuck underneath a CPU, on a 600E that I bought as "dead". It worked fine after I removed the CPU and blew it out.

I have the same exact symtoms with a 600E that I bought on eBay.

Please post back if you find anything.

I tried reseating the CPU card, but no improvement.

Make her naked... get out all things you can get... RAM, battery, PCMCIA/cardbus-cards, harddisk, UltraBay device, external mouse, keyboard, USB hardware, printer...

Try to boot into BIOS... if also doesn't work, open the case and get out the case for PCMCIA/cardbus-cards and the modem and try again to boot (without keyboard).

If doesn't work, replace the processor and try again.

If also doesn't work, I think your mainboard went dead. Maybe one of the little fuses is blown, maybe the 16V connector is defective... hard to say... and harder to find out.

Thanks for all the feedback.

On all my other Thinkpads , when you plug in the power supply, the "orange" charge light always lights up - or starts flashing if its a faulty battery ie. before you even "switch on"/boot up , you get an orange charge light.

With my 600E , when you plug in the power supply , there is no orange light - its just dead. BUT, when you try and boot , all the lights do light up for a brief second , then go dead.

This suggests that "some" power is getting to the 600E but not enough to charge the battery/boot the 600E. So it could be a DC/DC card/ voltage regulator issue??

Is the DC/DC card a seperate board in the 600E?

Any other thoughts??

Thanks

I have the exact same problem with my 600X 2645-9eu. I will try all the suggested fixes before I write it off or send it out for repair. If these aren't right for the 600X, let me know.

I'm sure it's something to do with the power because when it's plugged in and turned on, it tries to get power to the HHD. I can see that because the amber light lights every time the on switch is flicked. It's getting power through the on switch to the HHD through that circuit as long as the switch is held in the on positionbut not to the rest of the computer. I know the battery is good and was charging when the computer died in mid session, but the case charge lights are black and stay black and the screen is black and stays black. I also know, don't I, that the 600X will run even if it only has an AC adapter--battery not required?

Suggestions? I will reseat the CPU, but what is DC/DC? And what does the SUB card do? I have already taken the modem out and tried to boot, but that didn't do anything.

I'm no expert , but (I think) a DC/DC card basically converts the 16v from the power supply to a range of different voltages used in the Thinkpad for different applications eg. charging the battery , powering the system board , powering the HDD - all of which might require different voltages to operate ie. it provides multiple controlled voltages from a single voltage source.

I'm not sure what a sub card is - it might be a different name for a DC/DC card??

The fact that my 600E still has some power ie. its not completely dead , but there is no orange/amber charge light , might be due to a faulty DC/DC circuit - some voltage is getting through but not at the correct level to operate the 600E.

Its interesting that others are suffering from the same problem.

Anybody know if the 16v power supply socket is on the System board?

The lack of orange LED when plugging in the AC adapter could be anything from a bad LED to a defective charging circuit on the motherboard.

The Sub Card is the thin, long printed circuit board that the LCD ribbon cable and keyboard ribbon cable plugs into. It should not have anything to do with converting the 16V input into the other voltages needed by the system.

I don't believe that the 600 systems have a separate DC/DC card. I think some of the earlier systems had such a card but I've never owned anything earlier, other than a 560z. From the description of the problem, it almost sounds like the Blink of Death that the A2 and T2 systems get. That points to one of the power controller ICs on the motherboard.

From memory, I believe that the DC input jack is soldered directly onto the motherboard. It's been quite awhile since I've taken a 600 system apart. However, if the laptop mostly starts up, then I'd think that the jack is okay and the problem lies elsewhere. u.mac provides good advice about removing hardware and seeing if that makes any difference. It's what I would have done.

I recently picked up another 600E with a good battery from a junk sale.

I decided to try the good battery with the above 600E which originally came with a faulty battery - the original fault was "no orange light when you plug in power supply , no boot "

When I used the good battery, the 600E actually booted OK. Initially I got the 161 163 error messages - I inputted the correct time/date and then got 0 > 1 with a message "Hibernation file is already present"

Anyway , I rebooted again - got 173 163 error messages - input time/date and then Windows 98 started

So I definately need a new CMOS battery.

BUT when I insert the power supply , its NOT recognised. There is NO bleep , the green LED does NOT turn to orange and the battery icon does NOT switch to the power icon However , I do notice that the LCD display goes slightly darker when I insert the PSU - so there is some detection of the PSU.

I guess the 600E has a faulty charge circuit - presumably the DC/DC voltage regs or caps? Any thoughts as to the exact component fix?

I have a 600e that had the same problem when I first picked it up.
It turned out to be a blown LM324 chip. It is located at the bottom side of the board, in the corner that is just below the HDD connector.
I have already posted about this once
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ight=lm324

SMA - many thanks - very useful info