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T70 won't boot/post

Old(er) Thinkpads with New(er) Intestines: X62/T50/T70/X210/X330 etc.
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sona1111
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Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:27 pm
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T70 won't boot/post

#1 Post by sona1111 » Sun Sep 28, 2025 11:23 am

Hello,

Geez, it's been a while since I posted here. >.>

I still use my T70 from 51nb, I'm not sure if they are in the scene anymore or would communicate. The machine has been working well except the last few days I needed to try multiple times to start it (power led on, nothing from screen, needed to hard power off and power on again 1-3 times). Today, after trying more than 10 times, I can say for sure it will not start. I an wondering if there's any hope for repair or what would be other's first suggestions.

Thanks!!

ZaZ
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Re: T70 won't boot/post

#2 Post by ZaZ » Tue Sep 30, 2025 1:38 am

Saying it won't start is sort of a wide path that could be a number of issues. Besides the power light, are you getting other signs of life like hearing the fan when powered on? Usually the first step when you're not getting anything on the screen would be to try an external monitor. If that fails I'd pull everything - memory, drives, WiFi card, battery, and then plug the power in to see if you can get it to beep. If it does beep try putting stuff back to see if you can find the issue. Trying another AC adapter if possible just to rule that out.
ThinkPad L14 - 2.1GHz Ryzen 4650U | 16GB | 256GB | 14" FHD | Win11P
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astral
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Re: T70 won't boot/post

#3 Post by astral » Tue Sep 30, 2025 10:00 am

If the "standard troubleshooting" described by ZaZ doesn't work, it might be worth sending it to a reputable place that does board repair, if that's in your budget. Even though they wouldn't have any documentation on the motherboard, they could still do some limited troubleshooting if they have any documentation on the power regular IC (or ICs) that it uses. That's a fairly common failure point on any laptop motherboard, and a missing power rail could produce the symptoms you're getting. You could also attempt to get into contact with HOPE from 51nb to see if they would be willing to give you the schematics for the T70 motherboard, although I don't know if they would.
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NonesensE
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Re: T70 won't boot/post

#4 Post by NonesensE » Wed Oct 01, 2025 2:57 am

Have you tried removing charger & battery, pressing power on for 30 seconds (to discharge capacitors) and plugging power back in? Like on regular thinkpads...

Also, check (or replace) your CMOS battery, semi-deleted BIOS settings can also lead to weird symptoms.
Sometimes coming over from the German forum...
X62s 3rd batch, X210Ai 1st batch, ex. [s]T61[/s] T70 14" 4:3 1st batch

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