A31-2652 No POST

[Khatoblepas]

I recently received a Thinkpad a31 from my parents house. Last time I used it, the cmos battery had died, so this time (years later) I replaced the cmos battery. But now when I turn it on, with the exception of a couple of times when I managed to make it go to the bios boot screen, it won't even post. It just shows a black screen with the backlight on.

Is this fixable? Or is it a lost cause, I've read a lot about motherboard failures on these models.

[kfzhu1229]

Apparently all my A31p motherboards I have dealt with all have that problem. Is yours like mine that when you press the power button, backlight comes on (much quicker than it supposed to be), no motor spinning (no fan, no HDD, no ODD, no power to USB ports) However, all of mine are only prone to this problem with AC attached. Try booting with battery pack if you have one. Also, try to repeat short pressing the button and long pressing it. Sometimes that does the trick as well. Seems like one of the problems that have to deal with P4's overall high TDP wearing out the components at 2x the speed of something like PIII-M.

[TPFanatic]

The exposed and uncooled ATI graphics chip will also contribute to thermal wear.

[Khatoblepas]

The funny thing is I haven't used it in a long time - the battery is completely dead, but last time I turned it on (five years ago) it was fine. It flashes all its LEDs, backlight turns on, and has a blank screen with backlight, no other activity,much the same as yours, kfzhu.

I can't test it on battery power without a battery, where would I get a reliable one? Is this a good aftermarket brand?
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2934966728

If I do get it working, would it be wise to add a heatsink to the graphics chip?

[ajkula66]

If I do get it working, would it be wise to add a heatsink to the graphics chip?

No. And staying away from the aftermarket batteries would be my suggestion.

With that out of the way, try this old trick:

Remove the battery, hard and media drives, unplug the AC adapter.

Press the "power" button 10 times in a row, holding it down for 10 seconds each time and thirty seconds the last time around.

Plug the power adapter - but nothing else - in and try to power on.

Good luck.

[Khatoblepas]

OK, I tried that, it got to the BIOS splash screen, but hung when I tried to enter the BIOS menu, and then it returned to being unable to POST at all.

Also, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about batteries for old laptops anymore, if I can't buy aftermarket ones, since the genuine ones will have long since died.

[kfzhu1229]

OK, I tried that, it got to the BIOS splash screen, but hung when I tried to enter the BIOS menu, and then it returned to being unable to POST at all.

Also, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about batteries for old laptops anymore, if I can't buy aftermarket ones, since the genuine ones will have long since died.

Okay I have seen this issue on my defective A31p motherboard which completely gave out by now. Open up your laptop, remove the keyboard bezel and right ultrabay holder. Touch the southbridge underneath where the right ultrabay holder used to go, is it burning hot when it freezes? If so, then you probably have a desoldered southbridge or internal short circuiting like the fate of my defective A31p mobo.
Also, as for heatsink on the graphics chip, I am using some thermal pads to tuck in between the CPU heatsink and the chip and seemingly the chip no longer feels very hot to the touch unless you heat up the CPU as well or turn off the fan (I used to be able to notice the GPU throttling with lower frames and then resumes back and cycles with games and video playback). No guarantees if that's gonna have positive or negative effects though.

[ajkula66]

OK, I tried that, it got to the BIOS splash screen, but hung when I tried to enter the BIOS menu, and then it returned to being unable to POST at all.

I hate to say it, but that board is likely a gonner...

Also, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about batteries for old laptops anymore, if I can't buy aftermarket ones, since the genuine ones will have long since died.

Buy a genuine one, even if it holds 15% of the original capacity. They are still out there. Most of these old machines - especially A3x units - are not something that one would want to lug around to begin with.

[kfzhu1229]

Buy a genuine one, even if it holds 15% of the original capacity. They are still out there. Most of these old machines - especially A3x units - are not something that one would want to lug around to begin with.

If you cannot find a reputable reseller or brand for that aftermarket battery, then yeah try to buy a genuine one that holds charge, better if brand new. But I also happen to have bought two A3x batteries from Canada Computers and both of them work great, with a max of 2 hour of battery life in Windows 7 and PDF viewing (with PIII 1.2 and UXGA FlexView at lowest brightness). Now after two years of use the life decreased to around 1.25 hours, though nothing unbearable. I highly doubt the original battery life can be any better than that since those computers aren't really known for great battery life to begin with back in 2001/2002.

[Khatoblepas]

Right, I'll try the things suggested, and see if the board is just dead. If it does need a new board, where should I look for one? I've got nothing to lose trying to put a new board in so long as I follow the manual. I really like the A31, and it would be a huge shame if it died completely, especially since I believe it has the IPS 1400x1050 screen (there's 0 colour distortion at any angle on it).
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-Lenovo-T ... 2178237024?
This is the closest board source I have, since I'm in the UK.

[charlienyc]

Sorry to jump in here without any useful information. I can't help but ask what are you doing with your machines? I have an old A31p back at a parent's house, and am wondering whether it'll boot after sitting for years. I suppose I'll charge all the batteries (I recall owning at least 5) before getting started.

Too bad you're not stateside - I'd send you a battery or two to get your machine up and running.

So what can this machine be useful for these days?
Cheers

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

[Khatoblepas]

Well, its a neat computer, I was hoping to just mess around with it, maybe use a dock to add an adlib soundcard and use it for a composing machine. But most of all I just like playing around with old hardware, and the a31 is pretty dang neat.

[charlienyc]

Well, its a neat computer, I was hoping to just mess around with it, maybe use a dock to add an adlib soundcard and use it for a composing machine. But most of all I just like playing around with old hardware, and the a31 is pretty dang neat.

Gotcha, thanks!

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

[kfzhu1229]

Well, its a neat computer, I was hoping to just mess around with it, maybe use a dock to add an adlib soundcard and use it for a composing machine. But most of all I just like playing around with old hardware, and the a31 is pretty dang neat.

Do you already have one of those docks? I find it pretty hard to get and you still have to pay quite some money for them. At the same time, not everything works. For example, my Radeon 9250 will not work due to a resource conflict issue that I have no idea how to resolve, and that is with my A31p and 2GB RAM.

[Khatoblepas]

Yeah, I have a Dock, I got it off of ebay for like £20 a while back, complete with everything.