T500 suddenly died

[sega_dude]

My T500 (2242-CTO) seems to be dead all of a sudden. It wouldn't wake from sleep, so I held the power button until it shut off. I turned it back on and the lights came on, but the screen never lit up. So I removed the battery and put the battery back in. Now I'm getting absolutely nothing when I press the power button. None of the lights come on. I tried with it just the battery, with the battery and the AC adapter attached, and just the AC adapter attached. Same result, I get absolutely nothing. When plugged into the AC adapter, none of the lights come on. I tried the power button trick but that didn't work either. I also resat the RAM. The machine had been working fine, it didn't show any signs of failing. Any ideas?

[TonyJZX]

I had a T400 do the same thing. Back in the day I seen many laptops do this and the general fix was to replace the board.

What I suspect is that there's a short in the board and its dead... OR you may remove the board and do a test on it (ie. power it up outside of the case) and see how it goes.

[Brad]

Sorry to hear of your trouble.

I agree with Tony. The motherboard has failed. Replacements are reasonable. Even another working T500 is fairly inexpensive. You could move your memory and hard drive to the replacement.

Brad

[TonyJZX]

I think the philosophy is that there's a lot of good meat left on the bones of a dead laptop... ie. battery mem hdd kbd screen ultrabay etc.

But how much is a T400/T500 board these days? And for me the skill might be too high to replace.

[RealBlackStuff]

Did you see this?

This is true for most thinkpads from this era. My 7 years-old son reassembled a R61 yesterday, and it works

If he can do it, so could you!

[Screamer]

But how much is a T400/T500 board these days?

According to eBay, $28-$84. This is for the T400's motherboard with AMT, TPM, and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470. Most of the listings' prices tend to lean towards the $28-$37 range, though. The T500's motherboard with AMT, TPM, and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 ranges from $60-$108.

I do not get the reason why the T500's motherboard costs more than the T400's motherboard, or is that just the prices being unstable as usual?

And for me the skill might be too high to replace.

It isn't, believe me. The hardware maintenance manual will surely help you replace the motherboard in no time. This is heaven compared to disassembling an old Tecra TE2100 without the help of a hardware maintenance manual, well, at least for me it was.

[shawross]

This is heaven compared to disassembling an old Tecra TE2100

I had an old Tecra which I originally purchased for my daughter and I went for the Toshiba because it was cheaper than a T42 at the time. The hinges broke on the Tecra and it was eventually scrapped.

The thing we love about Thinkpads is that they generally don't break or fall apart but obviously motherboards will fail.

[TPFanatic]

I've bought T500 boards for $25 to $30. Those are abnormal prices and they should drop.

Can also look for complete T500 bases, or complete replacement T500s.

Actually I have spare T500 boards with ATI Radeon 3650 I have no use for, shoot me a PM?