stone dead T42 - no life signs at all - any ideas ?

[parangles]

I shut down one of my two T42's and next time I tried to boot
there was nothing - no lights/leds anywhere, no beeps, nothing.
Tested the AC and its reading 16.7v, changed the battery for another
charged one but no sign of life at all.
What would be the first possible causes/problem ?
Thanks lots !

[ajkula66]

Let's try this old trick:

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

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

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

Good luck.

[Orclas]

LOL, sounds more like ceremony and vodoo than anything else...

Not that I necessarily doubt it may work, there are a few things about computers that take magic fingers.

[ajkula66]

BTW, that used to be IBM's official procedure when you called phone support back in the days complaining about a still-in-warranty A20m that wouldn't power on...

[parangles]

Maybe for $100 I buy another one and just switch the
drives ?

[RealBlackStuff]

I'll sell you a guaranteed working replacement motherboard for $60.- including shipping.
PM me if interested (also see my signature).

[parangles]

Well I dont know if I can get the case screws out.
The heads are very chewed up. I'll try later in the week
and maybe take you up on that motherboard. Thanks !

[1adam12]

OMG ajkula 66...I am having the same problem with my T-42 (no power at all when turned on). When I try your trick with the power button the unit powers on!!! But when I put the drives back in, the unit cuts off again.

So what does that mean, or how do I put the drives back in and get the unit to work?

Thanks!!

[ajkula66]

So what does that mean, or how do I put the drives back in and get the unit to work?

Well...

Install the drives one by one. Start with the media drive.

I'd imagine that you have a fairly serious underlying hardware problem, but let's hope I'm wrong.

Good luck.

[1adam12]

Thanks for the reply ajkula66. I will try that this evening and see what happens.

Meanwhile here is some background info:

Previous problem was random shutdowns without warning, but it would always start back up right away. So I replaced the motherboard (maybe 2 weeks ago) thinking that may be the problem. The laptop worked fine right after the replacement (at least for that day). The laptop was turned off and not restarted until recently when I noticed that it would not even boot up (no lights or anything). So I found this thread and (much to my amazement) your power button thing worked.

When I complete the power button cycle, the laptop boots to a loop and says the operating system can't be found (since...duh...there's no drives!!!). Then (if I leave the laptop powered on, and I put the hard drive in, push the power button, the laptop is dead again).
Anyway, thanks again for your reply and I'll let you know what happens later this evening!

[RealBlackStuff]

Do NOT EVER insert/remove a hard drive while the laptop is still on!
You may kill the motherboard (and/or the drive)!