R50p bricked

[TPFanatic]

Hi. I have a bricked R50p.

In recent months, this R50p was having occasional power off trouble. Randomly but often enough the machine would power off and stay off. All of the indicator lights would be dark and the machine would not turn on with the power button. Unplugging the AC and removing the battery, then putting power back would bring the indicator lights back if AC was plugged in and / or return functionality to the machine.

After one last power off the machine wouldn't power on at all. Now it's basically bricked.

I've tried the power draining method but that hasn't resulted in any response from the R50patient, so I'm thinking whatever problem power draining fixes in another computer, isn't the problem here.

I didn't use this computer when the powering off symptoms started, since it got passed around between family members up to its new status as a brick. Due to this, I'm not too sure what other symptoms it might have experienced leading up to its demise to determine if maybe it was overheating, or shorting out, or some other problem.

I took off the palmrest the other day. The fan looked a bit dusty, which leads me to think the computer could have been overheating and shutting off in some way due to that.

I'm not sure if Thinkpads of the generation had automatic power offs when they overheat. With TPFancontrol, I once saw a T42p with a broken fan hit 120C, which of course isn't good. Thankfully that machine lived, and kept going till the angel of GPU death came.

Assuming the R50p was getting baked, I'm not sure if powering off was caused by a safety feature, or because some critical component in the mobo was melting apart and then luckily melting back together to let the computer work again, until it stopped working.

Just in case overheating wasn't the issue, and assuming the motherboard isn't dead, maybe anyone has any ideas of what else could have bricked the machine? The only current symptom it has is that it doesn't accept power from an AC adapter or battery, as the lights don't turn on with the AC adapter in and the machine won't power on either way.

Either way this isn't an issue of any criticality, just wondering if there's a way to revive this R50paperweight. I happen to have a halftop R50p (works fine with a monitor) which would benefit from a lid/screen should I commence organ harvesting the bricked one... if it's really dead.

Thanks.

[Neil]

Can't say with certainty, but it's likely that the system board is done for. The solder joints on the GPU and Southbridge chips, from this era, tend to break down with age. That's very likely what has happened here.

Probably a good time for that lid transplant.

[RealBlackStuff]

Remove the RAM, then try to boot.
If there's any life left in the old dog, she should beep 1-3-3-1.
If not, prepare for a worthy interment OR do the parts swap.

[TPFanatic]

Greetings.

Just wanted to update, I pulled the lid off the dead R50p and put it on the other R50p. It booted to my XP environment, ran some old 3D games nicely, then decided to scare me. The next time I powered it on, it was exhibiting bricking failures. Black screen on startup, green indicator lights, but no IBM logo or anything. Turned out to be a bad RAM. Now the machine works nice.

Now, so long as we're on the subject of screen transplantations...

I've got a T42p with screen trouble, it starts up red and then turns off after the Extended RAM test. It comes back by pressing that neat lid-close-trigger button, but still goes away. The thing is, I have too many other T42s to steal parts from, and they're all bad. There's my sister's old T42p with a T41p motherboard but the ports don't work, but a good Flexview screen. Then there's my T42p with a broken clock - Cmos battery is good, but the clock randomizes with every power cycle - and a good Flexview screen. Third, there's my other T42p with a dead T41p motherboard, and a dying Flexview screen. Finally, I have a box of parts which I might be able to find a working Flexview lid in....

I know I sound crazy.

[MikalE]

I had always thought the term 'bricked' meant that a BIOS flash had failed and locked up the BIOS meaning MB replacement.

[TPFanatic]

I was unsure of the term too, so I looked online to find what the general consensus things of the meaning. I think Urban Dictionary defined a brick as a totally broken laptop that serves as nothing more than a fancy paparweight, or a brick.