Z61: sudden death (no pre-POST)

[micrex22]

I have a Z61 at work I used to use for random things. Haven't used it in a few months, go to finally power it on (it's in a dock), the dock lock LED blinks red-- pop it out of the dock and plug power directly into it-- no response from any of the LED indicators and it won't even power on.

Has anyone else had something like that? TYPICALLY when a motherboard failure occurs, the logic controlling the power at least still works as it's separate from the BIOS (so you get a power on but no post).

I'll do additional troubleshooting later as it could be a power problem, but haven't had something like this on a thinkpad before-- and I have a fair bit.

[rkawakami]

Well, a sudden failure is usually indicative of a blown fuse or transistor. If you are sure about the power supply and battery being good, then I would try the oft-mentioned "remove battery and adapter, press the power button 10-20 times and hold for 10 seconds on the last press". Reattach power and see what happens. It's never worked for me but there have been many accounts of it working for others.

[danikayser84]

I had a similar issue on my T43 a few months back (I tried to charge a defective battery and accidentally messed up the power management chip) where it would come up with the power LED and the drives would spin up but nothing else happened; removed everything (RAM, HDD, CD, battery, CMOS, etc.) and let it sit for a while and put everything back in... haven't had any issues since

Try adding accessories in one at a time (if you can remove everything and get a 1331 beep for no RAM that means the motherboard is still good), if it fails to boot then you've found the culprit (I've had many machines that seemed dead but had a bad RAM stick, bad modem/Bluetooth/WiFi card, or similar)

[rkawakami]

(I've had many machines that seemed dead but had a bad RAM stick, bad modem/Bluetooth/WiFi card, or similar)

Good point. A couple of the older A3x and T2x systems I've purchased as parts units (described as 'does not power on') simply had a bad MiniPCI card.

[Hans Gruber]

I have an identical problem with one of my T43p systems. When I plug the battery in the battery light briefly flashes either red or orange and goes blank. I have had success doing the holding down the power button 10x for 10 seconds followed by holding it down for 30 seconds a final time. That has worked more than once. I like suggestion of pulling the memory, HDD, optical and battery and going piece by piece back together.

[RealBlackStuff]

If you are still into Z61 machines, saw this on eBay (not affiliated): http://www.ebay.com/itm/131716273945
Lot of 3 Lenovo ThinkPad Z61t Laptop Computers | 60GB HDD, Core Duo, 1GB RAM