Do any good T20 main boards still exist?

[stevec5000]

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a working T20 still in existance? I've been trying to put one together after seeing the parts for sale cheap on ebay. If you are thinking of buying a T20, don't. If it works at all it surely won't last! So far I've got 5 different main boards from different vendors and they are all dead! The first one was a complete machine the seller said would post but they didn't know the password. All lies, it wouldn't even turn on! I also got 2 bases minus the screen that were supposed to turn on but had CRC errors but they only light the power LED and don't do anything else. I ordered one board that was supposed to be tested good but it won't post either and one in unknown condition that won't post. There seems to be a lot of crooks selling thinkpad parts on ebay. The ones that light the power LED will beep if the memory is removed but won't do anything at all when it's installed. They don't try to boot and there's no video and nothing on the VGA output. Now I have a collection of 3 Pentium III CPU's, a 700, 750 and 900 that came on the boards and I tried them on the different boards but they don't seem to work either.
Does anyone know why there are so many dead boards and if there is anyway to fix them or could it be the processors?

[jeffcrilly]

I've been using a T22 for like 4 years, and it is still working fine.

Possibly it would be worth moving up just a bit from the T20?

Afaict, a T22 can be had for about $300-$400. Quite reasonable
for a more than capable machine (win2kpro, 512mb, 40gb, 1ghz.)

jeff

[egibbs]

My T20 is still going strong - my son uses it all the time.

But I would never part out a perfectly good machine on ebay. Now if I had a broken one I might part it out.

I wonder why there is so much broke stuff on ebay?

Ed Gibbs

[CD]

Hate to hear it. Just inherited an IBM refurbished T20 and it's running like a champ so far.

[dead_t20]

stevec5000! - I hear ya!

My GF's thinkpad died last week. I've done a lot of reading on this subject.
as far as i can tell - there is basically a design fault with thinkpads which means that power loss on boot can corrupt the EEPROM which stores important info, and the laptop won't boot without it!! its the same chip that the bios password is stored in, so its also of interest to people who have 'forgotten' their bios password.

there are a number of people who can help you resolve the crc issues - all of them want your dollars though.
this guy is about the best ive seen...

http://www.serviceforum.lx.ro/viewforum ... ea82ddcda5

Not sure how technical you are. I'm keen to try and reprogram the chip myself, but need a good dump to put into it - since mine is corrupt.
If you can read your chip using software (and hardware) from above link, then please send it too me (we can swap if it would be helpfull to you). If i can generate a useable EEPROM image, then i would be glad to mail it back to you so you can reprogram your boards yourself - without paying for someone else help

If someone has a T20 EEPROM image which has a bios password set, mail it to me - I will gladly tell you what it is and it will help me to fix my computer

Thanks in advance...

[kyrotech]

all boards you will get are refurbished / used / repaired

and all will die, eventually