New CMOS battery but still dead!

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STRONGESPRESSO · #1 Post by **STRONGESPRESSO** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:49 am

Hi there,

This is my first post here with only having searched the forum for ideas and inspiration. great forum by the way!

I now have soem trouble with my wife's T20, which seemed to be easily solved by replacing the CMOS battery located under the main battery. One day it just refused to boot up so I ordered teh correct replacement CMOS battery. Before it also never kept the time or date so it was probably overdue anyway.

Now my problem is that it still does not boot up!

Fair enough, it is an old laptop but I checked all teh connections and the HD light does light up for a fraction of a second when attempting to start it.

Is there anything I missed when in terms of system resets or voodoo when replacing the CMOS battery?

Thanks for any advice given.

Ian

BillD · #2 Post by **BillD** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:20 am

STRONGESPRESSO wrote:Hi there,

This is my first post here with only having searched the forum for ideas and inspiration. great forum by the way!

I now have soem trouble with my wife's T20, which seemed to be easily solved by replacing the CMOS battery located under the main battery. One day it just refused to boot up so I ordered teh correct replacement CMOS battery. Before it also never kept the time or date so it was probably overdue anyway.

Now my problem is that it still does not boot up!

Fair enough, it is an old laptop but I checked all teh connections and the HD light does light up for a fraction of a second when attempting to start it.

Is there anything I missed when in terms of system resets or voodoo when replacing the CMOS battery?

Thanks for any advice given.

Ian

First thing to always try is to remove all your removable hardware then try booting it up with AC power only....Remove the main battery,modem,RAM,and PCMCIA cards,etc.,maybe even the new CMOS battery.

Also try pressing the power button manytimes,and/or pressing the power button and holding it in for 10 secs or so...

Good Luck...

Berny · #3 Post by **Berny** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 1:01 pm

just for the record: i got the impression, that nobody has ever fixed a non-booting machine by simply putting in a new cmos battery. from my point of view this is a waste of money.

JHEM · #4 Post by **JHEM** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:50 pm

Berny wrote:just for the record: i got the impression, that nobody has ever fixed a non-booting machine by simply putting in a new cmos battery. from my point of view this is a waste of money.

I've brought hundreds of Thinkpads and Compaqs back to life we've received as donations over the years by simply installing a new CMOS battery.

Yes, the discussion continues.

For the OP, welcome to the Forum and for the record no T series will BOOT without at least one stick of memory installed. Unlike many older Thinkpads (e.g. 760, 600 or 570) there's no memory permanently installed on the MB.

Regards,

James

Berny · #5 Post by **Berny** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:31 pm

its just from my kind observation in this forum.
when people report boot problems, the first suggestion here is always to replace CMOS battery. but i can't remember a single post, where this cured the ills of a T2x.

its more likely, that the combo-card or the ram went bad, or simply the mobo is fried.
in rare cases reseating the cpu might help. and sometimes the "press the on-key several times"-trick resurects some machines (but sometimes only for a short time).

#6 Post by **archer6** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:02 pm

JHEM wrote: I've brought hundreds of Thinkpads and Compaqs back to life we've received as donations over the years by simply installing a new CMOS battery.

I'm curious, how long does a CMOS battery last when a ThinkPad sits unused for a long period (years?) of time.

Thanks...

#7 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:55 pm

archer6 wrote:I'm curious, how long does a CMOS battery last when a ThinkPad sits unused for a long period (years?) of time.

Generally the 3V lithium batteries have a shelf life of around 10 years. That's under no load. When installed in a computer and providing the minute amount of current needed to keep the real-time clock running, figure 5-7 years. Treat it like an oil change; don't let it completely run out before you replace it.

BillD · #8 Post by **BillD** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 3:40 am

no T series will BOOT without at least one stick of memory installed. Unlike many older Thinkpads (e.g. 760, 600 or 570)

Ah yes,thank you..I had on my 600 series hat for my earlier post...

STRONGESPRESSO · #9 Post by **STRONGESPRESSO** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:29 am

Hi there again,

Just to give you an update:

When I came back from work yesterday I took out the both RAM modules (one 256MB and one 128MB) and the battery. Then I just put in the 256MB module, hooked it up to the main power, pressed the power button and prayed......and it worked!

I left it runninmg for a while, opened some applications, downloaded the 1.22 Bios (machine still hass 1.13 on it) and rebooted it. Amazingly enough it started up again. I was for whatever reason unable to update the Bios (maybe too big a jump in releases?!).

This morning it was a different story though. I had not moved it or changed any of the configuration, but it would not boot.

Anyway: I will keep on trying and, if worse comes to worse, i will concede defeat

and take it to a IBM dealer and let them have a look at it.

_erazor_ · #10 Post by **_erazor_** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 6:32 am

you need to update the embedded controller bios first to be able to upgrade to such a new system bios version

Berny · #11 Post by **Berny** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:45 pm

you need to update the embedded controller bios first to be able to upgrade to such a new system bios version

that can't be generalized ! IBM gives detailed info on how to update bios and emb. controler, and in which sequence. simply follow the instructions on the IBM bios site belonging to your model, and you go the safe way.

STRONGESPRESSO · #12 Post by **STRONGESPRESSO** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 2:32 am

Berny,

I followed the instructions on the IBM site but to no avail.

At the moment I am still struggling to get the machine going with the new CMOS battery. (Double

)

To maybe give a bit more background on the CMOS issue:

The time was never really kept by the laptop but it booted OK for a good 2 years. Then, one day, it just would not boot anymore and I ordered a new CMOS battery. Unfortunately that did not guarantee for the T20 to boot on a regular basis either ( maybe 1 in 20 attempts) despite the battery being the genuine IBM part.

One idea I have had is that the connector of the CMOS battery is faulty or corroded, the latter being rather unlikely as I do not really use it outside the house.

If the motherboard needs replacing (as the connector is soldered on), how difficult is it to replace it and would it even be worth it (taking into account that it does have a new harddisk?

Thanks for any advice

Ian

STRONGESPRESSO · #13 Post by **STRONGESPRESSO** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 5:23 am

Hi there,

Just to let you know that I have managed to repair it. I am not quite sure how but I have tried all kinds of things to get it to not boot anymore (changing battery packs, rebooting several times, moving it from my office (aka playroom

) to the livingroom, even shook it a tiny bit, etc) , all luckily not being a problem.
I have alsoupdated the Bios from 1.11 to 1.16, which according to the IBM website was the latest.
Interestingly enough the recognition tool on the same website recognises it as a T21, even though the cover says it is a T20. But then, they also seem to never have built T20s with 800Mhz processors, which my wife's has according to the CPU-Z tool.

Thanks for all the suggestions

Ian

New CMOS battery but still dead!

New CMOS battery but still dead!

Re: New CMOS battery but still dead!

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