Bringing my T20 back from the dead

[cgl72]

Hello everyone,
I have a T20 that has been sitting on my shelf waiting for some TLC for about a year. I bought it in august 2000 and it was a faithfull companion for 5 years, now it no longer reacts to anything. Here is the history and symptoms.

For about 3 months, the screen started to go pink, but it was still running ok. One day, the machine no longer reacted to pressing the on/off button: no beeps, no lights, no noises, no fan, nothing appears on the screen. When the AC adaptor is plugged in, the cover on the MiniPCI adapter bay gets hot. that is the only sign of "life". I tried putting it on the docking station, still no lights, the on/off button does not have an effect.

I have been reading around this forum. My conclusion is that if the only the lcd/inverter were to blame, I should be getting some form of reaction/lights from the laptop when the on/off button is activated. This is not the case. Whould this point to a faulty main board?

Please let me know your thoughts on how to debug this situation and what parts you would change first, or how to further investigate before buying parts.

thank you for your help
Christian

[rkawakami]

Welcome!

Try removing the card in the Mini PCI area. Remove the cable(s), then the card and then try powering on. It's possible that the modem/ethernet card is preventing the laptop from powering on. If that doesn't work then the standard advice applies: remove ALL removable hardware items from the laptop. This includes the optical drive, the hard drive, any PCMCIA or USB cards/cables, and memory. Then try powering on. If you hear several beeps, that just means that the motherboard didn't find any memory so that's okay. Power off and then plug one memory module in. Repeat power on. Re-install one piece of hardware at a time until you find one which prevents the laptop from turning on. Hopefully that should identify where your problem lies.

[cgl72]

Ray, thanks for that quick answer.

I just tried what you said. And no beeping sounds, no reaction. therefore I conclude that the board must be out. Should I just scrap the entire thing and try to find a working t2x on the market for not too much money? Is it worth changing the board when I may to change the lcd and inverter anyway?

What would you do in this situation?

[rkawakami]

Well, if your LCD was in the stages of turning pink, that usually means that the backlight is on its last legs. It's remotely possible (IMO) that the inverter is the cause of the pink light. The LCD is fairly expensive to replace; the inverter relatively cheap. Since your problem seems to be in the motherboard and you would either have to fix or replace it, then spend some more money to fix the LCD, it may be worth it to simply find a complete system. What I would do? If you have "bought into" the T2x line of hardware (docking station, Ultrabay 2000 drives, etc.) then I would upgrade to the T23 and keep your T20 for spare parts. Some items in the T20 can be used in the T23. How much are you willing to spend?

(edit: Sorry... a more compatible system to your T20 would be a T22. The T23 uses different memory and has a different motherboard)

[cgl72]

gosh, I guess I could spend up to 200$. The dealers in Switzerland where I live seem to sell T23's for approx 400 US$ which seems a bit steep. T20's go for 120$.

I guess it may be worth upgrading to T23 for the extra umpf and wifi...
C.

[rkawakami]

FYI: If you don't already have a copy of the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) for your T20, here is a link to IBM's index:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-39298

This lists the current and obsolete Thinkpad systems. The HMM contains information on troubleshooting problems, disassembly, FRU parts lists, etc. It's an invaluable aid if you want to work on your own systems. Your motherboard problem could be as simple as a blown fuse (I'm assuming that there's one on the board somewhere), a loose connection, or a damaged component.

Almost all of the systems you see in my sig are eBay-obtained units which came with various problems. I find it fun to hunt around for 'missing' pieces and then breathe life back into them. I started with the 600X series several years ago and have now been fooling around with the T2xs. The one drawback I see with the T23s is that they tend to run much hotter than the 600Xs (and the T21). I've managed to install a couple of Mini PCI WiFi cards into the 600X and am quite happy with the results. Yeah, they're only 500Mhz machines, but with a full load of memory they work good enough to run Adobe Creative Suite 2. I'm still in the process of working on the T23s (upgrading memory, disk drives, adding CDRW/DVD combo drives, and hopefully internal WiFi).