T21 not turning on at all...

[S4MUR41]

Ok im having a serious issue with my T21. It just happened one day that when I wanted to use it, it would not turn on. I was using it the day before without an issue. When I press the power button there is a little clicking sound that appears to be around the battery area. The lights flicker for a second and goes off, it doesnt start up at all, just when you push the power button it makes a click noise around the battery. I have opened it up and looked for the problem, everything is connected properly and do not see any loose or malfunctioning connections. Anyone have any ideas on what this is.... or how much it will cost to repair, I need to get this working ASAP. Thanks.

[AlphaKilo470]

Try removing optical drive, hard drive, main battery, CMOS battery and ac adaptor and then press the power button ten or so times and let the computer sit for a couple of minutes. Afterwards put everything back together and see if the computer works.

[S4MUR41]

i tried that and still does the same thing

[Orevin]

Looks like a broken system board
You can try to remove the CMOS battery again and let it stay over night, a day or the weekend... But there is little hope to reanimate it.

[ronbo613]

This probably won't help, but it doesn't cost anything to try, so what the heck.
We have a lot of battery connection issues because we use our gear in a salt water environment. Get a pen with a white eraser and "erase" the battery terminals of your laptop and the battery pack. A very small amount of oxidation can cripple a low amperage power supply.
Don't get your hopes up, this is a last resort-type repair attempt, but there is a money-back guarantee.
Kind of off the subject, but I've been to Barrie on my way to Kirkland Lake. I love it up there.

[neteo]

I have exactly the same issue with my T21 !.
the HD led and batterie is blinking 1 tme less, when I power on.
but each time after one or two days it starts again , and work perfectly.
I am bit worried, it s already the third time this happened, batterie is new, and have cleaned everything inside...

[Fisherman]

I recently had what sounds like the same problem. I ended up replacing the systemboard.


You might take a look at an append I just made. It points to a couple of threads that describe what I did to fix the problem.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

Hope this helps.

jj

[JOSEALVI]

I had the same issue with my T21 as S4MUR41 described, but after researching throughout the Internet and with my little bit experience, I fixed my Laptop.

First to all, I´d like to say, I thought that fix the problem was going to be expensive: Changing the motherboard by example. But it wasn´t.

Here is what I did:

1. I removed optical drive, hard drive, main battery, keyboard and CPU´s fan. (Be so carefully).
2. I put some thermal paste on the CPU´s core, of course, after removing (with an especial remover to do this) the old one on the Cpu´s core and fan. (Be extremely carefully and take more instruccions to do this if you don´t have enough experience).
3. Then I put everything in their place and the computer turned on as always. (Be so carefully).

Why I did that? Someday I heard that the computers don´t start if the CPU doesn´t have the properly temperature, so if your Computer´s CPU don´t have the correct ventilation it won´t be able to function and the computet doesn´t start.

Try it, I hope it will help you as well as it functioned to me.

Save money, but do it carefully and research a little bit more.

Regards,
PP

[S4MUR41]

sorry about the long time to reply back. anyways I tried everything, I left out all the parts for 2 weeks and assembeled everything with no sucess. The laptop does not turn on.

Like you guys say its probably the mobo im probably just gonna sell her for parts and invest in a new system in january.

[rkawakami]

This is what AbsoluteRaleigh calls "the blink of death". I have a T22 that does this. Received it and it didn't power up, though the seller indicated that it worked fine. Same blink of the hard disk light and no other activity. A couple of days later it powered right up, several times in fact. Then, back to blinking again... This weekend, after having the system apart for about two weeks (both batteries removed, keyboard off, Ultrabay, hard drive and PCMCIA rails removed), the system powered up again. Re-assembled the whole thing, ran several passes of system diagnostics with no failures, installed an OS on a spare drive, re-booted a couple of times, fully powered it off a couple of times and it still worked. During one more attempt at a re-start and it died again.

"Overcharged" capacitor(s) have been deemed a possible problem. I've seen some advice about lifting the front left corner of the laptop and thus flexing the system board to solve the problem, but that doesn't work for me. I'm leaning toward a bad power controller chip or a bad solder connection and when I can get some time with a borrowed oscilloscope I'm going to poke around the motherboard. You can be sure that I will post back here if I find anything interesting.

[epigram]

i have this same problem too! it works maybe every alternate day. but that's far too unreliable.

any long term fix?

[microtom]

I have exactly the same problem with my T21, and after searching the Internet for solutions I have the feeling that this is a common failure that shows up at an increasing rate these days.
So far, I always managed to power it on following this procedure:

• - Unplug the power supply and remove the battery right after each use.
  - Leave the ThinkPad in this state until next use.
  - Plug in the power supply and press the power button at the same time. Then put the battery back in.

From what I have read in this and other forums, the time you have to keep it unplugged may increase over time until this procedure will not work any more. As a long-term solution I have bought a "used and tested" system board for EUR 80.- at ebay. I will swap the board soon, but since it is a used board, there is a chance that it will develop the same fault after a while. The dealer gave me 6 months warranty though.

I am very interested in finding out which component in the board is causing this fault. The slow deterioration might point to a capacitor developing some leakage current when it is fully charged, or it might as well be a failing power controller. I tried to follow the wires from the keyboard power switch to the system board but without any circuit diagrams it is almost impossible to understand the circuitry. As in most of these cases I suspect that the main cause is a part that is only a few cents worth. Last months I changed three leaking caps on my dead desktop motherboard and it runs like new since then...

If anyone knows the root cause (or at least has the schematics of the power management unit) please let me know.

Regards,
Thomas[/list]

[vlyne]

microtom's empirical procedure is about as close as we'll get I think to a hack that works...for a while... My procedure is to take all power off, then do the press power button a few times trick to discharge, then the A/C & powerbutton on at the same time trick. It avoids the one day wait. What I don't understand is that, with age, capacitors are meant to release their charge more quickly. Also, for a capacitor to retain it's charge for a day or up to two weeks it must be one of the large capacity ones on the MB. A failing MOSFET or power controller is plausible and so could a whole range of scenarios. One scenario is this: when the power button is pressed the pressure from that action causes a failing dry joint to connect and hence supply (or drain) power to (from) a circuit sufficient to get the machine going. Once pressure is relieved on the power button the dry joint separates trapping charge in the circuit. With age the dry joint gets worse. If this guess has any merit, using a port replicator will give different results than using the power button on the machine (which is better will depend on the state of the dry joint). So, I'm back to a dry joint issue rather than an overcharge capacitor which I find unlikely as the culprit.

One other point I would make in favor of this guess is that the procedure of continually pressing the power button, or of holding the powerbutton while inserting the A/C jack in, probably acts to reform the dry joint and drain the rogue circuit.

OK, that being the case, where is this ...... dry joint!!

[balunwolf]

my observation is, if you apply higher voltage to these machines, they will start at about 17 to 20V.

Perhaps a dryed capacitor or the maxim 1632 power regulator are responsible for this behaviour.

I´m very interested in a solution, having four board with same symptoms !

regards

Michael Wolf

[rkawakami]

my observation is, if you apply higher voltage to these machines, they will start at about 17 to 20V.

Are you using a bench-top power supply to do this? If so, do you know what kind of current is being drawn?

[Wangstang]

So anyone have an update on fixing this issue?

I have a T20 that just started the "blink of death" yesterday and the wife is wanting me to fix it. I already disassembled and let things sit overnight, reassemled this morning and still "blink of death". I guess I will pull the battery and let it sit for a few days and try again. It would be nice to have a true fix.

Wes