A31 blank screen, battery problem?

[rnfolsom]

My wife's A31 now has a blank screen, and I cannot tell if it has booted or not.

If the hard drive has died, the BIOS still should show an initial screen --- correct? (It shows nothing.)

Before I spring for professional help, it occured to me that perhaps the main (and only) battery --- the long one at the front of the machine --- might have gone bad, because it is rather ancient.

So I shut down the machine, removed the battery, started the machine again, and there was no improvement.

But I wonder: Is the A31 designed to work (when on AC power) even if the battery is removed? I have a Dell C800 laptop that does work fine with no battery (but won't run at all with a thoroughly dead battery in place) --- but I don't know if the IBM A31 shares that characteristic.

I'd try a new battery (I have a new one ready) as a possible fix, but I'm scrared to try it because I don't know if the A31's problem --- whatever it might be --- would damage that new battery.

Any comments or suggestions would be very much appreciated. We bought the machine used about a year ago, allegedly refurbished by either Lenovo or IBM (but purchased from a third party, not from either IBM or Lenovo).

Thanks for any help.

Roger Folsom

[newmanm]

it's probably not your battery. you don't need a battery for the laptop to work, but take it out, leaving the adapter plugged in.

if you're not getting any kind of screen it's probably your main board, but I suppose it could be your LCD. when your drive is being accessed you'll see a little cylinder light at the bottom of your LCD. if you think it's your LCD try hitting Fn + F7 (?) to toggle between LCD and external monitor. there are 3 options LCD, external, both

do you get any beeps? like one long two short?

I have had two system board failures. one time the initial screen came on with the options of either going to setup or selecting my boot device. the other time I didn't get any options, but the thinkpad screen did come up.

I think the troubleshooting guide also suggests reseating your memory module.

[rnfolsom]

newmanm:

Thanks for the tips. It did turn out to be the motherboard, as I (after some thought) suspected after absolutely nothing happened on startup: no POST (Power-On Self-Test), no IBM screen, no beeps, no nothing.

I had expected to replace the motherboard (and found one at PrintSavings.com for a tad under $500), but the labor cost to replace the motherboard (about $200 as I recall, or a bit more) made it more sensible to spend a bit more to get another refurbished A31, and in the process move from 1.6ghz to 1.9ghz.

We simply swapped in the hard drive from the old unit, and so we didn't have any setup to do, which is good because I've been swamped with other projects.

I'm pleased that the hard drive (and the old unit's drivers) worked, even though there is some difference in RAM type: we moved from an A31 C4U-2652 to an A31 2653-PU9, which came with only 256mb RAM. I had decided not to swap the RAM out of the old unit into the new one for fear that whatever had killed the motherboard might have damaged the RAM, and that turned out to be the right decision because Crucial.com had different RAM part numbers for 2652 and 2653.

Here's hoping that your two motherboard failures and my single motherboard failures don't indicate a trend for the A31 series.

Thanks again for the troubleshooting tips. I've made a note of them for possible future use, I hope not.

Roger Folsom