R52 some keys not working?

[worthy_m]

Hi
I'm having problems with a r52 1846 thinkpad. The Access IBM key doesn't work (not overly bothered about that), but more annoyingly the volume up, volume down and mute keys don't work either.
Second issue is that the computer crashes when Fn + F4 or Fn + F3 is pressed. The screen will switch off, but it won't come back on. Am I missing something here? If I press the power key the lappie has a "major error" and dies....
I don't have any instructions, have tried to hunt around on the net but it appears that the Access IBM is the help for the laptop??
Anyway, if anyone knows - I'm sure its a really simple fix, but I cannot figure it out.....
Thanks in advance

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com! (sorry it couldn't be under better circumstances)

I'm not too familiar with the R series systems so this advice is going to be general and may require another computer to accomplish...

Download a copy of the Hardware Maintanence Manual for the R50e R51e R52 from here:

HMM R5x

This manual requires that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on the computer so you can read it. There's sections inside the manual which go over some simple troubleshooting procedures and tell you how to take your system apart.

If the R52 uses the same Fn key sequences as my T23s then Fn+F3 is supposed to turn off the LCD until a key is pressed or a mouse/trackpoint movement is detected. The Fn+F4 key sequence normally puts the laptop into standby mode, where you then need to press the Fn key to wake it back up. In either case, pressing those key sequences should not make the system "crash". By that I mean no "blue screen of death" or cryptic error message thrown by Windows.

Pressing the power key, if you are running some version of Windows (XP or 2000), for about two seconds should normally give you a prompt on what to do next (log off, shutdown). "Major error" doesn't give us enough information as to what your problem is. Can you be a little more specific as to any error message that you see?

The lack of response to your Access IBM and volume keys could be a problem with the keyboard or the motherboard. Before we can troubleshoot that, some other questions need to be answered first:

Has the laptop ever worked correctly for you before?
If yes, do you know if something was changed (hardware or software) right before noticing any of these problems?
If no, do you know any previous history of the system?

[NS]

<snip>

If the R52 uses the same Fn key sequences as my T23s then Fn+F3 is supposed to turn off the LCD until a key is pressed or a mouse/trackpoint movement is detected. The Fn+F4 key sequence normally puts the laptop into standby mode, where you then need to press the Fn key to wake it back up. In either case, pressing those key sequences should not make the system "crash". By that I mean no "blue screen of death" or cryptic error message thrown by Windows.

Yes. My r52 has the same function as your T23s.

Pressing the power key, if you are running some version of Windows (XP or 2000), for about two seconds should normally give you a prompt on what to do next (log off, shutdown).

No. Once i pressed the power key for 2 seconds, it automatically switch itself off. There is no prompt on what to do next.

With respect,
Boon Hui

[NS]

Hi
I'm having problems with a r52 1846 thinkpad. The Access IBM key doesn't work (not overly bothered about that), but more annoyingly the volume up, volume down and mute keys don't work either.
Second issue is that the computer crashes when Fn + F4 or Fn + F3 is pressed. The screen will switch off, but it won't come back on. Am I missing something here? If I press the power key the lappie has a "major error" and dies....
I don't have any instructions, have tried to hunt around on the net but it appears that the Access IBM is the help for the laptop??
Anyway, if anyone knows - I'm sure its a really simple fix, but I cannot figure it out.....
Thanks in advance

Do you have the recovery CDs? Can you run the recovery and check to see if problem persists. I believed you must have removed something or accidently deleted something. Because i have an R52 and it does not behave the same way as yours.

USER EDIT: Please run PC-Doctor and report back.

[carbon_unit]

I think I would save whatever data you need and restore it to factory defaults using F11 during bootup.
I bought a NOS R51e and it acted similar to what you describe and a restore fixed it.