T30 only fan goes on at power up. how can I troubleshoot

[motero99]

I have a T30 that has beem one problem after another. I had it running smoothly for a month, and now it will not power up. My daughter said it locked up while I was out of town. She could not get it to shutdown by holding the power button, so she pulled the power cable and let the battery die. Now it will not power up. When you hit the power button, the fan starts, but the screen does not become active. All of the lights go on and then only the light that looks like a lightning bolt within a circle stays on. I hooked it up to an external monitor, but nothing comes on the monitor. There are no beeps either at start. I tried all possible combinations of the memory cards and slots, but nothing has changed. Before I junk this system, does anyone have any ideas as to how to troubleshoot?

[rkawakami]

I would try pulling out everything that plugs into the system:

- memory
- hard disk drive
- Ultrabay drive
- MiniPCI card
- communication daughter card (CDC)
- PCMCIA card(s)
- anything else that I forgot...

then try powering up. You should get the "bad memory" beep code, 1-3-3-1. If you do, then plug one of the memory modules back in and try powering up again. If it doesn't work, try the other slot and then try the other module in both slots. Assuming that the system still does not power up, and the odds against BOTH memory modules going bad at the same time, I'd suspect the motherboard or CPU (the last item which unplugs from the motherboard). Also, the T30 is known for having a memory slot problem so you may want to read some of this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=13262

Basically, people have found that you can put some pressure on the module by installing a "shim" between the module(s) and cover. Paper or cardboard would be recommended.