T40 AC won't come online, mouse pointer frozen

[toothandnail]

I have a T40, somewhat modified, which has been very good up till now. Recently, I stated getting messages from one Linux kernel regarding an 'overcharge event on hub x', which was sometimes only one hub, but sometimes all 4. I couldn't find any reports of that sort of problem, but it worried me more than a bit.

Anyhow, earlier today I fired the machine up (on battery) to upload a Zenwalk Linux package that I had modified. The machine must have been running for around 5-10 minutes before I shut it down and put it back in its backpack.

I've just made multiple attempts to get the machine running. With the AC adapter plugged in, there is no sign of the power light coming on, and when booting, Linux reports AC not online. Bad.

Worse, when the machine finishes booting, I have a mouse cursor in the middle of the screen which will not move. I've tried both the touch pad and the normal trackpoint, but it won't move in either instance.

I'm not too worried about the data on the drive. Both WinXP and Linux will boot, so it looks as though the drive itself is fine. However, I'm not sure how to diagnose the cause of the problem, but suspect that it is serious.

Is there any easy way of checking what has gone wrong? If its a mainboard fault, I suspect I will have to end up breaking the machine for spares, which seems a pity.

Any advice out there?

paul.

[Harryc]

Try a different AC adapter or measure the voltage output of your current one for 16V at the center pin.

[toothandnail]

Try a different AC adapter or measure the voltage output of your current one for 16V at the center pin.

I will do as soon as I can (on site at the moment, and its an all Compaq/HP shop).

My first suspicion would have been the AC adapter, but the mouse pointer problem makes me think its something much more serious.

I have a T42 (picked up a little while ago when I started having 'overcharge' problems with the T40, and I'm hoping to be able to swap the hard drive, at least on a temporary basis so I can get back to my working system. So far as I can see, the only big difference between the two is the T42 has Gigabit ethernet instead of 10/100. Oddly enough, both have Atheros based wifi adapters, so I may not even have to change the wireless drivers.

I suspect the problem may be due to flex, though I've always been pretty careful when moving the T40 with the screen up.

paul.