T41 Wireless Upgrade --> Dead Mobo??

[porkfat]

Hi folks,

In short, I recently decided to upgrade the wireless adapter in my T41 (2379-xx5, refurb) from the stock Intel PRO 2100 to an IBM 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II (Atheros AR5004X chipset) bought on eBay. Installation was to be a simple and straightforward process--(1) download the atheros driver, (2) check for system updates and reboot, (3) disable the Intel 2100 adapter and shutdown, (4) install the adapter... No big deal, since I've been into this computer many times before and removing the keyboard and palm bezel to access the wireless adapter is trivial (I *love* Thinkpads!).

However, after I installed the new card and powered the system on, I got the initial 4 green LEDs (caps - numlock - power - battery), then just power and battery (still green, good) and CPU fan, then... nothing. Restarting again, I still got nothing. I then put the old adapter back in, and the system will still not get past POST. The display is blank--no IBM logo (and no ghosted image). The HDD seems to start for a split second, then stops.

Other Details:

- The Atheros card was confirmed by the seller to be an IBM part, and has FRU P/N 27K9999 on it (see link above). Assuming this is an IBM part, the 1802 BIOS error should not be an issue. This card is compatible with a T41p (and if it weren't, would it still kill the board??)
- My BIOS (1RETDRWW) and Embedded Controller program (1RHT71WW) were already current according to Lenovo System Update and the online driver matrix, so these were not touched just prior to the installation. I did update the power management driver, but rebooted into Windows once after the update before shutting down again to install the new card.
- Swapping the RAM (2x 1GB Kingston) doesn't help.
- I dual boot Linux from a 2nd HDD in the ultrabay and decided to try that in the main drive bay, but to no avail.
- With a bootable CD in the ultrabay optical drive, the drive light comes on and the CD spins up, but there is no sound of the CD being read and still no display.
- I get no diagnostic "beeps" at all when I power it on... Can't recall if there's an option in the BIOS where I might have turned them off.
- While I haven't taken a microscope to it, inspecting the board shows nothing apparently wrong with capacitors, no burnt smell, etc
- Yes, I unplugged AC adapter, removed battery, and was sure to ground to metal before getting inside the system...
- To let any residual charge dissipate, I've let the computer rest for 2 days now with the AC unplugged, battery removed, and CMOS battery removed (which happens to be the original...) Still no go.

Background:

- Personally replaced the motherboard with a T41p mobo (Radeon FireGL 128) about 2 yrs ago. The original had to be replaced after a water spill. The new one was bought on eBay and the system has worked *flawlessly* under HEAVY daily use ever since.
- Installed long fan with the new mobo.

If the info here seems superfluous, I apologize. I'm a college student doing computational work, and have taken good care of this system because it's been my mainstay for the past 4 yrs. It was working fine before, and to have something like this happen after such a simple procedure is a mystery. I've a bad feeling that the system board is dead again, confirmed by troubleshooting steps in the hardware maintenance manual.

Soooo...
Anyone have any further suggestions, or is this thing due for a new board (again)?


While I'm at it, let me also say that this is a great forum! It's been a huge resource through years of upgrades, troubleshooting, repairs, and many Linux installs. Thanks to everyone.

[sktn77a]

Well, the wireless card shouldn't have fried your mobo - something else has happened. I sounds like the "graphics chip" problem

Get some more input from experts on this board but you've done pretty much everything the rest of us would have done.

[sotto_xxl]

I have a T41 as well and i had this problem a few weeks ago. I found this fix on an romanian site and it worked for me.
I hope this will help you too. Here is the link to the fix. [/url]http://rapidshare.com/files/104241685/f ... ot.rar[url]
Inside the archive you have a readme.txt that explins hou to do it.
Good luck! [/url]

[Johan]

Wow, this surely sounds like serious troubles...

I suggest you try to see if you can boot from a DOS diskette drive (= via USB, these are available off eBay for around $20 - see e.g. IBM USB Portable Diskette Drive 05K9276 or search for either 05K9276 or 06P5223). If so run the PC Doctor for DOS - ThinkPad R50/e/p, R51, T40/p, T41/p, T42/p. A CD-ROM (bootable) version of that is also available, but not of much use to use as you cannot boot from your CD-ROM; see PC Doctor for DOS bootable CD - ThinkPad. PS: In principle, it would be "nice" to be able to get into the BIOS, and change the boot-order to a) diskette, b) CD-ROM and c) HDD, but this does not sound possible for you... so what if your Thinkpad hang while attempting to boot on the internal HDD, and newer get any further??

If you are indeed able to boot on the above DOS-diagnostics disk, and still neither on the CD-ROM, nor on the HDD - then what? HDD failure? Not likely, I would say (?). Still, if you have a Hitachi HDD, then there are DOS-based diagnostics programs that can be used to test the HDD itself; see the links in the thread T41 noise - rhythmic brief pitch change every 3-4 seconds (see the post of Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:18 pm).

And absolutely, certainly NO; I think your post is anything BUT superfluous - you did everything (and more!) that is suggested at Troubleshooting startup or booting issues - ThinkPad.

PS: A completely, wild guess: What if one of your RAM-blocks have for some reason developed an error, which is not caught by the very brief/limited POST RAM-test... then what? Could this have the effect that boot will halt regardless of in which slot the bad RAM is?? A bootable, DOS-based RAM-test program is e.g. memtest86+.

I wish you all luck with getting your workhorse ThinkPad back on its feet again!

Best regards,

Johan

[sojourner]

Well, the wireless card shouldn't have fried your mobo - something else has happened. I sounds like the "graphics chip" problem

That was my first thought too (especially since they are in such close proximity).

IF that is the case, I've seen a troubleshooting tip which might help. Remove the KB/Palmrest and apply some gentle pressure on the graphics chip and at the same time boot your notebook. The idea behind this is, perhaps enough downward pressure on the graphics chip will allow broken contacts to touch, a boot to occur, thus confirming a graphics chip problem.

[sjthinkpader]

GPU problem
When applying pressure, try the two left corners one at a time. Push the power button at the same time.

Memory problem
Remove both sticks and the WiFi card. Insert one stick and try booting, repeat with the other stick. Repeat process with the other slot.

[check1t]

Sometimes you will have to press a bit
to mount the Wi-Fi card right to the place.
Are you sure it was installed correctly?

Have you tried to turn on "Diagnostic" boot mode from BIOS ?