Overvoltage => non-booting R51 motherboard

[Geodad]

Hello,

Please bear with me as this is my first post here. I purchased a dead R51 with 768Mb memory, CD-DVD drive, 14" LCD, model 2888 (basically everything minus the hard disk) with thoughts of trying to revive it.

The previous owner bought a non-name replacement AC adaptor after the IBM adaptor frayed apart. Problem was, even though the replacement said 16.5V, when measured with the meter, it read 32V! Plugging it in fried the motherboard according to the previous owner.

I've tried with and without a fully-charged battery in place and with and without AC mains. Same symptoms each time: the lights all flash on then off, Circle-Z light stays on, and CPU fan powers up. System does not appear to make it very far into POST though. When booting with all DRAM removed (base and optional) I get no beep codes at all and that's supposed to be early on, right?

Are the input FETs fried? They look to be Toshiba TPC8014s...They seemed to ohm out good with the meter when disconnected from power. Next step is to check output voltages with the AC adaptor plugged in, I suppose. Anybody replaced one of these before? Or should I give up and send it to Hammerhead? Any advice appreciated!

thanks,
-gary

P.S. Sorry for the previous double-post to the Marketplace forum...I hope I got it right this time!