T20 freeze and start up problem

[jwdenmark]

My T20, about 4 years old (and therefore out of warranty), seems to have lost its struggle for life.

A couple months ago, after winning an intense battle with spyware, I would come back to the computer to find that it had shut down. I didn't think much of it at first, but it kept happening in shorter increments--first a week apart, then days.

More recently, it would start up, work for 10-15 minutes and then freeze and shut off. I tried to start it immediately afterwards and it would start up all the way and shut off in 2 minutes, or wouldn't even start all the way. The next day I tried again, and it would start off ok, but would repeat the same pattern (10-15 minutes ok, next start up fails). And again, the time intervals became shorter and shorter, until it wouldn't start even half way.

Finally, I press the power button and one of the lights flashes and that's it. It doesn't even boot up for more than a second.

Any ideas why this might be happening and how I could go about fixing it? Do you think it's just hardware or any relation to the spyware/adware/etc. that invested the computer the month before the problem? The computer is a bit old but was working quite well, so I'd rather try to save it.

I would greatly appreciate any help you could give.
Thank you in advance!
Jake

[sjhwilkes]

It's a hardware issue - my T20 did the same for a while, then stopped doing it just as I was giviing up on it. My guess is that's is either the system board or DC-DC converter.
I have a T30 though so if it stays dead I'm not going to spend money trying to diagnose it. See if anyone else agrees with me - you may be stuck looking for a system board / T20 with a broken screen on ebay for parts.

Simon

[egibbs]

It could be that the fan has gotten stuck. I certainly sounds thermal.

Ed Gibbs

[AbsoluteRaleigh]

My T20, about 4 years old (and therefore out of warranty), seems to have lost its struggle for life.

A couple months ago, after winning an intense battle with spyware, I would come back to the computer to find that it had shut down. I didn't think much of it at first, but it kept happening in shorter increments--first a week apart, then days.

More recently, it would start up, work for 10-15 minutes and then freeze and shut off. I tried to start it immediately afterwards and it would start up all the way and shut off in 2 minutes, or wouldn't even start all the way. The next day I tried again, and it would start off ok, but would repeat the same pattern (10-15 minutes ok, next start up fails). And again, the time intervals became shorter and shorter, until it wouldn't start even half way.

Finally, I press the power button and one of the lights flashes and that's it. It doesn't even boot up for more than a second.

Any ideas why this might be happening and how I could go about fixing it? Do you think it's just hardware or any relation to the spyware/adware/etc. that invested the computer the month before the problem? The computer is a bit old but was working quite well, so I'd rather try to save it.

I would greatly appreciate any help you could give.
Thank you in advance!
Jake

It sounds like it "was" running hot.

The flash of light when you hit the power button is common for a bad T2* system board.

Heat kills system boards.

A new fan & system board will likely revive it.