T43 Turned Itself Off and Won't Power On

[chuckles859]

Hi all. Hate to make my first post a bad one.... I've got refurbished T43 1871-FU1. 1.5G DDR2 SDRAM, Pentuim M 730 1.6 Mhz, 30G HD, Intel Graphics Card (900 or 300 not sure), 6 cell Li-Ion 10.8V - 4.4Ah, AC Adaptor P/N 02k6746, FRU P/N 02k6753. The laptop was refurbished by Metro Business Systems. It was on and plugged in with the battery attatched. I (think) I heard a tiny "popping" sound and then the laptop screen went blank. The fan stopped and the charging light below the screen went off. I unplugged the adapter and pulled out the battery. I put the battery back in and pushed the power button. I heard a short electrical sounding "buzz" when I depressed the switch. Same thing if I pushed the power button again. It sounded like it was coming from the area underneath/near the Access IBM and volume buttons. I took off the battery, and plugged in the adaptor. Everytime the adapter made contact that should have given it power, I heard the same short "buzz" sound from the same location. I have looked at some of the similar posts. I tried taking out the battery with adapter unplugged and holding the power switch down for 30 sec to release static. The adapter hasn't been recalled. My MAIN problem is that this is my work computer and is full of files I HAVE to get back somehow. And, I know I should have backed them up..... I also saw a few posts about checking the motherboard fuses. I haven't done that yet, just B/C I thought someone might know specifically what happened or have a general idea before I tear it down and start inspecting. Many thanks in advance!!

[LegendaryKA8]

I'll do a little bumping for you, although I don't have too much insight I can give on your problem.

Firstly, your work files are most likely just fine. Just pull out your hard drive and put it into a USB 2.5" PATA hard drive enclosure and plug it into another computer... that will give you access to your files.

From what you described it sounds like your motherboard has blown a fuse somewhere. Unfortunately the fuses aren't easily replaceable as they are soldered directly onto the motherboard. There have been reports of successfully soldering another micro fuse onto the blown one, but I would wager this would take considerable electronics soldering experience to do correctly... something I wouldn't personally know how to do.

If you're not up to the task the easiest way to repair your T43 would be to purchase a new motherboard. I would highly suggest getting a motherboard with an Intel GMA graphics chip(like the one you currently have) as the ATI-based cards are known to have issues with flexing loose from the motherboard over time.

ATI-equipped T43s are less susceptible to this problem, but it does happen. If you cannot find an Intel motherboard, there are ways to repair ATI boards if you purchase one and the problem occurs.

Make sure to purchase a T43 motherboard only, as your processor and RAM(and fan assembly, IIRC) aren't compatible with T42 and earlier motherboards.

I hope this makes some sense to you and gets you on the road to getting your T4x fixed.

[chuckles859]

I appreciate the input Legendary! I found multiple enclosures for around 10$. Couple of questions about them though. Does it work like a plug and play flash drive? Do the OS's need to be the same for the HD to work on another computer? Am I essentially booting my HD and OS with the rest of the other computers components? Anyway, thanks again. I'll go Mobo searching. If anyone happens across one that fits my need, let me know if you feel so inclined.

[chuckles859]

http://cgi.ebay.com.my/IBM-T43-Motherbo ... 0397119121

I found this board. It has the 1.86 pentium M and it's model # is 4AU instead of FU-1. Looks like everything is compatible. Anyone forsee any problems?

[LegendaryKA8]

Hey there. Firstly, the external HDD enclosures work just like a flash drive. Once you have the drive installed, all you need to do is plug it in. Having a different OS installed on the machine you're looking at your files on shouldn't make a difference as long as you have programs that can read the type of files you're trying to recover.

The motherboard you picked out will work just fine. It is also of the Intel variety, and it looks like you get a bit of a processor upgrade in the bargain. Just use the bits from your dead motherboard and you'll be fine. If you haven't opened one of these up before, I would highly suggest downloading and reading through the service manual, located here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 58791.html

[chuckles859]

I truly appreciate all the info! Hopefully, my next post will be good news!

[chuckles859]

OK I've got the case and I've plugged the HD up to another computer.

Tried to acces the drive and it asks if I would like to format it. Properties of the drive are: File system: RAW Capacity: 0 bytes used, 0 bytes free and indicates that the drive is all used space.

In a DOS prompt the drive would not show anything for directory or tree commands.

Error checking simply closes itself after starting.

I'm stuck........

[sjthinkpader]

All is not lost yet, try this one.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=findpart

The computer may just crashed as it was writing the FAT table and messed it up. If this is the case then Findpart may be able to rebuild the FAT.

[chuckles859]

I'm running the damaged drive in an enclosure through USB to a computer at work. When I run findpart on

the computer the command window opens and closes immediately. Is there a tutorial for this program? Do I

need to put this program on the drive in question or can I run it on the drive from the computer the drive is

plugged into?

[sjthinkpader]

Yes, just tether the damaged drive to another computer and run Findpart from that. You will need a HDD larger than your damaged drive to hold recovered data. An A30/A31 with two Ultrabays or a desktop with IDE cable adapters works best for this kind of job.

Sven Olaf Mikkelsen is a busy person so try to catch his attention to help you. I made a small donation to his Paypal account and he responded fairly quickly.