T42 died - need help recovering

[detroitslim]

Morning, y'all -

Short story - my T42 died suddenly. Can't even get into the 'Access IBM' screen anymore. Removed battery & RAM and get no beeps. Looking for help sorting through the troubleshooting procedures & recovering some documents.

The long story - My T42 died yesterday. This didn't catch me totally by surprise - a couple of months ago the CD-ROM drive stopped working, and I had some problems with the wireless internet connections in the last couple of days. Yesterday, the video screen started to flicker. Uh oh. I powered the system off by holding down the power button, let it sit for 10 minutes, then tried to re-boot.

I got nothing. Power light is on, fan starts to spin, but nothing beeps, and the screen stays dark. I try repeatedly yesterday to power the system up and get the same result. Late yesterday, it kicks in and I get the 'Access IBM' screen. I hit the access IBM button. I fumble around and somehow get into a diagnostic mode. It starts running tests. The processor tests pass. The video tests pass. I start running the memory test (the full, long test) and after 40 minutes, when the test is at 81%, the screen starts to flicker again and the test stops running.

EDIT - Twice since it died, I have gotten a single beep when powering the system down. I've only gotten that beep twice out of 10-20 power downs.

I've been searching through the forums here about dead T42's. I've tried removing the battery and the RAM, and when I start it that way, I get the same results - fan runs, screen stays dark, and nothing beeps.

So my questions are:

1) What's the best way to proceed? Are there other troubleshooting/solution steps that I've missed in the forums? If it doesn't beep with the RAM removed, what does that mean?

2) I would love to get my documents off the hard drive. If I get back into the Access IBM screen somehow, can I copy the files off the hard drive to a USB flash drive? Or is there some way to create a boot drive from a USB flash drive so that I can do this?

Thanks!

Jeff

[poshgeordie]

Hi Jeff and sorry to hear of your problems.

It does sound to me like a graphics problem. Read this stickied post for more information.

If you've got a separate monitor connect it to the external VGA connector and see if you get anything on the monitor.
Also try removing the keyboard and pressing down on the graphics chip whilst starting up the laptop. If it now works then it's probably the graphics chip problem

Regarding getting the contents of your hard disk off, if you have access to another PC, buy a 3.5" to 2.5" IDE converter (off eBay) and connect it to the PC's spare connector on the HDD IDE cable.

On the TP HDD make a little wire link on the correct connector pins so that it's recognised as a slave drive (this page should help).

(Another way would be to disconnect the PC IDE cable from the CD drive and connect the HDD converter to it, and keep the laptop HDD drive as it is [as master]).

Connect the TP HDD to the converter connector and fire up the PC. Check the laptop drive is seen as slave in bios.

Once you've booted into your operating system you'll be able to navigate to the laptop HDD C:\Docs & Settings\user\My docs etc etc, and copy the contents onto the PC.

Alternatively another Thinkpad with an hard drive ultrabay unit can be simply used to extract the directories.

<EDIT> to remove incorrect information about HDD settings in Ultrabay - thanks RBS.

[RealBlackStuff]

I beg to slightly differ.
You do not set the laptop HD to Slave when used in the Ultrabay. Ultrabay is the Master on the secondary IDE Channel.
And another (easier) method would be to get a USB enclosure for 2.5" PATA (not SATA) drives.
Take the HD out of the laptop, and insert it in the USB enclosure.
Hook that up to any PC or laptop and access your stored data.

[poshgeordie]

Thanks RBS - you're right of course - having a senior moment here!

[detroitslim]

Thanks for the help, all!

I got the keyboard off, rebooted with pressure on the graphics chip, and the system came to a wobbly sort of life. Wouldn't stay alive, though. Locks up before it can even finish booting up.

I've tried some searching for this graphics chip problem? Is there a good thread about what this is, and if there's a solution?

Otherwise, looks like I'm off to buy that adapter. I've got another PC, so hooking up the laptop drive won't be difficult.

Jeff

[poshgeordie]

The best solution is to have the graphics chip reballed. This entails having the chip removed from the motherboard and the 700 odd tiny solder balls replaced with new ones.
The reballed chip is then reflowed back onto the motherboard. This means resoldering all the solder balls using specialist infrared reflowing equipment.

There are a number of companies in US which do this and recently GPU Medics has been doing some good work.

There is also a sticky thread where the chip balls are reflowed (resoldered) using a heat gun here but read it carefully first before you think about doing it.

[detroitslim]

Thought it would be something like that.

I bit the bullet and bought a new, cheap laptop. What I'm learning now is the full breadth of why Vista sucks. I miss my Thinkpad, and I haven't even started using the new machine yet!

[RealBlackStuff]

You can still take your T42 apart, send the mobo to GPU Medics for a GPU reballing, and for less than $50.- you can use your T42 again in about a week's time. I would in a heartbeat!

[detroitslim]

DO you have the contact info for GPU medics?

[RealBlackStuff]

On eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0492308102
That's where I found them.
And see also this post: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=79901
I am more than happy with their work!