Thinkpad R31 problems

[Edgaras]

Hello,
I am new to this forum, and new to the IBM owners community. I've bought my used R31 just a few days ago, and came across a few problems, that annoys me.
First one would be random blackouts-laptop just shuts off, and can be turned on only when AC plug is removed and inserted again (I keep it on AC, with battery removed). I think it may be caused by overheating, so I started monitoring CPU temperatures, and found out that even at high temps fan just doesn't kick in. Thank to this forum, I've changed some settings in BIOS (I think it's something with profiles, like max.performance/max.battery) to automatic, or dynamic switching, and that made fan work, but in my opinion not enough. Few times it just turned off without even trying of cooling itself down. Any ideas why? Also, HDD, RAM cover, and all of the bottom left side gets hot, is this normal?
Second problem is when battery is inserted, but almost discharged-it starts to "jump" from AC power to battery power very quickly, especially when I try to surf the net or do tasks, which need more CPU resources. In my opinion faulty AC jack doesn't fit as it would cause problems when running only on AC, with battery removed. So what may be causing this?
Thank you for your patience, and I hope you won't fall asleep reading this

[vanaya]

Welcome to the forum!!

From your description it sounds like the fan is kaput!!!. These machines run hot to begin with and with a fan that is malfunctioning even worse. When my R40 fan failed it gave an error code at boot prior to POST. I haven't seen this on the R30/31 series, so not sure it would give code. You can see the fan when you take off the keyboard in the left upper corner. Try removing the screws from the keyboard and tilt the keyboard out of the way and press the power button. This way you check to see if the fan spins up and startup. Open the utility you are using to check temps and post here what the temps are and if the fan starts up at a give temperature. If the fan appears to work, try cleaning off old paste and applying fresh thermal paste in between cpu and fan.

As far as the battery I would diagnose that after the above. If it is the original battery, that has probably gone kaput also, giving the age of the machine. I have not had a battery act like this so not sure if these are symptoms of dead battery or charging circuitry. Might be as simple as the blades of the MB not making good contact with the battery (bent blades, on MB or battery)

[Edgaras]

Thank you for your answer.
OK so I've just re-pasted the CPU with brand new Nexus Thermal Compound, cleaned the dust off the radiator (there barely was any), and after 15 minutes of watching simpsons on wtso.net (online player, like youtube) laptop shut itself off. I managed to see, that the last CPU temp.was 75 degrees Celcius. BTW the fan is working, and was spinning at low spee
So, again, is there any way to force the fan spin all the time? TPFanControl just doesn't seem to work, or maybe it's just me...
P.S. Fan is kinda far from the CPU, as heatsink connects them.

[vanaya]

I've never used TPFan Control, so maybe someone else can chime in. Did your fan ever change speeds while testing? I would try an different fan, maybe ebay for the cheapest? On my R32 the fan changes speeds often, even when just surfing. Hope this helps.

[schen]

Thank you for your answer.
OK so I've just re-pasted the CPU with brand new Nexus Thermal Compound, cleaned the dust off the radiator (there barely was any), and after 15 minutes of watching simpsons on wtso.net (online player, like youtube) laptop shut itself off. I managed to see, that the last CPU temp.was 75 degrees Celcius. BTW the fan is working, and was spinning at low spee
So, again, is there any way to force the fan spin all the time? TPFanControl just doesn't seem to work, or maybe it's just me...
P.S. Fan is kinda far from the CPU, as heatsink connects them.

You might want to consider trying NHC (Notebook Hardware Controller). It's free and easy to download and use. It should control virtually all aspects of the machine that you are looking at.

[Edgaras]

OK guys, thank you for your answers, but I think overheating isn't a problem anymore. Some stranger stuff seems to happen, such as "blackout" after 1-2 minutes of working (even during first boot up), and again, only way to turn on the laptop again is to pull the AC cord out and plug it back in again.
Today I've discovered even newer symptom - after plugging the cord in again only ThinkLight on the top lights up, and nothing else seems to work, even the Turn On button. After waiting some time, it boots up again normally. Could this be some motherboard issue? It's my first IBM laptop, and I chose IBM for reliability, but such stuff really gets on my nerves...
Thank you for your thoughts.

[Edgaras]

Yeah, so thank you for your help. I've managed to find (by myself) a bad contact (capacitor), and after some solder work, everything is fine. HDD still gets kinda hot, but whatever..

[SMA]

The capacitor mentioned, would that happen to be this one ?

[Edgaras]

Hell yeah.... Hope to never see him again