X40 with no signs of life

[icebag]

I just bought an X40 on eBay. It has 768 MB memory, wifi card, a good battery, and an ultrabase with DVD ROM. It is also in very good condition. But there are no signs of life whatsoever on battery or mains: no lights, no beeps, nothing. Is there anything at all that I could try to get it working? Or should I just cannibalise it and be thankful it was very cheap?

[rkawakami]

Assuming that you know the battery and AC adapter are good....

- attempt to power up both with and without the Ultrabase connected
- check the DC power jack for any damage or looseness
- remove all peripherals and try powering up (hard drive, network interface cards, modems, memory modules, PCMCIA and USB devices)
- re-seat all of the interconnects between the various parts of the system (plug at the end of the DC jack that inserts into the motherboard, if any; keyboard; sub-cards, etc.)
- visual inspection of the motherboard could reveal burnt, damaged or loose (missing) components
- electrical inspection of all of the fuses that you can find on the motherboard

Other than that, there's not much else I can suggest.

[icebag]

Thank, you, Ray. I have tried all that you say, but there are still no signs of life. I did notice that one corner of the motherboard had a sticky residue on it, perhaps from liquid ingress. If I spot a cheap X40 board I may try a re-build. Otherwise I will use the good bits in other machines.