A(31P) ThinkPad Christmas Conspiracy?

[gb_ibmguy]

So, it was Christmas morning. After the frenzy of unwrapping and just b/4 starting to cook everything in the kitchen, my Wife decided to take a moment to check her e-mail. “Honey, my laptop doesn’t come on.”
Being the resident A31P expert, I figured no problem, surely this will be easy. Hmmm, power, battery, normal cycle of lights, screen comes on, hard drive spins but nada, just sits there, no bios splash, no beeps. Mind you, it had been working just fine the night before.

With it being Christmas and all, I decided to just swap her hard drive into one of my many ‘spare’ A31P’s. I picked out a standard A31P from my fleet, one I had just finished working with the day before, I knew it worked fine. Swapped the had drive, plugged it in, turned it on and no screen! Booted up fine, could here the Windows opening music etc. But the darn screen was DOA.

I mean what are the chances of two A31P’s going dead at the same time?

It being Christmas and all, I proceeded to strip both Thinkpads down on the gaily decorated dining room table. There among the Poinsettias’, garland and our best china was a growing pile of ThinkPad parts. I gaily greeted each of our guests while deftly twirling screwdrivers and swapping parts. (switching the entire lid on a wireless A31P entails a quite a bit of disassembly, those antenna leads snake all over and around the MB).

I did manage to get one working TP out of the chaos (and only lost one screw, I think it ended up in the dressing, but I’m not sure). After a couple glasses of Christmas cheer, those little parts get sneaky and take on a life of their own.

Now, bear in mind, last Christmas, I gave my wife her first Thinkpad (an A31). Just before last years Christmas dinner, it ended up having a cup of coffee spilled on it. And yes, it ended up being pulled apart to dry out. Yep, you guessed it, on the gaily decorated dining room table. It was that incident that ‘forced’ me to buy another, as a ‘spare’, you know how that goes, don’t you?

I’m already dreading next Christmas, what are they planning now? Perhaps keeping them close together is a bad idea. Maybe I should disable their little BlueTooth abilities. Oh yes, I’ve heard them, whispering to each other, plotting, scheming. I always thought that it was the Ficus trees (they’re untrustworthy, you know), but now, I tend to think it’s the ThinkPads. Planning ways for us to buy more of them, as ‘spares’. Just in case.

“What’s that Doctor?, it’s time for my Meds again?”

[craigmontHunter]

Great conversation starter - a dissassembled computer during a Christmas party. We had one and halfway through the videocard went wonky on a dekstop, and I had to do emergency surgery.

Happy Hollidays.

[ajkula66]

Calm down now, the doctor is here...

First things first...A3x units should never be turned off, or put to sleep, because they have a tendency of developing funny ideas when not fully awake...one of them being choosing the state of eternal hibernation as their final resting place, much to the horror of unsuspecting owners...

They are meant to be like Pinkerton agents...we never sleep...

As for the meds, given the metastasis of A3x machines multiplying in your household, the only known cure is a .38 service revolver with one bullet...

[A31]

When turning off your A31 either...

a) leave the AC charger plugged in (NOT recommended for overnight as the laptop will be EXPLOSIVELY hot when you turn it on again)
b) remove the battery (which is what I do)

...overwise when left turned off without the charger in or the battery removed, it actually drains the battery down overnight and when it is on the very minimum it try and turn on agin, all the lights will flash etc and nothing will appear on the screen. This happened to me once at 1.00 in the MORNING when I should have been asleep but instead I was fathing around with chargers and when I finally found an IBM charger and plugged it in, I had to wait for the laptop to fully load (which took A WHILE!) and then turn it off, then remove the battery.

I don't know if any other A31 owners have this "issue" but I do, mind you, my laptop was written off I suppose!
So yes, if I turn off the laptop with the battery still inserted and the charger unplugged, it actually drains itself out, somehow and then tries to turn back on. I may post a video of it doing this in the future.

...oh and yes, I would remove the bluetooth dongles in your A31p's!! I had a bluetooth dongle in my ThinkCentre PC and my R40 (when it worked - R.I.P) and it caused the R40 to do - "all sorts of wierd things!"

A31

[gb_ibmguy]

Yes, I've learned (the hard way), to avoid turning these things off. I've finally convinced my wife to just close the lid and put the little guy to sleep at night. Of course, that didn't work over the weekend

I leave mine plugged in with the battery installed overnight, open the lid in the morning and TPFancontoll shows a nice cool 22C. They run all day, usually at 32-35C.

If yours gets explosively hot over night, you might want to replace the fan or look at TPFancontol or replace the battery. That just doesn't sound right. I know leaving the battery in while attached to AC will over cycle the battery but an occasional recondition, switch out seems to rectify the problem.

As an aside, my wife read my post yesterday and came into the room to comment. At that time I was replacing the lid latches in another A31P on the dinning room table. She just groaned and said, "I see it's time for your Meds again"

Greg

[ajkula66]

The idea behind keeping A3x units (as well as ATi-powered T4x/R5x units) on all the time and just using Fn+F3 to shut off the LCD when not in use is to minimize the number of heating/cooling cycles that tend to adversely affect solder joints in the GPU area.

I'd rather be swapping fans than having boards re-balled, but that's just me...