T43 Rebuild strategy

[burns334]

I was fortunate enough to come across a few T43's that had problems and the IT guys stripped them out, ie no hard drives or batteries and notes about their problems. Well I am trying to make one good unit out of the three. I had a unit marked bad screen and it had broken keys and decided that was the one I would put together. I took the screen from one and the keyboard from another and put one unit together. So now I would like to boot it up before buying a hard drive and battery and was wondering if I can boot it with out a battery, ie on the charger and off the Windows XP installation CD or CD with Memtest on it. Is this possible? Is there anything wrong with this or are there better ways to go?

[kurtista]

I would not boot without a CMOS battery(the little round one), but booting without the regular battery should not be a problem. I ran my T23 without a battery for quite some time without any problems. Just make sure you don't accidentally unplug it during installation of your OS, as you will lose everything.

[burns334]

Oh, its got a backup battery that reads 2.95v so I thought that was ok? I guess I am just trying to make sure everything else is okay before investing any cash. If I buy a hard drive and battery I could easily invest $100 in this project without being sure I can get it up and running and just wanted to be sure my ideas were sound.

[RealBlackStuff]

That battery should have 3V or just over, it's on its last legs.
As long as it keeps the date/time (once that has been set), you can use it though.
Just don't put any password(s) in until you got a fresh CMOS battery.

T43s need (cheap) DDR2 PC4200 or PC5300 Sodimms.

Start her up without any RAM, just on the charger. It should beep 1-3-3-1.
If you don't hear anything, you may need another motherboard.
If it does beep, put in 1 RAM module and try to boot. The LCD should come on and you should be able to get into BIOS (F1).
Do the same with only RAM in the other slot.
Add wifi card. try booting.
Add CD/DVD, try booting. If OK, try booting from a CD.
If all is OK, get a HD. (you probably get the Err0r 2010, but apply the latest BIOS/ECP version, and you can bypass that.

[burns334]

RBS, I didn't see your suggestions before giving it a try so I really didn't mean to ignore your advice.
I booted it with 512MB in the inside slot, on a charger with a memtest CD in the drive and the first splash screen came up and then it went to error 0271, date and time settings incorrect then a "small padlock" appeared on the screen and I think it is looking for a password. I tried "admin", "Admin" and they took in the space provided but I got an "x" below as if that wasn't it. What next?

[comptechexpert]

Had the IT guys put a boot-up password on it?

[burns334]

CTexpert, these units were in a dumpster with this one had a yellow sticky that said bad screen and keys missing from the keyboard. Thats all I know, not even 100% sure that real IT guys touched them.

[comptechexpert]

Well if the IT guys touched them they could have put a password on it. Try and find out how to break the boot-up password.

[comptechexpert]

I know I am not allowed to post info on how to hack passwords but can I post a link to a web page on how to crack a BIOS password?

[Harryc]

Please don't. PM the member if you must.

[burns334]

This T43 did not have a backup battery in it when I got it and I guess that is why it lost the date and time. So now it wants to go to the bios to fix that but the bios is locked, is that what happened?

[RealBlackStuff]

YGPM