Thinkpad t42 dead after replacing fan assembly

[slnc]

Hi,

I have a 5 years old t42p model 2373-F7G (Ati Radeon 9600 GPU) whose fan finally died a few weeks ago after a long time working erratically. After it died the FAN ERROR message appeared on screen and it was impossible to do anything. Today I replaced the fan assembly with a new one using this guide: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-46464 . I added some thermal grease over the cpu. I left the sticker on the passive cooling over the gpu on as it was on on the previous fan assembly (the original one).

Now, after reassembling the laptop, absolutely nothing happens when I press the power button (no leds, no fan movement, it's completely silent). I didn't wear an antistatic wrist-band but I have never had a static problem before (I have built from scratch 7 or 8 different workstations before on the same conditions).

Things that I have tried:
- removing all components that could be removed except for the keyboard (both ram sticks, hdd, dvd, trackpad, network card, battery).
- trying a "static-release" magic procedure I read somewhere (press power button once 10 times in a row in 1 sec intervals and then press and hold for 30 secs and then connect and try powering it up).
- removing and putting the cpu back in its place
- slightly pressing the gpu in case it was loose (I've read here that it's a common problem).

Does anyone know what could be happening? It seems to me like I may have inadvertently fried the AC with static but I wanted to be sure before throwing the laptop away. The keyboard connector, the trackpad connector and the fan assembly connectors are the only cables that could have been disconnected, right?

Thanks

[Harryc]

Sounds to me like a defective keyboard or keyboard connector. Try reseating the connector again, they can be tricky to get in just right. Try powering up in a dock.

[slnc]

Thanks Harryc, after leaving the laptop resting for a few hours I tried doing that and it booted. I shut it down, plugged everything, screws and all and booted back to windows. However now after about 30 seconds after logging in into Windows it shut down by itself and it's ignoring my commands again. I booted it for a few seconds (not even letting POST finish) once it had every component plugged in and the new fan was moving. After screwing all the screws and booting it for that last time I could still hear the fan.

It seems to not be booting because of some overheating check but I'm at a loss now, there is just one fan on the system and the new one is moving. Do you know what may be the cause?

Thanks

[Harryc]

Remove the CPU and use thermal paste, then reinstall it. The heatsink/fan is not seated correctly.