Another "Blink of Death" Problem

[ArtShapiro]

A couple years ago I purchased a dead T23 from a non-techy acquaintance, suspecting from his vague description that it was the infamous blink of death problem. Upon stripping it down, one of the inductors was sitting in the bottom of the case and the honed intuition of the engineer suggested to me that this was relevant. Sure enough, upon resoldering and reassembling, I had a working T23. I then spent far more than it was worth maxing it out with a full gig of memory and a 7200RPM drive, but you know how it goes.

I don't use it that much, and still wonder why I purchased it, but it was working fine on Saturday. On Sunday, it was dead with the usual symptoms: all lights come on for a second and then only the power light remains.

I figured the flexing and normal expansion/contraction over the two years had once again loosened an inductor, so I just stripped it down again and am looking at the system board as we speak. Those inductors look good to me - solidly soldered, no indication of a cold solder joint or corrosive issue, and not the least bit suspicious.

Any great suggestions out there? I'm not particularly anxious to purchase another board simply because I spend far more time updating this old system and keeping it backed up on my Windows Home Server box than I do using the silly 1024x768 machine. But if I can magically coax some more life out of the machine, why not?

Art

[rkawakami]

I'd start by pulling out the MiniPCI modem or wireless combo card. When those things act up, it can appear like a power issue. If not that, then take a good look at L8 and L11 inductors on the bottom and L9 on top (above the CPU). Even if you can't lift them up off the board with a fingernail, I'd still unsolder them and clean the contacts (scraping off the black oxidation).

[ArtShapiro]

Thanks - I had subsequently stumbled on the fact that the mini-PCI card could be suspect in these circumstances. That's interesting, as I just within the last month put it in from my Thinkpad junkbox, after discovering that this T23 had the antenna wires there just waiting to be hooked up. So I was going to simply reassemble it without that card and see what happened.

It's partially reassembled - I left it that way in the office over the weekend - so if that doesn't work, I'll curse a bit, re-disassemble (!) and try soldering the three inductors. With my aging eyesight, that is anything but pleasurable.

Art

[ArtShapiro]

Well, it ain't lookin' good.

Got it back together without the mini-PCI card, and the same symptoms are happening. All lights flash at power-up, no video whatsoever (even with an external monitor), power light stays on, fan seems to be running continuously. I don't know if I've had a video failure with the BIOS waiting for some explicit user input, a MB failure, or some bizarre hardware malfunction.

About to head over to the Marketplace forum to see if anyone is selling a steamroller.

Art

[rkawakami]

Some more things to try:

- Pull all memory modules out and boot the system. If you don't get the 1-3-3-1 beep code, then there's some major problem with the motherboard.
- Said problem could be a general power issue (which is hard to pinpoint) or you may simply have a bad/loose CPU.
- Assuming you get the 1-3-3-1 beep code with all memory removed, then one (or both) memory modules could be bad. Plug in one module at a time and see how the system reacts. Also try each module in both slots. If the system does not power up with any combination of module and slot usage, then it's time to find another laptop which takes PC133 memory and see if your T23 modules work there or try another module which you know is working.

[ArtShapiro]

Some more things to try:

- Pull all memory modules out

Well, you nailed it! Much appreciated.

To make a short story even shorter: removing and replacing the modules one at a time let the machine come up normally. I'll probably take it home and put some DeoxIt and ProGold on the mem contacts. What a surprise!

Art