IBM Thinkpad T30 is now dead... I'd like some help.

[whitsli]

Hello, it's the first time I write here but have been browsing for some time.

I have a Thinkpad T30 (Type 2366-87G) 2.0 processor 512 RAM.

Scenario:
One day the laptop was on my desk in my bedroom, I picked it up to move it from the bedroom to the kitchen, when I put it down on the table in the kitchen it was dead. The screen was black the green lights stayed on and the fan was spinning. I could get no response whatsoever apart from a force shutdown by holding the power button down for 3 seconds.

The only thing to note is that while I was carrying it on battery power with my hand on his “belly” I noticed that I managed to rest my finger into the docking port past the two swivel plastic doors. After that it was dead.

I am not sure if the contact between my finger and exposed port caused the sudden death but it was the only thing that happened in those 10 seconds although it seems a little too easy to compromise a laptop this way. I mean surely a 7 years old laptop (bought mine used) has been carried this way hundreds times and if this were a vulnerability it is a big one and I would have found some reference online, but nothing.... also it is very easy to stick your fingers in that gap.

The aftermath:

On reboot no POST, no sound, nothing but you can hear the fan spinning.

The hard drive is OK, it has been tested on another system and replaced with a backup one.

The RAM stick has been replaced, no positive outcome.

At first I thought that the CMSO battery decide to give up so I replaced it with a new one but no luck.

The battery is OK.

The laptop has never been under excessive stress as I use it only to check my email.

When I put my finger into the replicator port I didn't feel any electric shock.

I am always very careful with my machines.

I am ready to change the motherboard but don't want to discover afterwards that there was an easy fix (a reset jumper or else...). Any idea?

Thank you in advance.

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

The accidental touch to the docking port's electrical contacts probably did not cause any damage. I've used several systems that had missing doors and I've touched the area with the laptop powered up without any problems. What might have happened is that if you have only installed the memory modules (original and replacement) in the front socket and not tried any modules alone in the rear socket, then your T30 could be suffering from the bad slot issue. Flexing of the motherboard, however slight it might have been even when carrying it from underneath, may have caused one or more of the pins of the socket to separate from the board.

You should also try powering up the system without any memory installed to see if you get the bad/missing memory beep code (1-3-3-1). If so, then the motherboard may still be mostly good.

[whitsli]

Thank you Ray for your quick reply.

Thank you for confrming this, i thought that as a weak point it was a bit too weak...!

I also failed to mention that my T30 already suffers from the "bad ram slot". It originally came with 2 x 512 when I bought it last year, it worked OK for some time then started to refuse booting due to the cracked ram contacts. Reading through this forum at the time I realised there wasn't a permanent solution to this problem apart from soldering so I left it with one 512 of ram only as I needed the laptop only for light tasks (I have a T61 for the "big" programs).
The machine has been working flawlessly without missing a single beat since I removed the ram module from the front slot and now this... un-annouced dead.

I am very fond of this machine, the keyboard is fantastic and I really miss it when I have to write long documents on another laptop (I have to say that the T61 seems to have the same keyboard but it "feels" somehow different)..

I will try to boot the machine without ram tomorrow (although I suspect I already tried this in my several attempts to resuscitate it) and report here.

Thank you for your time.

[whitsli]

Hello there,
I just tried to power on the laptop without ram and it doesn't do anything different than before: the fan is spinning, only the first of the five green lights by the power button stays (the first on the right) on but nothing else. No POST, the screen is dead with no backlight. I can hear the hard drive seeking for a second after I press the power button.

Just a thought, could it be battery related? I noticed that even though I fully charged the battery last week the laptop wouldn't power on today without being connected to the mains. The battery was in very good condition a couple of weeks ago when the laptop was still alive and it would last at least one hour.
I just tried to power on the laptop without the battery now and it makes no difference, I think it should work even with the battery removed or am I wrong?

Thank you in advance for any suggestion.

[Harryc]

You are correct, it should power on without a battery and only being connected to the mains.

[adrian6322]

hi. mine is like whitsli.afther soldering front memory slot ...no beeps ...nothing ...may be the bios .waths next to try

sorry for gramar
tanks adrian6322

[cadillacmike68]

Well, you MUST have working RAM in a good RAM slot for a ThinkPad to boot even if only to the BIOS. You also need a good working fan. Do you have a known good fan to swap in? The fan could have gone (like one or mine did this week!).
You really don't need much if anything else. In fact, removing the HDD, Optical drive any PCMCIA cards, and the WIFI if you have it, might simplify things.
Plug the AC adapter in and hope for the best.

This is one reason I always power off when moving the laptop around much.

[adrian6322]

hi took off Hard Drive--- Cd .DVD...no wifi ....no Pcmcia card ....
starting without ram ...i get 1-3-3-1- beeps code ...
Then i put back 1 only one that I have .512mb ....laptop not starting at all cpu fan working and that is all ...switch memory to front slot .and Not working ..
possibility of damaged memory ....yea y did not see a short betwen 2 pins .....cleared short ....and run laptop whit the abobe results
The laptop bios is advicing 1-3-3-1 beep code .. hey i can not find sodimm ram (put a new one ) so the Bios is Ok .and probably rest of components.
Tank you
Adrian

[Harryc]

You could actually have two bad RAM slots as well. It's not uncommon on T30's for that to occur.

[adrian6322]

hi Harryc ...i did run .start this machine .whit the memory in working slot the rear one then in the fixed resoldered slot. front one ...did not start ...and not beeping ...afther that chek and found i short .hard one to clear ....
The question is ..may be the sodimm memory get screwed (by myself) by the short in the pins ...only way to find out is testing with one working good memory .and testing the one that i have in other machine ...
Tank you
adrian6322

[adrian6322]

added .and did not mention that i did not thake off the cmos battery .when resoldered the slot ..wath probability-- possibility .that something go wrong and damaged something else in the board ....
thank you for the fedback

adrian6322

[cadillacmike68]

I'm pretty sure the backup battery does not have enough power to fry the RAM modules. I never removed mine and have swapped modules about 100 times in my T30s. Of course i have one with a dead fan and 1 or 2 slots with micro fractures.