lenovo thinkpad t500 no boot or post code? ideas?

[Soundguy]

just an old laptop at work.. the one that connects a digital console to a router.. so mildly important. I can hit a pawn shop monday and liekly find another for 100$.. but wondering if there is anything I can wave over it this weekend to make it boot.. it has a saved setup i need to copy to a board.

on button provides a lamp to the charge indicator.. but nothing else. no post codes. screen blank.. tried external monitor too.

plugged in provides the ac indicator / batt indicator lamps.. so ps is on and bat charging.

ideas?

 

[Soundguy]

update

plugged in, the power plug and bat light come on.

when you press the on button.. the lil lightning bolt inthe circle lights up, then momentarilly the 1 and A int he lil house looking symbols light up, then go out

no post codes on the monitor..

 

[/pine]

You might try removing the battery and replacing it...

doe is make any noise (like drive spinning up?

 

[Soundguy]

none i can hear.. nor do i feel a vibration. no beep codes either..

 

[bigpinwheel]

I would take the ram out and see if you can get an error code or beep while trying to boot it, if not it's probably smoked. If needed you can very likely pull the hard drive to get your files.

 

[Soundguy]

will do that tonight. involves removing entire bottom cover. not at all easy like and HP with lil doors and tabs with 1 screw maybee..

 

[haveissues]

I think the t500 ram is under the keyboard. Take out the screws with the little keyboard symbol and the keyboard should come up. I would try unplugging it, taking out the battery, and letting it sit a few minutes. From what you describe though, it sounds like it is trying to start up on a dead battery and the adapter is not powering it at all. Try it without the battery in. If you get nothing than the adapter either died, plug in the laptop is broken, etc. It should function properly with no battery and just AC power.

 

[Soundguy]

the lil ac plug indicator lights up when plugged in.. so it is seeing it's 20v power supply.

both with or without battery.

 

[jaotguy]

pull the battery ... leave it out ... plug in the AC adapter ... turn the beast on ... ( should run on AC without the battery )

if it doesn't fire up, ( no beeps etc ) then the MB /CPU is probably toast ... pull the HD and use a USB to HD cable to pull the info off the drive ....

if it seems to fire up but no screen shows , check the screen toggle button on the keyboard ... (laptop screen / remote monitor/ dual)

 

[RoyJackson]

Pull the battery...if there is a battery on the motherboard, pull that one too.
No POST...sounds like the CMOS might be corrupted. Leave the battery out for a bit (a minute or two minimum), then replace it. If there is a motherboard battery, that's the one that needs to come out and give it a few minutes (which should reset the BIOS).
I had a similar problem (no POST or boot up) on my wife's desktop earlier this year...and pulling the MB battery for a few minutes did the trick.

 

[kf4uda]

Pull the battery...if there is a battery on the motherboard, pull that one too. No POST...sounds like the CMOS might be corrupted. Leave the battery out for a bit (a minute or two minimum), then replace it. If there is a motherboard battery, that's the one that needs to come out and give it a few minutes (which should reset the BIOS). I had a similar problem (no POST or boot up) on my wife's desktop earlier this year...and pulling the MB battery for a few minutes did the trick.

The only thing that I would add here is after pulling the battery(s), hold the power button down for 10 sec or so. This will discharge any capacitors.

 

[WM75Guy]

Not all laptops can run without a battery. A completely dead CMOS battery can stop it from booting. It usually will start to boot and then stop after a few seconds. If the hard drive is not fried you can remove it and connect it to your desktop as an external drive to copy the files. An adapter is cheap.

Amazon.com: Vantec CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter Supports 2.5-Inch, 3.5-Inch, 5.25-Inch Hard Disk Drives (Black): Electronics

 

[tcartwri]

No post codes at all usually means a blown video card. It's the first thing that gets checked.

 

[Soundguy]

and is a good possibility, as the screen don't even flicker at power on, including an external monitor. so NOTHING is getting thru to the video.

some part of the buss is powering as the dvd eject button will work though.

plan on pulling the hdd for files saving.... think she's toast.

thanks guys

 

[/pine]

No post codes at all usually means a blown video card. It's the first thing that gets checked.

Huh?
The beep (CMOS) codes are there for that reason...if you have no video interface the beep codes are all you do have...

Soundguy...when you open it up see if you notice capacitors than have domed tops...

 

[Soundguy]

i'll let you know what i find.

so far no electrical smell... no oozing electrolyte either too.

over the years the only thing this reminds me of is one time i have seen a ram chip that more or less was holding the bus low.. bad chip.. etc..

 

[MossRoad]

i'll let you know what i find.

so far no electrical smell... no oozing electrolyte either too.

over the years the only thing this reminds me of is one time i have seen a ram chip that more or less was holding the bus low.. bad chip.. etc..

Yep. Pull the main battery. Pull the cmos battery. Pull the memory. Push the power button and hold it for a while to drain any of the caps.

Put in a known good cmos battery, plug in the AC power supply and give it a try.
If no beeps, no good. Pull the drive and toss the rest.

Good luck.

 

[grsthegreat]

i say...future skeet target. thats what i did with my old laptop.

 

[Soundguy]

had a rechargeable cmos battery.. not a coil type. in any case. pulled hdd, grabbed a flea mkt job for 120$.. should be up and running.

thanks fo rthe ideas.

figure it was just it's time.