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Dead IBM R51 Thinkpad

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by dnugent

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My IBM R51 Thinkpad recently went dead. Regardless of my best efforts, I can't get it to power-up. According to my wife, our 20 month old son hit the plastic surface that is located to the left of the touchpad. Essentially, this is the place where you'd rest your left palm as one types. The strike wasn't significant, however, so I'm guessing that isn't the main cause for failure. I'm hoping it's just a coincidence. Little background on the machine...I recently replaced the pin that the power adapter connects. The laptop worked well for weeks after the installation, so I'm not sure I can attribute that to the problem. Lastly, I have found that the machine will indicate that the battery is charging when plugged-in, but when I attempt to power-up, the battery indicator flickers for a split second and then dies. The only way for me to get the "charging" light to reappear is to remove the battery, put it back in, and then reattach the power supply. If anyone can provide insight to a potential cause for the problem, I'd be most appreciative. I'm hoping to avoid a big repair bill.
Sorry for the long-winded post!

6 replies

by cmiller5400

Try running without the battery. This sounds like a short in the motherboard...

by dnugent

Regrettably, that didn't work. Any other suggestions?

by peconet tietokoneet

So saying that, you might have to get another battery to get it to work, or another adaptor to test out.

by robo_dev

You replaced the power supply connector on the motherboard?

Did you do this yourself?

My guess would be that there is a solder-fault at that connector, or some other component got cooked in the process.

There are typically some surface-mount fuses in the vicinity of the power connector, and one could have fried, or fallen off. shake the laptop and listen for the sound of a component rattling around inside.

On the motherboard these Laptops have a 'soft-switch' IC that gets flipped-on when you hit the power switch. This switch is separate from the charger circuitry.

Be sure to unplug ALL pluggable components (memory, modems, network, drives, battery)....sometimes a shorted/faulty component can cause the device not to power on.

If you can get to the processor/fan I would unplug and re-seat that as well.

by dnugent

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give it a shot.

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