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T30, Power-Up, No-Boot

T20-T23 Series and T30. NOT for T25-Retro.
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Madness
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T30, Power-Up, No-Boot

#1 Post by Madness » Sat Feb 01, 2014 3:09 am

Was given a T30, 2367-GU2, that originally worked, but had a bad screen (but worked w/ an external monitor). Bought a new screen assembly on eBay, & replaced it. After reassembly, it powered up, the screen went on, but the machine froze in the middle of the CMOS setup. Had to power down, but now whenever I power it back up, all I get is the power LED (no video). The other lights blink once, the fan runs, the HDD clicks, but that's it. Severely hoping I didn't muck anything up during the screen replacement!

Reading back through some of the old posts led me to try:

1) Removing all accessories & both power sources & doing the "hard reset" by holding & releasing the power button, 10 seconds at a time. No dice.

2) Powering up w/ just the wall-wart. Same results as above.

3) Powered up w/ the keyboard loose & tried pressing on the GPU chip (w/ & w/o external monitor). Still no dice.

4) Cleaning dust out of the heatsink/fan. Same.

5) Then investigating the memory. It came w/ two mis-matched PC2700 sticks: one "Elpida," the other, Corsair Value-Select. These were installed in the "far-edge" & "near-edge" slots, respectively. Assuming, the Elpida stick was supplied, originally, but I can't find any matching IBM part numbers. So, trials were this: no memory: 1-3-3-1 beep code; both loaded: no beeps; "far-edge" only: no beeps; "near-edge" only, 1-3-3-1. In the last case, if I press down on the stick & power on, I also get no beeps.

5a) Also tried two matching Samsung PC2700 sticks (eBay seller had them listed as being compatible w/ several TP's, including the T30). Tried in same combinations w/ same results, respectively, as the original sticks.

Am I to think that the motherboard might be toast? Or does anyone have any other ideas (or back-posts that I missed)?

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Re: T30, Power-Up, No-Boot

#2 Post by rkawakami » Sat Feb 01, 2014 3:52 am

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

From your diagnosis, it appears your system has a fairly common T30 problem: a bad memory slot; the "near-edge" one. If the system generates the 1-3-3-1 beep code, it usually means that the module is bad. However, in this case, one or more of the soldered contacts of the memory socket has broken off from the motherboard.

Try this: with only the "far-edge" slot occupied, see if the system boots to BIOS properly and doesn't hang or otherwise misbehave. You can also verify that all of your memory modules are performing correctly by downloading a copy of memtest86+ from here:

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

It's available in several bootable formats: floppy, CD or USB. For the T30, I'm not sure if you can boot from a USB flash drive so I'd opt to go with the floppy or CD version. Boot the system with the diagnostic and it will automatically start testing the memory. Allow it to run for at least three complete passes through all of the "patterns". If there are any errors detected, you'll either see some white characters on a red background on the lower half of the screen, or the diagnostic will hang (the run-time clock will stop).
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Madness
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Re: T30, Power-Up, No-Boot

#3 Post by Madness » Sat Feb 01, 2014 5:48 am

Problem is that I've already tried all four modules (the two originals & the two new one's) in all possible combinations. In all cases, I get no beeps as long as the "far edge" slot is occupied (or the near one, by itself, as long I put pressure on it). Since I can't even get video, there's no way to run any diagnostic programs. Also, I don't have the dock, so there's no floppy (unless I could use a USB one).

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Re: T30, Power-Up, No-Boot

#4 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sat Feb 01, 2014 6:11 am

I've never tried to boot a T30 from a USB floppy or CD-drive.
But the internal floppy is the same as used in e.g. T20/T21/T22/T23 and dirt cheap on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-ThinkPad-A2 ... 1003698450
OTOH, since it's a freebie I wouldn't spend too much time/money on it.
RAM size for a T30 is 128MB/256MB/512MB/1GB (PC2100 or PC2700) per slot, max. total 2GB.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
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Madness
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Re: T30, Power-Up, No-Boot

#5 Post by Madness » Thu Feb 06, 2014 7:35 am

I took a close look at the legs on the memory sockets, but I didn't notice any loose. Although, a few times, I've gotten the beeps while pressing down on the GPU chip (so, maybe stressing the board, a bit). Said chip gets quite hot, within a few minutes of power-up (any issue there?). But, would loose memory sockets have any effect on the video (since it looks like the GPU has its own memory)? Finally, is there any possibility of a corrupted BIOS (since it worked, then froze, right after the screen replacement)?

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Re: T30, Power-Up, No-Boot

#6 Post by singbad » Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:08 pm

Sounds like your memory slots need re-soldering a few pins. If you take a jeweller's loupe and a tiny screwdriver you can see the lose solder joints move a little bit aside when being carefully pushed. You can even tell good from bad joints by the sound they make being knocked with the screwdriver or a long needle.

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Re: T30, Power-Up, No-Boot

#7 Post by cadillacmike68 » Sat May 03, 2014 9:24 pm

Have you tried using only one RAM module at a time in the slot closest to the middle of the machine?

You might also want to attach an external monitor, if your screen is bad, then at least it should sho on the external.

No HDDs, no Floppy or CD, take out the WiFi card as well. You want the minimum possible configuration, because if anything went bad (maybe you static zapped something), it can halt the boot process.
600 600X
760LD FUBARd
T21 2647 T22 2647 1@ 1GHz SXGA+ 4 more; T23 2647 1@ 1.2GHz SXGA+ 3 more
T30 2366-88U 2GHz; 2366-83U 1.8G; 5@ 2366-LU0/66U; 2367-KU6 FUBARd
T41 T42 T43
T60 T61 8897 2.4GHz SXGA+; 8898 2.4Ghz; 6463 2@ WSXGA+; 7658 2.5GHz; T61p; 6 more T61s
T500 2
T530 W530

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