I was using my T41 on battery. The display froze. I used the power button to power it down. Now it won't power up on either battery nor plugged in. The battery charge and "power on" LEDs light up, the optical drive spins up, the CPU fan comes on (not sure about the HDD), but the HDD LED never lights up nor the LCD screen. It won't go into BIOS. I pulled the HDD and put it on an external adapter on another machine and it is good.

I've pulled the optical, HDD, and extra RAM, still no-go.

Any suggestions other than "mobo broke"?

Most likely problem is unsoldered Southbridge chip - see this a lot.

Sorry!

could a bad vga card prevent it from booting, or is it built in to the m/b?

I have the exact same problem with a T43, you can hear the fan and the HDD spinning, then the CD spins for a few seconds, then nothing, and HDD light does not light up

even tried an external monitor, still nothing

@ mikeh420 - The GPU is soldered to the planar and the solder balls connecting the chip to the board are well known to become detatched and cause the chip to stop working properly.

Yes you're right it could be though the symptoms point more to the Southbridge in this case.

Likewise with your's it could be either the GPU or SB chips. As people who reball these boards, on balance on T43's SB chips tend to fail slightly quicker than GPU's.

is the m/b repairable or is it time for a new one?

It can be repaired by sending it to poshgeordie in the UK. He can repair it, and then return it to you.
Check out the cost of this process with him.
Alternatively, I still have a few motherboards for sale that would fit your T4x.
Check http://theboardroom.info/stock.htm

I have a 39T5574 board, it's has a 14" screen

am I limited to just this part # or will others work in this model?

I got this laptop for $20 from Craigslist, it supposedly had a screen problem. Needs a battery too. I've replaced other laptop m/boards before but not in an IBM. Looks a bit more complicated, which is typical of IBM, as I am very familiar with the AS/400 - iSeries systems.

If that # 39T5574 is correct, then you have an R52 motherboard, related to the T43.
What is the TYPE on the bottom-sticker? Looks like: TYPE 1890-47U SN L3-12345 06/05
To be sure, you also need to tell us what type RAM is used.
If it is PC2-4200 or PC2-5300, then it is indeed an R52 mobo with Intel graphics.

That's interesting, I recently worked on a T43p and it also had DDR2 RAM. I had thought all the t40 series had DDR1 RAM.

Type is 1875-DMU, and it has PC2-4200 DDR2 RAM

That's a T43 base, intel graphics originally.

Yes, T43/p and R52 take DDR2 RAM, while T40/41/42 and R51 take DDR1 (DDR) RAM.

Daniel.

As it happens, I have such a motherboard for you, see Stock # 1204-01 here: http://theboardroom.info/stock.htm