Member Avatar for shaun1914

First time entry into this sort of thing, so here goes.
I am the proud owner of a thinkpoad t22. PIII. She was working fine til i went on holiday/leave. Came back 3 months later to fire her up; Wouldn't do!
The green hard disk light blinks as you hit the start buttom but nothing more. I have dismantled everything i could, hard disk, batteries, RAM according to the manu manual, gave a good clean but... no change.
I know my main battery is pretty dead but on mains that shouldn't matter?! I was told sometimes the CMOS battery can lock things up, but i checked it and the voltage was 2.9, not bad.
The AC adaptors voltage is also fine, is my baby dead and bureied? :(

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Dani AI

Generated

A short, practical checklist to work through before deciding the T22 is beyond economical repair. Start with the least-invasive tests and stop as soon as you get a change in behaviour.

  1. Power source and jack: bench-test with a known-good compatible adapter or battery if possible. A no-load voltage check of the adapter can be misleading — measure at the laptop DC jack (or have a shop do that) while attempting to power on to see if the rail collapses. Inspect the barrel connector for loose pins or corrosion.

  2. Full controller/BIOS reset: disconnect AC and main battery, remove the CMOS battery for 10–15 minutes, then press and hold the power button for 30–60 seconds to drain capacitors. Reinstall and try again. This combines the EC discharge that suggested with a BIOS reset step many people skip.

  3. Minimal-boot isolation: remove HDD, optical drive, PCMCIA/miniPCI cards and any removable modules so only one known-good RAM stick and the CPU remain. Try a single stick in each slot. Listen for beep/blink codes — absence of any activity after these steps points away from a simple peripheral fault.

  4. Visual inspection and basic board checks: with power removed, look for cracked solder near the DC jack, burn marks, or bulging/leaking capacitors around the power input and regulator areas. A faint burnt smell, visible damage, or a wobbly jack are strong clues of a board-level power problem.

If none of the above helps, the fault is likely on the motherboard power rails and requires bench measurement or component-level repair. That is usually a job for a service shop or for sourcing a donor T22/mainboard. Follow ESD precautions when opening the unit. Credit to for steering the power-supply angle and to for the hold-down/battery suggestions — apply those checks in the order above for a clearer diagnosis.

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Member Avatar for Mustapha01

Hello,

Before you inter your Thinkpad in to the digital Walhalla, have you checked the output of your power supply? Measure the voltage coming out and compare that to what it should be. This may be your culprit?

I wish I could give you better options but, I'm not used to working on laptops and they seem to develop a whole host of issues, unique to laptops.

Mustapha

Member Avatar for jbennet

Ive got a thinkpad similar to yours (model R30, 128mb ram, win98 and Pentium III 1ghz). Its battery is long dead also. It works fine though.

Does it start up if you phsycially remove the old main battery from the laptop?

If that doesnt work then try replacing the CMOS battery (there not that expensive but laptops can be tricky to open)

If that still doesnt work then it may be the Power Adapter. Ive broken two before as the wire has a tendancy to break over time if it is subjected to strain e.g rolling it up to put it in a laptop bag.

Member Avatar for shaun1914

Thanks...

I checked the voltage on the CMOS battery, it was reading 2.9 which seems fine, the ac adaptor voltage was also reading ok.

No, it doesn't start with the battery removed, nothing either way! Any more ideas, thanks.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Did it overheat

Plug it in and hold down the power button for 20 secods then push it again

Member Avatar for shaun1914

I don't think so, it's in apretty warm environment here in Africa, but it was working fine before i left.

Just tried the 'hold down' idea still no joy... when i press the power on switch the battery light goes off at the same time, can't remember if it used to do this before.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Wait, africa?

Have you killed it by using a travel adapter? (laptops dont like these) or maybe the humidity?

Member Avatar for shaun1914

Nope, at least on the travel adaptor... and the humidity is not bad over here, she enjoyed a happy 3 years in an african climate before refusing to wake up!

Member Avatar for jbennet

hmm wierd. Sorry, i dont know what else to try :(

Member Avatar for shaun1914

thanks for the help anyway....

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