My Trusty Laptop Is Dying: Computer Gurus Pls. Help

[AFAustin]

I know that many of my fellow CPFers are computer whizzes (I am not), so I hope some of you might give me some advice here.

My trusty Thinkpad T30, which I've had almost 5 years, may be dying. The symptom that worries me is that, increasingly, when I reboot, it hangs and won't start up. Today, I rebooted for the first time in a week or more, and it absolutely would not start up. My usual trick is to remove and replace the battery, but even that didn't work. Finally, though, after many attempts and about 30 minutes of trying, the battery trick did work and I was able to boot up (I may never reboot again!)

Is this an issue that could be resolved simply with a new battery? The fact is, I run my laptop on AC power 99% of the time, but somehow I thought this might be battery related (I know the battery is weak after all these years because, on the rare occasions when I do use it, it will only keep the laptop powered up for maybe 30 minutes). Or, is this something more basic, that may call for finally replacing my old friend?

Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[greenLED]

First of all: backup your data *now*.

If you're running it on AC, I'm pretty sure the battery is "out of the loop", so to speak (unless your old laptop works differently). After you do the backup, try turning on/off without the battery and just the AC plugged in.

 

[chesterqw]

yeap. what greenled said. back up before you lose your data FOREVER.(don't even think about recovery when shet happens)

 

[9volt]

What OS is it running? When was the last time you reformatted and reinstalled the OS from scratch? That might be all you need to do.

 

[Daniel_sk]

First of all: backup your data *now*.

If you're running it on AC, I'm pretty sure the battery is "out of the loop", so to speak (unless your old laptop works differently). After you do the backup, try turning on/off without the battery and just the AC plugged in.

+1 on that.
You can run the notebook without the battery inserted.
It's hard to say what is causing this malfunction at this point - so when you push the power button, the notebook will hang up while booting or won't start at all? It might be something OS related, if it powers up correctly... Can you see anything on the LCD when it doesn't work?

 

[teststrips]

That sound like a heat problem to me... perhaps your fan is getting gummed up or has stopped working. Check the side of your computer where the fan exasts for wind... take note of how the temp is.

I worked on a t30 once awhile back with a similar problem... opening the thing up, reseating ram, putting new conductive grease (arctic silver) on the CPU + cleaning the CPU heatsink worked for me.... but if you don't work with laptops very often, I'd suggest that you not do this yourself.... or at least take extrememe caution... the small cables are extremely easy to break + or rip.

 

[luigi]

Backups are always good advice but I think your harddrive is fine here.
I agree with teststrips it may be heat related, maybe it only powers up when it has cooled down after being used.
A good cleaning might help but it can be many different things.

 

[AFAustin]

Thank you, guys, for all your good suggestions. I'll do as much as I'm able and report back.

Thanks again.

 

[IsaacHayes]

Yes I would run some software to see the CPU temps and see how that is.

If you turn it off and leave it off for a while does it always turn on fine?

 

[WNG]

T30 series are known for reliability, hmmm.
Could be similar problem I'm having with my T40, a series known to have weak motherboards.

I have similar freeze ups, and non-reboots.
I found the area where the HDD connects to be suspect. Vibration from removing your battery could be re-establishing connection paths.
Your HDD could also be failing.

Follow the advice already offered, back up your data.
Carefully disassemble the T30 and inspect it.

 

[teststrips]

I guess I assumed that when it "won't start up" it does nil... nothing, nada.... is this the case, or does it turn on - lights etc - do you see the thinkpad logo + just not get windows.... please explain a bit more precicely what it does.

I would guess that if it doesn't turn on at all, or the display doesn't turn on at all that its heat related... if you see the thinkpad logo + just don't get windows, I'd be really suspicious of the hard drive + would be making copies of my data.

 

[snakebite]

last one of those i had in for repair would turn on then off before it could post.
fan was seized.mobo monitors tach line and if fan doesnt start on power up it turns off.

 

[AFAustin]

Thanks again, gents, for all your posts.

Yes, I have backed up pretty well, so hopefully have decent insurance there.

To clarify a bit:

My OS is XP Professional.

The problem is that it won't start at all, not really that it hangs up midway through. All I got last time when I pushed the power button was a very faint bit of colored streaking across the screen---that's it.

As to the heat theories, oddly enough, it actually seems to do better when it's warm. For instance, if I simply restart it, it usually boots up OK. But, when I shut it down, let it rest overnight, then re-boot in the AM, it's more likely to not respond at all (that's what happened in my last "disaster" that prompted this thread).

Finally, as to trying it on AC power with the battery removed, I haven't tried that yet, but plan to shortly.

Thanks again for all your advice. :bow:


Update: Removed the battery. Laptop runs, and re-boots, fine without it (on AC). So, I guess that's not it.

 

[IsaacHayes]

Hmmm may be the fan then, when it's warm it likely spins freely, but cold it might seize up more.. I need to check my spare A30 that won't boot (same issue) to see if the fan might be the culprit. I think it was dropped though, since I found a loose inductor that fell out, but can't find where it goes on the motherboard!

 

[3rd_shift]

It's looking like something in the hardware is breaking open at colder temps.
Something in the circuit is shrinking enough to make only a glitchy contact when cold.
Once warm, everything seems to be in contact with each other.

Try putting the laptop in a 100 - 110 degree F environment and see if that helps it to "cold" start.
If it does, then temperature related contraction and expansion may have damaged something over the years.

Also try carefully re-seating (reinstalling) any memory modules and even the cpu itself if you can get to them easily.