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I was working On grandsons think pad cause he lost everything and got all drivers and everything was working fine, Got a new power cord for it but now nothing comes on. When I turn it on all I get is the battery light (orange) and next to it a light with a circle and looks like a z in the middle,. I can here the fan running but nothing on screen.Not real familiar with this unit. Could I have hit a button or something that I dont know about. It was running perfect before.
Did you make sure the power cord is the same as the other one?
Yes it is the correct cord.
Last time I ran into that problem with a T42 it was a motherboard. You can also try reseatting the RAM and the hard drive.
can you send me instructions on that...I usally just work on desktops
Hard drive plugs in the side. As you're looking at it from the front, it's the front, right corner. Flip the machine over, one screw. Panel slides slightly away from bezel, drive slides out.
RAM is an access panel near the middle of the unit, between the label and the docking interface. Undo the screw, lift the cover off, pop the ram out (tab on each side), then reseat firmly. Try powering it up after that. You can also try reseatting the optical drive at the same time.
Ok now this is getting weird/ I loaded XP on the thing and all the drivers then it quit working on me and thought the battery was dead. Now I open up the memory compartment and it apears to be that there is no memory there. It is not possible to load that software even with power cord in it and not have memory is it?
Is that the only place memory is on thinkpad. Is there any built in because I know when I got it going I looked at hd space and how much memory it had and it said 1 gig
There's one under the keyboard IIRC.
Wow thought I was loosing my mind. Is it hard to get to
Ok I pulled keyboard and popped out memory and reinstalled it ,pulled hd and re inserted it and nothing works yet. I am thinking the memory might have gone bad or the hd, are you in agreement and which would you try first?
With a Stinkpad it's tough. If you pull the hard drive, it won't power up. It makes it tough to diagnose. If you've lost the drive once before, it's probably a pretty safe bet. If it were me, I'd be taking it in to a shop. I've spent a week on one once, and a lot of money, trying to get to the bottom of the problem. RAM can certainly do it. Alternating the sticks might help.
They're a rugged machine, but when they break, they REALLY break. For the $300 I'd probably be tempted to just go out and by another one.
I understand. The thing just wont even go into the bios
Now in this case I have had the battery charging and it doesnt seem to be taking a charge and now the bat lite is blinking where it didnt before. If the battery is bad would the computer still come on with just the power cord?
If it is a fairly new model years wise, yes it will.
It might even run with the battery removed and just the power adapter.