When I try to start my IBM T21, I get nothing but a millisecond green light on my hard drive icon on the keyboard. I've tried with and without a battery, and have tried a different DIMM. Could this be my CMOS or maybe the MB gone bad (the battery does charge)? Thank you...
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78 Answers
Re: Laptop won't boot
This could be an indicator of one of two things:
1. Bad motherboard
2. Short circuit.
If you can, disconnect the CD-Rom drive, hard-drive AND the keyboard if possible.
If you turn the laptop upside down you can normally see the screws relating to each of these components. Do one at a time and test to eliminate them.
M
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Can you see any display from the screen? if its a new hard drive, with no Operating System the it show anything at all, try to insert a boot cd and boot from the cd
I am wondering about the environment in which you normally use this unit, which is heat sensitive, and which, after it cools off a bit will work as you say after it is allowed to dissipate heat after use.
Make sure the space in which it used is not overheated and preferably air-conditioned. Try to maintain room temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit or lower down to a minimum of 40 degrees.
The ThinkPad T21 is a laptop with a single drive bay.
You cannot setup this laptop with two hard drives in any RAID configuration.
You can add an external USB hard drive and copy/backup data to this hard drive.
OR
You can connect this laptop to a network and copy/backup data to another computer/server on the network.
Does the battery get very hot? If so try running the laptop with it removed! This problem might also caused by a faulty heat sensor on the motherboard. Given the current cost of new laptops I wouldn't spend a lot of money on any repair options, but you could invest in a "laptop cooler" or chill mat see this link http://www.quadcooler.com/
Remove any devices connected and power it on by itslef, either on battery or power source, if it doesnt work, it may have bad processor, When they go bad most laptops wont boot period.
i have the same problem. actually its a common problem for many T21 and other old IBM laptops.
i searched that you have to take all power (batery, adaptor)
press the power 10 times and press it for 30 secs then reinsert the battery or adaptor and try to power it on.
they say its done to discharge a certain capacitor that got overcharged after overcharging the battery.
that worked for me before but now my T21 wont start any more with this process.
If the laptop is not even getting to boot the hard drive, then their may be a problem some where on the motherboard and it may need to be replaced.
Before replacing the motherboard, there are a few things you can try.
1) If you have extra memory, try swapping in new memory and see if the laptop boots then.
2) Try disconnecting all peripherals and add-ons and see if the laptop boots then.
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