NEED SOME SERIOUS HELP PLEASE Laptop wont boot

[War]

was given an ibm thinkpad t23 purchased a power cord, laptop wont boot up when i turn it on the screen lights up but is blank and i can hear a fan whirring fast then slow fast then slow. I get no beeps. was told the laptop was working fine just before it was given to me. but the battery died on them. 1 ghz 30 gig hdd 256mb ram can ANYONE help me? also the power button lights up the one with a circle around what looks like a "z"


EDIT "i get no post at all, the screen lights up but is blank"

[RedFury]

Sounds like you may be having a power issue, as in not enough. That "z" button is to put the computer in Sleep mode for power conservation. You may need to get a new battery for it to get it to work right. Just because you can get power to it via the cord doesn't mean that you are getting all the power you need to it as it is probably trying to recharge that old dead battery and won't allow enough juice to the system to get it up and running.

Speaking of....can we assume that the purchased power cord was specific for that laptop? It's got the converter inline the cord ( the black box ).?

It sounds like it might be stuck in "Sleep". Have you let it sit for awhile to just do it's thing? Also, you can somtimes hold the Sleep button down and turn the power off/on and it will bypass the Sleep state and startup normal.

[hickory]

war,

Is there any chance this lappy may still be in warranty? I know my T22 is till 07/2004 so it might be worth calling IBM and asking them. They can tell you by the serial number if it is and it won't cost you a thing to get it fixed. They will Fedex you a shipping carton and then get it back to you within a week, that has been my experience with IBM anyways.

Also, the point about the power cord was a good one, if you tried the wrong one it may have been fried eek!

[War]

yes the power cord i purchased has the "black box" inline and the voltages match 16v=4.5a and no hickor,y the laptop isnt under warranty My brother originally had the laptop and had it up and running fine. he was in windows and whatnot. a few days later when i stopped by to pick it up the battery had died and it hasnt booted up since. Ive let the battery recharge since and i no longer get an orange battery light, it is green and not blinking. Ive also just noticed something as I was typing this post. with the power cord plugged in, I can turn on the laptop and the lcd screen will light up, i hear the fan whirring fast then slow, fast then slow, once again no post. i unplug the power cord and turn it on with just battery power the lcd screen will not light up, i just hear the fan whirring fast then slow fast then slow. could this be a MB problem? ive since removed the hddrive and put it back in checking to make sure it is in all the way. Ive also taken out the 2 128 mb ram chips and inserted them back in checking to make sure they are in correctly. Ive also tried just one chip ata a time and still nothing.. there must be SOMEONE who has had a similar problem? or am I up the creek?

"edit" and yes ive just let it sit but it still wont do anything. What concerns me is the "whirrrrring" of the fan it isnt static.. it whirs fast then slow and so on....


desparate for a solution...
War

[Target]

Had a coworker with an IBM thinkpad that went nutty when his battery died as well.

Was some sort of failure that caused him similar problems. He had to replace the battery.

His solution in the mean time was simply to remove the battery and run it off AC power. That cured his issue till the new battery arrived.

Again, no specifics on why the battery caused the issues it did for him, just remember he and the IBM tech determining that it was the battery in fact that was causing the issue.

[War]

yeah ive tried running it without the battery installed and to no avail, I have the same problem ive also tried uninstalling all the batteries and pressing the power button for 90 secs as i had seen someone with a prob with it going into hibernation mode right away but it didnt help either.

any more idea's guys? ill try em all just keep em comming i need to get this laptop up and running ASAP

[hickory]

Try hooking your laptop to a regular monitor to see if maybe its the lcd monitor that went kapoot. Its possible that it could really be running and the monitor is dead and you can't see what its doing. There is a monitor connection port on the back panel that should let you connect up to a desktop monitor.

[War]

I tried that and the monitor wont sync up and the fan keeps on whiiiirrrrriinnnng whir whhhiiiirrrinnngg whir same as before. but damn u guys are fast at posting i appreciate all this help if u guys could keep it commming Id love you forever!! I neeed to get this damn thing working!

[hickory]

Here's another idea, do you have an extra hard drive that you can try in it? Maybe the hard drive died, can you hear it making any sounds at all? Mine usually has some sound to it when its accessing the hard drive.