T500 Nothing Working After Being Dropped [ Edited ]

[Breakingcustom]

One of our techs just informed me that someone knocked his laptop off a desk and the thing no longer boots.  After powering on, the only lights that stay on are the the Z and the charging led.  The battery led just blinks orange.  The hard drive light does not go on.  Although I can hear the hard drive kick on when I press the power button and turn off when I hard power it down.

I took the hard drive out of the laptop and hooked it up to a SATA to USB docking station and it brought up just fine.  I even tossed the laptop in a spare T500 and it booted up.  So at least I know the hard drive isn't bad.

I guess without opening up the entire laptop to see what the issue is (I'm assuming something got busted on the motherboard) or something shorted, it might be a lost cause to fix it.  

Any ideas?

[Kicker774]

---

Breakingcustom wrote:

I guess without opening up the entire laptop to see what the issue is (I'm assuming something got busted on the motherboard) or something shorted, it might be a lost cause to fix it.  

---

More than likely yes something on the motherboard phsyically broke or cracked and resutled in a short.

If your lucky there's a chance only the LCD broke and you may just need to use an external display but with the HDD light not flashing this doesn't sound like the case.

A quick look on eBay reveals a number for T500 motherboards in the $300 range so all may not be lost. (Sans $300)

[Breakingcustom]

Just tried an external monitor didn't work.  

[zoltanthegypsy]

Boy is this a remote control guessing-game...

A couple of random WAGs:  was the power brick plugged in when dropped?  If it landed on the power plug @ the laptop, or yanked hard on the cord, the internals around the power socket may be broken.

Likewise, if there was a USB device of any kind plugged in and it got whacked or yanked, the USB socket may be broken or mangled.

It's(somewhat) common with thinkpads for a USB socket's internal pins to get bent and short.  This can prevent booting by shorting 5V to something.  They can possibly be straightened to salvage booting, but shouldn't be used again.

Good luck,

Z.

[Breakingcustom]

Took a look at the USB ports and they look fine.  I can ask about the power brick being plugged in.  I'm just going to take it apart and see the mobo to see if it is an issue.  If it is a power issue, I can have our RF guy take a look since he's good a soldering and what not if that needs to be done.

[richk]

Does the screen look cracked? The first thing I would do is to remove the palmtest and try to boot with no memory. See if you get the 1-3-3-1 beep pattern. If you do, try putting one memory module back and start. It is possible the memory was unseated

[andyP Community SuperMod]

---

zoltanthegypsy wrote:

Boy is this a remote control guessing-game...

---

LOL    I'll second that

Along with all the other good tipps being offered I'd like to offer the following, especially if richk's tip doesn't bring any beeps;

remove all hardware; ODD, HDD, battery, WLAN, 3G etc. then try again. If there's still no response, also using external display, start checking all cable connections, especially flat band cables starting with the display cable. I've seen cases where a cable which had only been very slightly nudged completely blocking a system.

edit; grammar

[Breakingcustom]

Is there a manual on disassembling these T500's?  

[andyP Community SuperMod]

Indeed there is. In case you have / become other systems I'll also provide the link to all the others;

Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad T500 and W500

Hardware Maintenance Manual index - ThinkPad

Edit; there's this as well http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/ includes the movies

[Breakingcustom]

Truly appreciate all the help.  Time to take this bad boy apart.