Think Pad T42 Won't boot

[Chasbhill]

If the T42 goes into sleep mode or is turned off, it will not restart.  When the power button is pressed, the power goes on, but the unit rarely boots.  I've taken the battery out and find that if it won't start, unplugging it and plugging it back in often helps the boot process.  I'm pretty sure it isn't the power switch since the power light goes on every time it is pressed.  Any suggestions?

Oh yes, when it does boot, it runs flawlessly.

Chasbhill

[tfflivemb2]

How are you waking the T42 from sleep?  Are you using the FN button?

[spyder4848]

I just had this same problem with my T42.  Turns out the BIOS was partialy corupted.  Booting was extremely difficult, I would have to remove the battery and play with the power cord 10-20 times trying to power it up.  the lights would come on every time however it would not post.  Finally it would post and run normally.  I tried downloading the latest BIOS and it restarted the computer and tried to update.  It then reported that the BIOS information was corupt and would not update.  I then proceeded to reset the bios to the default values and tried the update again.  It worked this time and now the problem is gone.

Hope this helps.

[plauale]

Hello,

I have the same trouble, and I have read a lot about people heating up thier motherboards and reflowing the solder. Many people say that it works. Has anybody else heard of this?

Why doesn't Lenovo replace these boards if they can't handle the stress of regular laptop use?

Thanks.

[ajkula66 Guru]

Stress of regular use should not include carrying an open laptop with one hand, and that's what killed most of the T4x/R5x machines affected by this syndrome...

Lenovo was replacing motherboards (and still does) for all the units under warranty, which was standard three years for most of the T4x models. IBM also changed the soldering technique and materials on late T42/p units and carried it into the T43/p series which almost never suffer from this problem. This issue was addressed entirely on T60 machines because they don't suffer from this problem whatsoever.

Hope this helps.