Old Thinkpad- moving turns it off...help?

[mischief08films]

I have an old trusty Thinkpad T30... it came back into use about 3 months ago after 2 years in the closet because my macbook pro's screen took a dump....so it was back to the trusty thinkpad


Today, the weirdest thing started happening....when I pick my thinkpad up or move it, it will shut off suddenly. Not power down.....I mean...100% dead in 1 second.

It doesnt appear to be battery, since when its running, I can unplug the A/C adapter...and it will continue to run.

I also tried it without the battery and just the A/C adapter...works fine.

It can sit on my lap for 5 hours, its fine....I go to move it. (with a/c adapter + fully charged battery) and ......dead.

Anyone have any ideas on what/why is causing this? Like I said...using as a desktop (i.e. not moving it....works fine) however using it as design, and it dies on me.

I cant seem to locate it down- movement is killing it.

I was thinking it was possibly Hard disk related? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bbq]

issue with shitty soldering on the board, not an uncommon problem. Usually starts with 1 dimm not showing up, moving on to more.

It has the ATI video card, right ? what is the type number of this one ?

 

[jalaj]

Sounds like when you're introducing flex to the notebook chassis you're also breaking a power connection or shorting a wire on the motherboard. Like BBQ said, could be the soldering is no longer good. If you want to troubleshoot, you could take the laptop apart and inspect the motherboard for loose cable connections or a broke solder connection.

 

[mischief08films]

Im going to take it apart now, and see whats going on inside.

the laptop works like a gem.....as long as it stays stationary.

If I have to resolder it, do I need any special soldering gun? or can I just pick up any old one at a hardware store?

 

[mischief08films]

issue with shitty soldering on the board, not an uncommon problem. Usually starts with 1 dimm not showing up, moving on to more.

It has the ATI video card, right ? what is the type number of this one ?

Original description: P4-M 2.0GHz (512KB), 256MB RAM, 40.0GB HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 8x-3.3x DVD-ROM, 802.11b Wireless/Modem(MPCI), Ethernet(LOM), Secure Chip(TCPA), UltraNav, Li-Ion battery, WinXP Pro


I cant seem to pull any info off their website on what ati card is on there.....until I open her up.

 

[jalaj]

Im going to take it apart now, and see whats going on inside.

the laptop works like a gem.....as long as it stays stationary.

If I have to resolder it, do I need any special soldering gun? or can I just pick up any old one at a hardware store?

I believe any soldering iron/gun will do, as long as it is sufficiently hot. However the more expensive ones are just easier to work with since they usually offer more variable temperatures. I was tinkering around with a cheap $10-$15 desoldering iron, and it wasn't sufficiently hot enough to melt the solder on a AC/DC jack I was trying to repair.

 

[mischief08films]

ati radeon 7500

I got her apart to the cpu at the moment....lol, anyone know if I can put anything faster in here? lol

 

[jalaj]

I believe the fastest CPU your chipset is compatible with is a P4-M 2.6ghz chip.
Check out ark.intel.com
Also, every chip above yours is a move from a max TDP of 32 Watts to 35 Watts.
More wattage equates to more heat, so make sure you remove the stock TIM and reapply with new TIM.

 

[Cyberdemon]

The performance jump for changing CPU's probably won't be worth the effort. Especially if you have a potentially faulty mobo. You can go solder hunting like was mentioned, and make sure theres no damaged areas that might be shorting out, but if theres damage on the board itself it may not be repairable without replacing the motherboard.

See if you can lock down the flex problem first. Also make sure there aren't any metal areas on the housing or bottom covers that look damaged. Often times there are grounding features on the casing that if bent or damaged will cause a short.