Thinkpads Forum

Hello,
When I connect the mains adapter, the battery and Ethernet lights turn on briefly (about a second) and then switch off. Pressing the power button does nothing—no fan activity, no beeps, and no screen backlight.

Is it worth trying a docking station? Do they bypass any part of the main power circuitry?

I’ve already tried the usual fixes: holding the power button, removing connected components (including the screen, USB board, modem, and speaker cables). The laptop hasn’t had a CMOS battery for years, and it currently doesn’t have a main battery either—unsure if that matters.

From what I understand, this usually points to a failed motherboard, but before giving up I could at least check the fuses.

It was working until recently and now doesn't?

Try a different AC adapter. Or try that AC adapter on a different laptop, confirm that it's still working.

Try removing all drives and the RAM (without RAM it should beep at you). If none of that helps, then something on the motherboard has died.

If it was a system you just got, then one last thing to try is to plug in a different keyboard. I've seen bad keyboards cause power on issues before. But for a system that was working until recently and hasn't been stored somewhere wet, I doubt the keyboard would suddenly go bad.