Thinkpad A30 not showing any signs of life

[ThinkpadKai]

So i have just bought a IBM ThinkPad A30 off eBay and it was listed as untested and now that i have it, ive tried to power it on but it shows zero signs of life. No lights or anything, the fan doesn't even react and before i bin it i thought to ask here to see if theres anything that i could do to get it back alive. Any help will be appreciated. I know the power brick im using works as it works perfects with my x41t.

This is my first time posting in this so sorry if this is the wrong area to post this.

[Misu]

I will start with taking out everything - ultrabay drives, HDD, RAM, battery and even CMOS battery... and turn it on... if some beeps will come... if not... open it and start with voltmeter - but with these models... graphics card is usually the bad guy... and there is no way back... only motherboard change can help.

[ThinkpadKai]

Ive just tore it apart down to the bare motherboard and tried powering it on with the keyboard plugged in with power but still nothing, no lights. Think thats the end of it? Also just used a multimeter to see if power was getting to the board which it was and checked a few caps on the bottom, some had around 15.8v others very small amounts and some with nothing.

[Gonzaleitor]

Maybe the charging port is dead. Did you try replacing it?

[Bondi]

.

[SMA]

There is an old rule saying that with electronic hardware faults
it is always caused by either a break or a short.

If you have a short, then the AC Adapter will become warm.
Put your hand on the AC Adapter and you should be able to tell if
it is warm or cold.
Warm means something shorted, cold means something broken.

If you have a short, then you may continue measuring temperature with a finger
on the surface of the MB.

Anyway you should pay special attention to the MAX1631 chip and the area around it.
(particularly mosfet's)

[ThinkpadKai]

I'm back to report some things. So I haven't replaced the charging port because 1 I dont think that its at fault as I can confirm some amount of power getting about and 2nd I cant locate an exact replacement port as all the ones on eBay have 5 legs and mine only has 3, as for the Max 1631 chip (full name just in case: MAX1631AEA1 0146) it was very hot to touch. Should I try and locate a replacement chip for it?

[SMA]

To me there is no doubt that you have a shorted max1631 chip.

The quick way forward would be to jump straight into replacing that chip,
but you can verify the situation.

With no power applied to the board, measure resistance between the chips GND and VCC (VL) pins.
Zero ohm is a short (bad).
GND is pin 8 and VCC (VL) is pin 22.
Most likely many other pins on that chip will also be shorted to ground.

It should not be difficult to find a replacement chip. Many Thinkpads of that area
uses the same chip - some are A31 and T42, but NOT T22.
You may try to post a 'want to bay' in the forums Marketplace - with a bit of luck
someone located near you will respond.

[ThinkpadKai]

Thanks for the help, Ive managed to find a listing on eBay which is selling the chip for £6 ($8) but its coming from china so it'll be here next month. Just curious but if I was to replace the chip and it was still dead what would you think the next thing to check would be?

[ThinkpadKai]

Back with a small update, only have bad news. So I know I’m not very good at soldering but after trying to remove the chip with heat I had lifted 4 pads, thought to keep going so I cleaned the pads still there and tried to solder the chip back on but ended up moving 3 tiny caps/resisters and now I’ve considered it a loss. Thanks for the help everyone.