Thinkpad T20 Shuts Down

[longhornwhistler]

Hey there!
My Thinkpad T20 keeps shutting down on me before it can boot to the hard disk. Most of the time, it will boot to the BIOS without a problem but when I try to boot to anything the screen shuts off and it won't go any further. The battery and the third (not sure what it's called) lights are on on the hinge, and above the keyboard, the power light is on and the hard drive light blinks. Not sure if this is a failsafe or not either. I've tried replacing the hard disk, the fan, and the thermal pad but have had no luck. This also happens when docked and connected to an external monitor. Also, there is a little bit of a clicking noise too. It is still reading from the CD drive and the hard disk from what I can hear. Anything else I should check?

Gabe

P.S. If this seems a little out of order it's because I wrote it as I noticed things.

[dr_st]

Stuck lid close switch / sensor? Some laptops only start polling for these after the initial POST / BIOS, so the screen will be on in that environment, but then turn off (while the PC stays on). Not sure how it is on the T20.

[Bondi]

Try to remove the daugther board from the minipci slot and also the battery.
Another thing to check is RAM. Try to remove one of the RAM modules (if you have two), and then the other one.
If nothing helps - then it could be a mobo problem known as "Blink of death".

[longhornwhistler]

What are the symptoms of the "blink of death"?

EDIT: It worked until about 63% of the way through the recovery process. Now the fan is pulsing. Could I have gotten another bad fan?

[Bondi]

What are the symptoms of the "blink of death"?

Here is a good info source, but it's in german https://thinkwiki.de/BoD

[longhornwhistler]

Ok, so a little bit more information. After booting the BIOS, the fan completely stops running.

Gabe

[JBUK]

This model is prone to have loose inductors on the motherboard. This can give you all sorts of strange symptoms including freezing, blanking and fan pulsing. It might be worth your while to check this out.
There are plenty of posts on this forum with photos too showing you what to look for and how to resolder any loose ones.