Here's the scenario.........I push the power button and the HD led will flash for a second & the laptop will make a power-sound, but none of the other dash lights will come on & that's all she wrote! In fact, if it doesn't start within 2 pushes, there's no point in proceeding. Letting it be is the only quasi-solution.

Try again & again & again & again, same thing. Holding the button down does nothing. Removed battery, replaced battery, AC, noAC, removed RAM, replaced RAM, etc. etc. Nothing keeps it from doing it. Leave it alone for a while & it'll start right up. (could be 5 minutes or 5 hours) I'm losing my patience.

It's an A22M P3/850 320mb RAM etc. etc. I'm desperate for help!

I've seen this before, a few times actually. It always turns out to be the mainboard. You can try replacing the mainboard batteries (check them with a volt meter) but it's probably a short in the circuit board. To get to the batteries you have to take at least the keyboard out from the few brands I've worked on. I haven't messed with an IBM laptop though so maybe there's a door with screws (fat chance). You can find parts on eBay sometimes pretty cheap if you have the balls to rip that thing to pieces without actually busting it into many more pieces. Usually you can do it with only one or two small glueable breaks in the areas where the plastic is toothpick thin and you just couldn't find that last freek'n screw, Good luck.

Ya, I've gotten advice about it being the CMOS battery, due to the CMOS battery being responsible for not only time/date etc. but also a small bit of solid-state/solenoid activity that happens when the power button is pressed. Since the battery's cheap, I'm gonna try that first. It's in a weird spot but last nite (after taking the whole laptop down to the mainboard (yikes!) I saw the other person's reply so I put it all back together & removed the CMOS battery & let it side aside for a bit, then rubbed it & talked to it nicely, etc. etc. & put it back in & got 6 consecutive boots w/ no problems last nite.

At least if I end up having to buy a new mainboard, I pretty much know how to take the thing completely apart now...........LOL!!! I just love this laptop aside from that one little quirk!!

Cool, that battery is the first thing to check, but you should check the voltage in case it's lower than it should be. When you pulled the battery you probably reset the cmos/bios so perhaps you had some corruption in the bios rather than the battery being the problem. Of the 3-4 laptops I've disassembled they have all had three small batteries strung together rather than just one battery, that's why I said "mainboard batterie(s)" Glad you got it working.

Hmmmm.........well it still did it to me once this morning, but of course I haven't changed the battery yet, so gonna run to Radio Shack as my first stop & see if they've got it. There's a Fry's Electronics about a half-hour away from me, but what I might do is if Radio Shack doesn't have the assembly itself (battery wrapped in shrink film w/ wires to a plug) I might just buy a CR2032 by itself and cut the shrink film w/ a razor, replace the battery & retape & try that. Obviously, I'll take the prefabbed version first, but from what I can see thru the shrinkfilm there's nothing but a couple 'tabs' laying against the +/- sides of the battery to make contact for the wires to the plug. This pic shows the battery as #11........(the fat end is the CR2032 wrapped in shrinkfilm).........

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4PEV9X

Well, shoot!!! I tried replacing the CMOS battery, but it looks like order only. (It's just a CR2032 Lithium battery but it's wrapped in shrinkfilm w/ 2 contact pads conntected to wires then to a plug) I split the shrinkwrap with a razor blade but the tabs are stuck on the battery. (Looks like a touch or 2 with a soldering iron to make 'em stick).

Sooooo, I just started playing around & removing the battery, rubbing it, etc. and it acts the same regardless.

What really got me was when I removed the CMOS battery altogether & it STARTED UP!! I don't know if this completely shoots down the theory that the CMOS battery activates part of the startup, but without it even installed if it boots, I'm guessin' it kinda does??? (Totally bummed now!)

Yeh but if you take the power off the unit (bios battery, operating battery and AC), maybe that completely removes all power sources from the cmos and causes bios setting to reset. Maybe with other power source the cmos stays powered.

Screwy web browser is messing up.

Well.........after doing everything in the book.......(replace CMOS, shake, jiggle, talk nice to, R & R everything, remove & reseat CPU (this one got ugly as I lost the parts to the lid-top closing/shutoff mechanism & had to go fishing for about an hour to try & find the parts & then figure out how they went back together!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and the situation still exists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've had it!! I'm done!!! No more!!! The next time I buy a laptop, it will be with a 3 of 5 year warranty so that these mfgr's can held accountable for the quality of product they put out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Problem is, even when they say they fixed it there is usually still something wrong and they just keep saying here you go good as new! So, you end up even more insane because you have someone BS'ing you and you paid extra for the BS. Sorry it's not working out, might be a short in the mainboard after all.

Thanks for the support!! (This is a psych group, right? I mean, we're talking about laptop owners here...LOL!!) Anyway, I had a thought & was wondering what folks thought here...........

If you had to buy a Laptop today & were on a budget what would you do (here's 2 choices to make it easier or you can run your own by me)..........

#1.) Just buy a new/cheap unit circa $700 & enjoy the 1 year warranty & be happy, end of story

or

#2.) Maybe buy an older laptop (though I see mostly Thinkpads & I'm a bit gunshy at the moment) like an "A" or "T" series in the 21, 22, 23 variety (Pentium3) for circa $600 and just buy an extended warranty w/ on-site service??

Just curious as they both seem to amount to the same $$$, but offer a different approach to owning a laptop. TIA

Well, A22m has been showing this problem for most of the machine and I see this is a design problem, where there has been frequent failures on A22M boards. You would see many boards are avaiable for A22M on eBay.

This problems occurs when the machine DC/DC power section gets heated up and after that it starts malfucntioning. Your problem symtomp sclearly indicates that DC/DC section is causing a problem. You would see one chip "ADP3410" which is for CPU VRM(Voltage Regulator Module) converter. If you can replace this it would solve your problem.

Hope this was helpful.

Cheers

Just open the keyboard and take out the CPU and reseat it. Make sure it works, if not, take it out and reseat. I have a A22m just like you with problem, sometimes work and sometimes not. I took it to the repair shop, and the guy say could find the problem. I read some forum saying reseating the cpu may help. I tried and now it works without problem for the whole month.

hi,

new user here. i too have a A22M thinkpad Type 2628-P1U. i woke up this morning, but my laptop did not.
dead, nothing...only the battery light on the hinge is illuminated. did you come a resolution as to what the source of the problem was for yours? faulty, ADP3410 or CR2032, or just reseating the cpu?

does anybody know a source of the adp3410 voltage regulator module? eBay has the cr2032, but not the other part? ibm doesn't offer part support. also, i've never open up my laptop other than to replace the lcd screen. any recommendations as to how to do this without destroying things? any source to get the schematic or board layout for part location?

thanks alot,

-Kent

Well, I never did find out what's wrong. I have since bought a Dell laptop, and just when I thought this Thinkpad was completely toast, I'm typing this on the Thinkpad right now. It got to the point where I thought it was never going to start again. The last time I took it apart..........(yes, I took this thing COMPLETELY apart a few times since posting these requests for help.).........I put it all together & told myself that would be the last time. Other than that, it's basically something on the motherboard and I don't know what. (Neither did thinkpadmedic.com either, so I didn't feel too technically challenged at that point).

I let it sit while I used my Dell for a few weeks. I tried to start it a couple times in between but nothing happened. Then..........one day..........after almost a month of sitting........I tried to start it on the battery & nothing, but then I plugged it in and tried to start it on the a/c adapter &.............PRESTO.......it started!!!!

I have not turned this thing off (purposely) since then. That's been about a month and a half ago now. I've shut it off twice on accident since then (habit, really) but I started it back up right away both times and it started again so I'm satisfied with its current use. I have Windows XP's settings setup to turn never hibernate or standby, but to turn the hard disks off after 20 minutes of idle time to give the HD longer life. It sits next to my couch and I use it as my wireless browser. It works absolutely wonderfully for its current intent. People come over and they can pick it up & browse from the couch. I can do the same from my Dell or I can go in the other room & get on my main pc. All's well now, though, obviously, I wish it was perfect, it's probably getting more use now than any of my other pc's, so it went from almost in the trash can to "most used" in the house.....LOL!!! OH, btw, here's a link you'll want. It'll give you confidence to take yours apart........trust me..........I've done it enough times now to know..........

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/23p0896.pdf

Sitting hear reading this post and intrigued with the attempts to get Randy V's IBM working. Secure in the view that this problem won't happen to me and then I glance at the top left corner... A22m.

It is no consolation to you guys but this IBM is owned by the boss. So if it goes t**s-up then it gets haled back to the IT department. So now I am forewarned about one ofn this model's common faults I will keep it in mind.

Randy, you asked about the pros and cons of buying a quality laptop or a cheap model. I don't have an answer but to maintain my sanity I live with an external hard drive.

I realised ages ago, that teaming up a cheap laptop (or PC), with all my saved files on a hard drive, and of course a fast internet connection, gives me a combination that works well for me.

Randy,

thanks for the update on your a22m. i find that both good and bad news. i use my laptop primarily for trading and take it with me when i travel, therefore it gets turned on/off constantly. i also have a thinkpad R40 for the same application. i hope this problem was fixed in this model. thanks again for the link to disassemble the a22m. it looks like a daunting meticulous task, especially for the 1st shot at it. so i'm weighing the pros/cons of trying to fix the problem or buy a dell/tosiba/etc. i still haven't found a source of the ad3410. sounds like you didn't get to the point of replacing that chip, or did you find this chip on the system board and try to replace it? i thought i might first try that route to replace both adp3410 and cr2032, then either the system board or buy a different notebook. in any case, i don't have too much time to fiddle with the problem. just want to get a reliable workhorse notebook for my application. i also read on another site where someone mentioned the problem was with the "power management controller." sound familiar to you or anyone else out there? anyway thanks again for any recommendations and feedback.

Hey all,

I believe my problem is somewhere in the motherboard....(probably power supply?)....but I just can't be sure. I found where I could get a replacement motherboard based on a trade for circa $300 or buy a new one outright for $500. (thinkpadmedic.com)
Another good resource that somebody pointed me to is http://www.laptopking.com. They quoted me $450 on repair and were very quick to suggest that based on my description of the problem, they would simply replace the motherboard. (Thus, I came to my deductive conclusion)
I almost went with the motherboard replacement route, but I figured that was $300 toward another good laptop.
I had also found another place that did laptop motherboard repair but I believe the minimum rate was like $150+ $$$/hour and I just saw that going sour again. With my luck it'd take 4 hours to repair and I might as well have bought a new one.
So if you're in the same boat as me, just use your R40 for remote work (awesome thinkpad, btw) and use your a22 the way I use it. Just keep it near an outlet beside the couch and whenever you want to browse, just pull it up and go. Obviously this requires a wireless network in your house, but it's really not hard & rather cheap these days and I definitely think it's a *must have* for laptop owners.

I will try to replace the adp3421 and adp3410 in the coming weeks. I had borrowed the hot air blower for desoldering the old ic and solder the new chips on the board. Both ic are very small, one is 3mmx5mm and 3410 is 3mm square with pin legs on the side. I have difficulties to buy it here in Hong Kong and had bought them in China mainland in the wholesale shops. It is US$2.5 each and was sold at minimum quantity of 5. I bought 5 each of them. Will tell you the result once completed. I am also eager in looking forward for the operation.

hi, there is the same problem with my laptop T20,i don't know what to do now,,,,have u already replace adp3421 and 3410? does it work?

Hi,

i got a board here myself that has that power up problem (A22m). Ususally only the LEDs flash when trying to power it up and the motors start to spin for less than a second. Every 100th attempt it started but crashed after some minutes. I replaced the ADP3410 with one from an old A20m board that i had sitting around. The Problem was not solved by this. It is exactly the same as before. So in my case the problem seems to be something else.
Im now thinking about replacing the ADP3421 but this would become quite an adventure without some hot air soldering station.
By the way I cound not find any reseller that sells the two ICs here in Germany so i would have to use the one from the old A20m board (which would probably not even survive being soldered off). Any ideas where to get the chips other than from AD in a 2500pcs package?

Greethings