Help with Thinkpad T20 problems

[mallik]

I think a pretty old Thinkpad T20, and I'm having some problems with it:

- The first one has been happening for a while. The phone jack randomly stops working. I have the phone cable plugged in, but when I try to dial out I get a message that says no dial tone. After messing around with it (taking out the cable for a while and then putting it back in, jiggling the cable, etc.) it might start working. This used to happen before, but then I stopped having these problems. Now it's started up again.

- The second one just happened yesterday. I tripped on the adapter cord when it was plugged in, and now it stopped functioning. It didn't seem like I tripped on it that hard. The plug from the adapter partially came out of the socket, so I plugged it back in but now it's not working at all. I'm not sure how that could have killed the adapter.

Any help with these problems would be appreciated.

 

[LiLithTecH]

If you have a Multimeter you can check to see if whether it is the
adapter or the socket on the laptop. The inside (pin 1) of the mini-plug is the
+voltage, the outside is the ground. It should read between +15.5 to +17.0v (DC)

If there is no power coming from the AC adapter, then you can try
cutting the end off and checking or just replace the end.

If there is power coming from the AC adapter, then things get a
little more difficult.

Your problem with the modem could be a Damaged I/O card socket.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Check the voltage output of the PSU as LiLith explains. If the PSU is putting out voltage then you almost certainly damaged the PSU jack on the laptop - probably broke it loose from the mobo or worse, cracked the mobo. If it's not under warranty your best bet is to take it to a small Mom & Pop computer shop that does board-level repairs (DO NOT take it to a large retailer for repairs unless you want to get screwed). If you're lucky it's a simple matter of soldering the jack back to the mobo - maybe an hour's labor.

The modem jack sound like something similar - probably a loose connection in the jack. It may have a cold solder joint where it connects to the mobo. Have them look at it at the same time.

Hope this helps...

 

[LiLithTecH]

The T20 has a seperate I/O board (daughtercard) which plugs into the motherboard.
(it contains all the I/O connectors - COM, LPT, LAN, Telecom, system Fan, AC jack, USB)

IBM ThinkPad T20 I/O