[tlug] ThinkCentre hardware debugging.

[Edward Middleton <emiddleton@example.com>]

I am replying to this email because it is somewhat related.  Thanks to
Lyles email I decided to try my luck on a Otto untested ThinkCentre A51
8425 11j at 3千円 and see if I could do better then the 2万円 for the
equivalent tested machine.  It has not been all that smooth sailing.

The machine posts but crashes soon after (all devices power down,
keyboard goes dead, but fans run).  According to the manual the green
light on the power supply and the green light on the front panel
indicate that the motherboard and power supply is working.

I believe the crash is independent of the hard disk and cdrom because it
occurs even if both devices are removed.  It also occurs after a few
seconds while in the BIOS.

I have cleaned the memory and gave the slot a brush with an air brush. 
I have tried with other known working memory to no avail.

I have replaced the CMOS battery and reset the CMOS.

All the capacitors appear to be OK (none appear popped).

I am currently thinking it might be the result of a failed BIOS flash
and will try the floppy based flash recovery procedure (first time I
have had a machine that will do this).

Does anyone have experience with this sort of machine or debugging this
sort of problem?   Does anyone have suggestions on how to debug this?

Cheers,

Edward