Help with Laptop/Batter

[cocounselor23]

I am bummed. Purchased a used IBM Thinkpad Pentium II, 366 MHZ for my 11 year old daughter off EBAY for $350.00 and had a battery problem. Replaced batter with new one and it worked for awhile but now that battery is drained too. Computer will not start now, even with the AC adapter. I try to boot it up and it immediately shuts down. Someone else told me the mother board is probably bad. But, couldn't it also be the AC adapter? I don't want to spend anymore money as the battery cost me $100.00, so I am now at $450.00. Any ideas? Should I invest in the new AC adapter? Thanks!!

[ratbastid]

The AC adapter will be the cheapest component to replace, that's for sure.

Though if your new battery took a charge through the AC adapter, then the adapter must be good. Unless it went bad sometime after charging that battery...

It may not be this way with IBMs, but most laptops I've encountered will power up under wall power, even if the battery's not physically in the machine. Which leads me to suspect the adapter.

[hrdwareguy]

Yeah, what ratbastid said.

Also, make sure to take the battery out of the laptop before trying to use the AC adapter to power it up. I've seen laptops that won't power up from AC if the battery is messed up and still in the machine.

[Peryn]

it very well could also be a bad motherboard, as mentioned. Possibly a bad windows problem. I tried to work on a freinds laptop one time, and it was the wierdest thing i had seen. When in the bios or safe mode, it would stay on for as long as the battery was good. But if i went into windows normally, it would instantly shut down.

Guess you could try safe mode, and see if its a windows thing.

Also, if you have a volt meter, you could check the power coming out of the A/C adapoter and the battery.

[cocounselor23]

Thanks guys! I guess I will try the AC adapter first and then I will know for sure.