System will not start

Question

T60 will not start.  While turning on and initiating system, it died suddenly.  Even the battery light was not illuminated.  Battery part# is FRU P/N 42T4504.  Should the system still start with the AC adapter, even if battery has died?  Are others having problems with this battery?

Answer 1

I had a similar problem, it ended up being much less of an issue than I originally thought.
THis was my problem, maybe its similar to yours.
When doing any type of CPU or GPU intensive work, such as video encoding, or even playing a flash application with lots of things going on, it would jsut die.  Lights out, not even the battery or charging lights would come on.  Pressing the power button would do nothing either.  I had to unplug, take the battery out, put it back in, wait about 10 mins then restart and pray for no BSOD.
I thought it was the power source, but since it was just shutting off randomly, (a symptom of an overheating GPU or CPU) I decided to clean out the fan first (I was out of warrenty).
If that sounds like your problem, I recommend you try the following.  If it doesn't fix it, then you're out about $15 and a half-hour of your time.  If your machine is out of warrenty, or if you don't want to wait a couple weeks for your laptop to return from the depot, definitely try this.  Its cheaper then paying for repairs, and cheaper then getting an assessment of the problem. 
Go to a computer parts store, bought a good tube of thermal paste (cost like $15) and some compressed air.  Get the good stuff if you have a good processor.  It works much better than the stock stuff.
First unplug your laptop, take the battery out, then Unscrew the Screws at the bottom that hold the palmrest, Keyboard down (they'll be marked) then the screws that hold the bezel (not marked).
Once those are off, draw a quick sketch of the inside components, and as you take screws out, label on your sketch the size/colour of the screw, so everything goes back in correctly.
Then, you'll need to take the top left speaker out, and two metal 'arms' that hold the Fan in place.  The fan should then pop out.  If there's another screw I'm forgetting about, take it out too.
On the fan, your CPU and GPU, there will be old thermal paste.  With a lint-free cloth, with a bit of 70% rubbing alcohol, clean the paste off.  Be sure to use something that won't leave residue.  Things like TP, kleenex, etc are bad.  Coffee Filters work pretty well.
Now with the compressed air, spray out the inside of your laptop, spray the fan out well, and anything else that looks dusty.  
Now put a bit of the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU, and pop the fan unit back in place, screw it in immediately.  Put the rest of the components back together, and while you're at it, take the time to blow out your keyboard, as I'm sure its full of dust, crumbs ,hair, and other fun stuff.
This would likely solve your problem for under $20.  And best yet, you don't have to ship your laptop away for a few weeks.  
In my case, I thought there were bigger problems.  After cleaning/replacing the fan, I haven't had an issue at all, its been a few months.  I can encode video, run graphically intensive programs/games, etc. without an issue.  CPU/GPU temps don't get nearly as bad as they did.
Hope that helps your problem.
T61 15.4" T9300 (2.5GHz 6MB L2) Windows 7 Professional x64 4GB Memory, NVidia Quadro NVS 140M