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The P8 plug you removed supplies the +12 and -12 volts to the 5150/5155/5160 motherboard.

CONCLUSION: Because the fan is now turning, and before it wasn't, we now know that your motherboard has a short-circuit on either the +12 or -12 volt lines.
In some cases, there is a short-circuit on both of those lines.


What Now?

It is very highly likely that either a tantalum capacitor on the +12 volt line or a tantalum capacitor on the -12 volt line of your motherboard is short-circuit.
A short-circuit tantalum capacitor on a 12 volt line is a very common problem with the 5150/5155/5160 motherboards  (well, ones that have not been used in a very long time).

Visually inspecting the tantalum capacitors may (repeat: may) reveal the faulty capacitor.
In some cases, the faulty tantalum capacitor is very obvious.
In some cases, the faulty tantalum capacitor may only have a small black eye/hole.
But the faulty tantalum capacitor may have absolutely no visual indication of failure.

If there is no visual indication of failure, proceed to the appropriate section below.

bad_tantulum_2.jpgbad_tantulum_1.jpg



IBM 5150 (IBM PC) motherboard - type 16KB-64KB

Click here.


IBM 5150 (IBM PC) motherboard - type 64KB-256KB

Click here.


IBM 5155 (IBM Portable PC) motherboard

The 5155 contains an early 5160 motherboard.  Refer to the 5160 motherboard section that follows.


IBM 5160 (IBM XT) motherboard

Click here.