IBM T41 black screen no beeps ?

[Gerryboy171]

Hi all.

I have acquired an IBM T41 . At first it turned and i acessed the bios and everything worked fine. I turned it off and now when i turn it on the machine boots up but i get nothing on the screen . I also noticed that when i remove the ram and turn it on i dont get any beeps??
Is this common when the graphic chips starts to fail or do i have another problem ..

Thanks

[Neil]

Do you get any display with an external monitor?
Did you remove both the RAM sticks? One on bottom of machine, and one under the keyboard.

[Gerryboy171]

Yes i have also tried on an external monitor and still black..
Yes i took both ram sticks out . I ust thought it wierd that it would not give me the warning beeps..

[Neil]

Yes, no beeps without RAM is strange. And not usually what happens with a loose GPU chip, but you never know... Have you tried to boot while applying some pressure to the GPU?

[Gerryboy171]

Yeah i tried pressing down on the chip and it made no differance ,, I maybe try stripping it down and remove all parts from board and try again ,, any other suggestions??

Thanks for info,,

[Gerryboy171]

Ok i striiped the laptop . found nothing loose .
Refitted and connected all parts . Switched it on without ram and i got the 1-3-3-1 beeps .
I was thinking yesss . turned it off and switched it on again without moving it and now no beeps again .. arrrrrggghhhhh .

Anyone any ideas .. i have tried changing the cpu and made no differance

[RealBlackStuff]

Could also be a loose Southbridge chip (big Intel chip under the wifi card). Try put some pressure on that and see if she then boots.
Otherwise contact Nick at www.reflowrepairs.co.uk (he's away till 24/05, so be patient).

[Gerryboy171]

Hi . i have made some progress with my t41

I put some ram into it .and after tuning it on and off several times it came on and showed the bios screen then loaded up windows . So i moved the machine around turned upside down and everything was fine , So i think the graphic chip is ok . Everytime i restarted from windows the machine would always come back on. But when i did a shutdown and pressed the button to restart i would just get a black screen. So after messing about with it for ages i eventually got it to come back on again . So i decided to update the bios and the embedded controller to the latest version . And now the machine turns on and off everytime . Is this just coincidence or could the updates done something. ??

[rkawakami]

Here are the listings for the BIOS and EC updates:

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... uj37us.txt (BIOS update history)
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... hj10u2.txt (EC update history)

I guess it depends on what your versions were before the update and what you are running now. You may also want to check the backup (CMOS) battery and see if it's less than 2.7V. If the problem returns, then remove all of the hardware that's installed in sockets (memory, hard drive, MiniPCI, CDC, Ultrabay, battery) and see if you get the 1-3-3-1 beep code. If so, then re-install ONE piece at a time (starting with a single memory module) and repeat the boot-up attempt. If/when you get to the point where the system doesn't boot, then the last part you installed is the suspect.

In my experience the T23 systems have a habit of not powering up properly when the MiniPCI modem goes bad. Simply re-seating the card does nothing to solve the problem; it has to be completely removed before the system can power up. Possibly the same thing is happening with your T41.

[poshgeordie]

Could also be a loose Southbridge chip (big Intel chip under the wifi card). Try put some pressure on that and see if she then boots.
Otherwise contact Nick at http://www.reflowrepairs.co.uk (he's away till 24/05, so be patient).

Hi Gerry

Just a quick note to say I'm now back in Newcastle from a very sunny Sutherland and back to work tomorrow...

If we can help with the diagnosis and reflow/reball etc please email me on nick@reflowrepairs.com and I'll get an official quote and our address details etc. See also the blue advert at the top of any page on the forum.