T61 with 4 beeps on attempted boot

[burns334]

Afternoon folks, My old reliable T61 had trouble booting last night and this am all I got was a series of 4 rapid beeps with a little searching it seems like motherboard/system board is probably the problem. It is model number 7663-13U and I was wondering if someone could point me to a interchangeability list or give me some guidance on boards I can replace with. I see a new one on eb*y model 43Y9049 and not sure if that will work. thanks in advance

burns334

[kfzhu1229]

Afternoon folks, My old reliable T61 had trouble booting last night and this am all I got was a series of 4 rapid beeps with a little searching it seems like motherboard/system board is probably the problem. It is model number 7663-13U and I was wondering if someone could point me to a interchangeability list or give me some guidance on boards I can replace with. I see a new one on eb*y model 43Y9049 and not sure if that will work. thanks in advance

burns334

Seems like failed solder on the NVS140M chip. The datecode is pre-0831 right? If you can confirm the dead status of this board, perhaps you can try the toaster oven trick since you have nothing to lose anyways.
If you are replacing with another NVidia board, make sure it has a 0831 (31st week of 2008) or later datecode, or consult forum member TuuS for a NOS guaranteed revised version replacement. Not sure if he has the 14" 16:10 board though

[burns334]

kfzhu, thanks for info, I really don't know anything else about this machine, I put an SSD in it about 4 years ago and have never touched it since, ie no date code or anything else. I have contacted Tuus and read the boardroom and think I have a solution, thanks for all you hel

burns334

[atagunov]

7663-13U should be 16:9 14" if .csv file serves me right
precious cargo TuuS was selling are 4:3 14" mobos

Hunting down a >= 08/08 nVidia T61 on ebay is a hell of a task, you go crazy chasing each T61 on ebay, looking at TYPE sticker on bottom, consulting .csv file, pleading with people to tell you content of TYPE sticker if they haven't taken a photo or if the photo is blurry.. I've seen one offer when the type and date are right but it was 3 units of which 2 were sold, so there was no guarantee that the photos corresponded to the unit left.. And the seller never responded to my pleas to tell me this info.. Seems some sellers probably arrogant or those with big warehouses never respond to these requests.

Are we sure it's the motherboard?.. If I remember correctly short beep + 4 long beeps is RAM?.. Do you have 2 RAM sticks? Maybe take out one and see what happens? Then put it back, take out the other and see what happens? 1Gb or 2Gb DDR2 RAM sticks are cheap as dirt these days.. Facebook marketplace is probably infested with offers to sell some for a couple $$. 4Gb though are expensive beyond belief.. Paid £84 for a set of two 4Gb sticks.

Ah! Maybe you don't have to have a nVidia motherboard, maybe you can go with an Intel GPU? These don't fail. Get yourself an Intel GPU motherboard and be happy?

Going further
- Thinkpads of the era are not expensive overall, maybe just purchase any sensible Thinkpad you like and swap the hard drive into it? Doesn't have to be a T61
- If you're keen to restore yours.. here you can find a list of mobo FRU-s, maybe you can find one on ebay https://thinkpads.com/t61/ Note that Intel GPU ones are reliable, nVidia are likely to fail unless the date is fresh enough
- it might also be possible to purchase the cheapest 16:9 14" T61 you can find on ebay and swap the motherboards; again Intel ones are more reliable; nVidia ones are likely to fail unless date is >= 08/08

P.S. unless nobody told you that all-important date is on the TYPE sticker on the bottom; the sticker goes TYPE 7663-13U S/N ... ../.. Last 4 digits are the production date (year/month). In the first screen of BIOS there's "System-unit serial number" which is 766313U (MTM) concatenated with S/N from the sticker. Unfortunately the date is not there. If somebody was "clever" enough to scrape the sticker off the bottom - as some people do - there seems to be no way to know the production date of the Thinkpad. nVidia chip has got its own date but it's a deemed a bit less reliable.

[cadillacmike68]

Yeah, Tuus has the 14" 4:3 boards. I bought a couple and am considering a couple more.

The 14" widescreen 16:10 boards with good nvidia GPUs are pretty much non existent. I bought a 14" WS (intel graphics) a few years ago, and it has the faster CPU of any of my t61s, and it's my only T61 with a camera. It's been working fine. No problems using it for zoom video conferencing.

The machine TYPE (first 4 numbers of the MTM) will tell you the graphics system of the computer. This can be checked with the MTM lookup at the top of this board or just look at the gigantic excel sheet and you will see all the various Models of the same Type have the same graphics.

Unless you need the discrete GPU, then you should be able to get an intel mobo or mobo with bottom plastics and put that in your system.

[kfzhu1229]

I think at this point since you have the widescreen anyway, it is probably much cheaper for you to move onto a T400, R400 or some HP elitebooks or Dell latitudes from that era as they are plenty cheap literally everywhere.

[atagunov]

T420, no doubt about that! Could be a sweet spot between performance and price.. And seriously, consider all more or less modern (>= T420) thinkpads within your budget. T61 now is more of a collector's item, a retro-chic piece to be proud of. Yeah, sure nice if you got one and it still works for you but not something I would advise buying purely on price/performance grounds