Thinkpads Forum

Hello all, I was looking for solutions to issues on T61P and came across this great forum. I read various issues people faced with their thinkpads and how you experts provided minute details on the solution. Great work guys, I'm hoping to get your help on this issue I am having with this 4+ year old T61P of mine. Problem details are as follows...

Model: Lenovo T61P 6458-DE3 L3P3145, bought this late in 2008. The laptop was working great until last evening when I closed it into sleep mode after work, I'm unable to wake it since. I can turn it on both on battery and through charger however the device gets stuck at startup with no display and no beep. As soon as the device is turned on, the caps lock and other lights glow as they normally do and then its stuck.

I've read here in the threads that this could be because of the dreaded nVidia chip, however I do not have that 3 beep indication that most have mentioned. Below are some of the things I've tried unsuccessfully...

> Discharge static electric current - by pressing the power button repeatedly/1 minute interval with both battery and power off
> insert repair/OS disk to see if it boots...
> Re-seat RAM to check if there's loose connection. Please note that the device beeps if I try to boot without RAM.
> remove CMOS battery and reset
> Blow hot air into the exhaust vent that's on the left side to get that broken soldering thing fixed...(followed a youtube guide)

Any help in identifying the issue is much appreciated.

If the nVidia chip/motherboard is the culprit how easy is it to find genuine replacements for the same? Do they need special VLSI tools for installation? I've assembled a few desktop PC's myself and would like to do the repairs as well...what are the challenges there? If anyone has done replacement like this, please provide your valuable feedback....

Hoping for a response
-Koopa Mand00ka

Your GPU is most likely busted.

A new replacement board, with a good GPU (nVidia after 08/08), will cost around 300$

A new replacement board, with a Intel GPU, will be cheaper.

Thanks for the reply Andreas.

Any idea why I'm not getting the beeps? Also on start the device is totally hung, not even ctrl + alt + del works! The only way out is to press the power button again to turn off.

Regarding the replacement board...how easy/difficult would it be to replace? I'm hoping I could use screwdrivers, tape, scissors and other such basic tools to perform replacement

mand00ka wrote: I'm hoping I could use screwdrivers, tape, scissors and other such basic tools to perform replacement

All you need is a screwdriver and a HMM:

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 546_04.pdf

Good luck.

Thanks for your comments guys. It turns out the nVidia chipset had failed. I found a service centre that does chip level replacement! the technicians there have offered to replace the faulty nVidia chipset on the motherboard for a reasonable price...will let you know how it goes once I get my laptop back...

mand00ka wrote:Thanks for your comments guys. It turns out the nVidia chipset had failed. I found a service centre that does chip level replacement! the technicians there have offered to replace the faulty nVidia chipset on the motherboard for a reasonable price...will let you know how it goes once I get my laptop back...

If they give you a bad chip, it might just die later