Thinkpads Forum

I've got a T61 6459-CTO. When I turn it on, the fan spins, and within 15 seconds shuts down. Nothing comes up on the screen - no post, nothing. No sound either. There are lights, including keyboard, but they also shut off and leave me with just the power light after it shuts down. An external VGA display gave me nothing, either through the laptop's VGA connector nor through the dock, after I connected the laptop there.

I changed the memory module from PC2-5300S to PC2-6400S and for two or three times that I turned the machine on, I got a beep code that I can't find anywhere: 1-4-3-4. All short beeps. After that, I've never gotten it again. I detached the LCD and tried it on another T61, where it works fine. I took off the keyboard & trackpad in addition, and tried again on the dock, with the external VGA. Nothing but that 10-15 seconds of spinning fan. The fan is completely blown out, so it's pretty clean.

So, what was the beep code, if anyone knows, and am I to conclude this MoBo is RIP? Thanks in advance!

No clue on that beep code, but the story does sound like a board problem.

What happens if you power the system with no RAM installed ? Does it beep 1-3-3-1 ?

Very good idea, and yes, I do get the 1-3-3-1. It's continuing to beep even as the fan is spinning down, so the mobo is still active even as the fan is stopping. Hm. Odd.

I had a T61 that did this.

I couldn't figure out was caused it, and ended up picking up a replacement board for ~20 USD on eBay (it was a 14 widescreen system). My best bet as to what caused it is either the RAM sockets have gone bad, or there is some connectivity issue between parts of the board somewhere else. It couldn't have been the nVidia GPU failure as it was a GMA board.