T61p Will Not Boot

[berutten]

Hi, I seem to be having a problem similar to http://www.thinkpads.com/forum/viewtopi ... n+no+beeps

but I just wanted to see if there was anything I was missing before I consign my laptop to the graveyard.

My laptop was in sleep yesterday, I hit the function key to wake it up, and nothing seemed to happen - the sleep light was still there. So I just rebooted, and of course, now things are much worse. I get no beeps, no LCD, and no POST. I get a power light, the fan briefly spins on, as does the HD, but otherwise, nothing. If I leave it for a couple of minutes, the fans start up again and I can feel a little heat coming from the CPU.

I've opened her up, removed the power, the BIOS battery and HD, which does not seem to help. When I remove the RAM, however, I do get the expected 1-3-3-1 beeps. I have two dimms and anytime I get put either of them in ( by themselves), I get this dead behavior (no beeps). I've also done the power button 10 times.

I guess it is possible that both DIMMS got fried somehow, and once I can get a hold of some other RAM, I intend to try that. That does seem unlikely though. It seems to me the motherboard is not completely dead, as it can detect the lack of RAM. But otherwise, does anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks!

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the Forum.
After reading that other post, did you try to reseat the keyboard, or have you got another one?
Have you let it sit (as suggested)?

[berutten]

Welcome to the Forum.
After reading that other post, did you try to reseat the keyboard, or have you got another one?
Have you let it sit (as suggested)?

I have reseated the keyboard, but I don't have another one, and I'm not aware of a way to turn the computer on without the keyboard . I guess you never know, but it does seem unlikely that the keyboard would be the cause of these types of problems, right? I would think lenovo would design it so there's only so much havoc a bad keyboard could cause.

It sat overnight with no power. I tried it again this morning but there was no change. I can't afford to let it sit too long, I have a big work deadline on friday and I need something working!

Also let the record note that this occurred 5 days after my warranty expired

[richk]

Can you try an external monitor?

[berutten]

Can you try an external monitor?

Just tried it, don't seem to get anything on the screen. Also just swapped in some old RAM I had, and there is no change.

It seems that there is a common problem on the lenovo forums of one long beep, 2 shorts that has been attributed to the nVidia card. My problem sounds similar, and I've had problems with the gfx card for a while, but not sure its the same.

[richk]

I would call ibm support. If you tell them it died 5 days after warranty, they might do sometyhing, like let you extend the warranty

[berutten]

Sure, I can give that a try, though I am not that hopeful.

In any case, I strongly suspect the video card went bust, since it has been cooking my laptop for a while. Is there any way to definitely confirm that? Or is process of elimination the only way to prove that? (ie, beeps with no RAM, heat from CPU...)

Thanks!

[richk]

I'm not hopeful either, but the call is free. I would also unplug everything (wireless, modem, hard drive, optical, turbo memory, battery) and try