ThinkPad X61 Laptop, no display, fan spins, power lights on.

[BXian]

My laptop displays nothing at all after I press the power button. The day before I was installing drivers and updated the BIOS, which froze during flashing. I found out later it kept freezing due the the hard-drive shock detection being on 'high'. However it still worked that night and even restarted several times for updates after that.

- The power lights come on.
- The fan spins, stops, spins (doesn't spin constantly)
- Beeps if I remove the RAM, else no beeps.
- Connected to an external monitor I get something like "no RGB signal".
- I've tried it on just battery, just AC power, and both.

I don't have much hope for this, I'm just posting incase anyone can tell me what's gone wrong.

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Basic troubleshooting procedure (of which, you have already done a few things):
- Remove all practical hardware from the system; memory, hard drive, MiniPCI, USB devices, battery, etc.
- Powered by a known good AC adapter (measured voltage at plug or verified working with another Thinkpad), power up and see if you get the 1-3-3-1 beep sequence. If so, then the motherboard is mostly working. If no beeps at all, but LEDs are lit, then most likely the motherboard is dead.
- Add ONE memory module; re-boot. If system still beeps 1-3-3-1 (or some other code), move module to the other memory slot and try again.
- If that module beeps in either slot, try another (known good) module.
- If system appears to boot (no beeps) with a memory module but the screen is still not lighting up (i.e., no "splash" screen), attach an external monitor and re-boot.
- Force the system into the BIOS menu by holding down the F1 key after turning on. After about 5 seconds, and with the external monitor connected, press the Fn+F7 key combination to activate the external VGA port. Most of the time you must do this in order for the video signal to be output via the VGA port. Successive pressing of the Fn+F7 key combination should cycle between the LCD and the external monitor.
- If no video activity is seen on either display, then that points to a motherboard problem.
- If there is video on the external monitor but not on the LCD, then it could be a couple of issues: a) bad inverter (backlight will not turn on but if you shine a flashlight on the display, you might be able to see a ghostly image; b) bad backlight (aka, CCFL); c) bad or disconnected LCD cable; d) blown fuse on the motherboard.
- If there's video on both the external monitor and LCD, in other words, the system is working normally, then start installing ONE piece of hardware at a time and re-booting to see if the laptop still functions.
- If the problem returns, then the last piece of hardware is suspect.

As you probably know, a system freeze during a flash operation or interrupting it before it's done can lead to major problems. That the system continued to work after that for some time, hopefully means that the BIOS update was done correctly. Do you know exactly what those "updates" were before the system started acting up?

[BXian]

I went down the list...

There are no beeps if either of the RAM sticks are used in the right-hand slot. Beeps if there is a single RAM stick in the left slot and no beeps if they are both used. I guess there's a correct order to inserting them?

I couldn't get a display to show on any monitor trying the key combinations, I tried two external monitors.

I also tried using the harddrive as the only HDD on another system and there was no video output, however it did work as a secondary.

[rkawakami]

Ah, yes, sorry. The X61 requires that if you only have one memory module, it needs to be installed on the slot on the right; as viewed from the underside with the docking port and battery closest to you. Most of the older Thinkpads I deal with don't have this restriction.

From the sound of it, it looks like that there's some problem with the motherboard. Maybe somebody else here will have some other suggestions.

[RealBlackStuff]

I can only think of a failed BIOS flash.
If that's the case you have two options:
- replace the BIOS chip, or
- replace the motherboard
The latter is easier IMHO, but will cost more.