Thinkpad W700ds Diagnostic, No video

[Medessec]

I've received this W700ds which doesn't POST at all, although the indicators flash, similar to if the video card is bad.

The previous owner mentioned he was messing around in the BIOS and changed a setting, which resulted in the machine winding up in this state. It's a fully loaded QX9300 with an FX3700M machine, and it seemed like it would just be an issue that would be resolved with a CMOS reset (pulling the coin battery) or by reseating the RAM, but nothing has worked. I've tried:

-Pulling CMOS battery numerous times, pressing the power button, holding the power button, and leaving the laptop alone for 15-30 min with no charger or battery installed
-Reseating both the CPU and the GPU, and pulling the Wifi Card and Intel Turbo card
-Swapping the QX9300 with a Q9000, and swapping the FX3700M with a FX2700M. Also- the FX2700M is known to work, and the FX3700M was proven to work in another W700. Same with the Q9000 and QX9300
-Swapping the RAM with known functional RAM
-Swapping the display
-Trying the Fn+R procedure with a WINCRIS.EXE formatted 4GB USB flash drive, in FAT file system. I extracted the .wph from the FB1 file and everything. Although annoyingly... the flash drive I have has no LED indicator, and I don't think I have one that does (that can use the FAT file system anyways). So I can't even tell if anything is happening when holding Fn+R.

The laptop has been powered on usually without the palmrest installed, with just a keyboard and the speaker deck. When powered on with the CMOS battery plugged in, it flashes Capslock/Numlock, but Wifi/Bluetooth indicators don't flash. Absolutely no activity on the display, but the fans spin up just fine. No beeps sound at all.

Is the motherboard toast? I might just part the machine out anyways... which would be a huge disappointment. But if you guys can think of anything I might be missing, or another thing worth trying, then that's fine. But I am very reluctant to put money or more time into this thing, especially if there's no certainty it will work.

[brchan]

Do any of the external monitor ports work?

[ajkula66]

No beeps sound at all.

Does it beep 1-3-3-1 when you remove the RAM?

Is the motherboard toast?

If the answer to my previous question is "no", the chances are that it's indeed a door stopper.

Good luck.

[Medessec]

Do any of the external monitor ports work?

DVI out, I tried... but it didn't work. Haven't tried VGA or plugging it into a dock (I do have one).

Does it beep 1-3-3-1 when you remove the RAM?

I hadn't really thought to try that... booting it with all RAM bays empty. I should definitely do that.

But if there is still no activity from the BIOS, just how broken is that? Would a BIOS-chip repair or other BIOS repair option be at all feasible? I probably would consider sending the machine to a member who is familiar with such repairs and has the right equipment... the size of the machine would make it quite pricey to ship though.

[ajkula66]

I hadn't really thought to try that... booting it with all RAM bays empty. I should definitely do that.

Indeed you should and then we'll take it from there...

But if there is still no activity from the BIOS, just how broken is that? Would a BIOS-chip repair or other BIOS repair option be at all feasible? I probably would consider sending the machine to a member who is familiar with such repairs and has the right equipment... the size of the machine would make it quite pricey to ship though.

Presuming that the system ends up NOT beeping with the RAM removed...

I'd question the viability of sending the board for repair since you really don't know what's wrong with it. A bad BIOS flash? Maybe. But we don't know that for a fact. Or anything else, for that matter.

My take would be to either obtain a replacement planar or part the system out depending on a number of things.

Your machine, your call.

Good luck.

[Medessec]

Alright, just fetched it out, removed the RAM and tried booting. It did 1-3-3-1 just fine.

[ajkula66]

Alright, just fetched it out, removed the RAM and tried booting. It did 1-3-3-1 just fine.

OK so the board is not completely dead. Have you tried booting with just one RAM stick moving it around? Checked the USB ports for any shorts?

I'm trying very hard to think of what else one could do to pinpoint the problem before diving into sending it in for a possible repair...

[Medessec]

Odd development... so I've swapped a single 2GB RAM stick between the bays, for some time... it 1-3-3-1'd both with both bays empty, and with one RAM stick in the frontmost bay. The same silent behavior happened with the single RAM stick in the other bay, and with both bays occupied.

Now, however, with the CMOS battery left plugged in and with me powering it on several times now, it just boots with dead silence regardless of what's in the RAM bays. Absolutely baffling... and definitely reminiscent of motherboard damage, or a corrupted BIOS flash. I'm going to unplug the CMOS battery and leave it be for a bit, and see if the same thing happens. But this definitely brings back memories of working on failed D900T motherboards.

[ajkula66]

I know that I'm grasping at straws but...try another CMOS battery.

Good luck.

[Medessec]

I know that I'm grasping at straws but...try another CMOS battery.

Good luck.

This may have very well been the problem!

After I put the Core 2 Duo in it, and the old RAM back in one bay, it seemingly booted up randomly, POSTing and going through the boot sequence just fine. I noticed at this point that the CMOS battery was unplugged, and after glancing at your post on this very topic about trying this... I remembered that it is entirely possible that a bad CMOS battery could be bonking the mobo and preventing a proper boot.

Odd though, because I had booted it numerous times before without the CMOS battery installed, with no response.

Either way, I suppose this is a worthy heads up to other W700 owners and indeed other Thinkpads made around the same time (X200/201, T400/500, W500) with similar symptoms, swap the CMOS battery with a known good one.

[ajkula66]

This may have very well been the problem!

Maybe...or...

After I put the Core 2 Duo in it,

It could've been the CPU as well. I've given away what turned out to be a perfectly healthy T43p board that refused to boot until the new owner swapped the CPU...

[Medessec]

This may have very well been the problem!

Maybe...or...

After I put the Core 2 Duo in it,

It could've been the CPU as well. I've given away what turned out to be a perfectly healthy T43p board that refused to boot until the new owner swapped the CPU...

It very well could be. As I mentioned... the previous owner said he was messing around with the BIOS, which he figured is what caused the BIOS to become unresponsive. I figured it might've been a CPU instructions or stepping config, so I did think at the very beginning that swapping in the T9600 out of my W500 I have on hand (which was fine, because the W500 desperately needed a service) would be worth trying... but another part of my brain figured it'd be a waste of time and that if the W700 was in that kind of trouble, a CMOS reset would've done it.

It's too bad I can't replicate the circumstances and give it another try, I'll have to remember it and make sure to pay close attention when swapping out the CPU. I would be happy knowing that a CPU swap would alleviate a bonked BIOS.

[AdaSch]

in first step, check voltages on MB. maybe some pvm have problem?

[Saucey]

If there is an UltraBay battery, remove it. Had once a problem on a ThinkPad that wouldn't boot for that reason, battery pulled too much juice, didn't POST.