R52 boot problems.

[temperamental]

Have an R52, Model1859....Used it last night, and when I tried to power it up this morning "nothing"...To make a long story short, I finally was able to get power to the unit, but that was about it.(took the battery out, drained the charge from the motherboard, and connected the external power cable.)

When I turn on my R52, the function lights "light", then go out except for the power light, and "nothing", just a black screen...You can hear the fan spinning, but there is no indication that the Thinkpad is even attempting to boot....In other words, I don't get anything on the screen at all.

I have reseated the RAM, the Hard Drive, but it repeatedly does the same thing when I try to restart it....lights blink, power light stays illuminated, fan is running, and that's it. The other lights don't even blink...Just the power light stays on

No beeping, sounds, or anything...not even an attempt.

Running Windows XP.

I know that the power adapter, and the battery is in great condition.(have spares)...Can I somehow manually reset the Thinkpad to default settings and maybe that would help the booting process.

Never had a bit of trouble with the unit before this.

Could it be a virus causing this ?

ANY help would be appreciated.

[rkawakami]

Belated welcome to thinkpads.com! (lurking over a year since registering ??? )

Last question first... does not sound like a virus / malware to me.

Lack of display / apparent power problems can be caused by several things. Here's some suggestions to hopefully narrow it down:

- Pull the hard drive, the MiniPCI card (under keyboard) and all memory modules (under keyboard and bottom panel).
- Boot the system. Does it beep in a sequence of 1-3-3-1? If no beeps, toss the motherboard. If you do get that code, then your motherboard is mostly alive. Continue on...
- Shut the system off. Install one memory module. Boot the system and immediately press the F1 key several times (to access the BIOS). If you still get a 1-3-3-1 beep code it means that the module (or memory slot) is defective. Try another module or move it to the other slot.
- If you get something other than the 1-3-3-1 beep sequence, note what it is and consult the Hardware Maintenance Manual.
- Assuming no beeps are received when booting, do you now see the normal "splash" screen followed by the BIOS menu? If so, I'd be willing to bet that the problem is a bad MiniPCI card.
- If still no display on the LCD, attach an external monitor and see if there's any activity there. You probably will have to do an Fn+F7 key combination to activate the VGA port. Successive keypresses of Fn+F7 will cycle the active display between the LCD and external port. If you do see a normal BIOS screen on the external monitor but nothing on the LCD, then the problem could be a bad backlight (aka, CCFL), a bad inverter board, a stuck lid switch, a blown fuse on the motherboard, or some other motherboard issue.
- If no activity on the external monitor either, then it sounds like there's a power problem on the motherboard. My advice would be to replace it unless you have the time, patience and skill needed to troubleshoot component level defects and the ability to swap out tiny surface mounted parts.

[temperamental]

Why thank you R...Don't like to post until I really run out of "tries", and this was the case here, soooo

Did what you suggested and then got the mentioned beeps.(mini PC card, hard drive, memory taken out).1-3-3-1.

I then put a known good memory module into the "main" slot, powered up the computer, and nothing changed except the beeps were gone...Did this a few times, and never got the 1-3-3-1 again...The screen was still black and didn't even attempt to boot...no welcome screen, flash of a display, nothing.

I then hooked it up to an external monitor, turned it on and off several times, hit the fn+f7 key numerous times-nothing..no blip, no flash, nothing..(I have another thinkpad (R51), hooked that one up to the external monitor and it worked fine on the display.

Like I had said before, it just seems like a big disconnect...The fan goes on, and the power lights just stay lit...I even attempted to illuminate the external light (top of the screen) and nothing there also.

If I do get a used motherboard for this R52, will any R52 work, or does it have to be a model 1859?

Thanks so much for you help. it is really appreciated.

Just for a second though!...I noticed that the bottom of the laptop seemed to be hotter than normal...thought it was my imagination....maybe not.