R32 Boot Problem

[embguy]

My friend gave me his old ThinkPad R32. But it does not boot.
It does not display anything on screen. Not even the IBM logo.
It does not beep. Hitting F1 or F2 does not go to BIOS

1. When I took out the RAM, it beeps 1-3-3-1 as follows:
Beep, long silence
Beep, Beep, Beep, long silence
Beep, Beep, Beep, long silence
Beep
Nothing afterward.
It does not beep if the RAM is installed. I assume the beep code is related to the missing RAM. Anyone can confirm this?

2. I put my ear around the F1 key area and turns on the laptop. I can hear the fan running. It sounds like the fan slow down after the initial surge of 1 or 2 seconds. Anyone can confirm that this is normal!

3. I connect the laptop to an external monitor. It does not have
anything on the monitor. Do I have to hit any key to switch to the external monitor?

My interpretation of my test result:
The CPU is okey because I hear the beeps.

Any suggestion on how I go about to trouble shooting the problem. TIA

[JHEM]

Change the CMOS battery.

It's under the keyboard, download the Hardware Maintenance Manual from IBM/Lenovo.

Regards,

James

[embguy]

James,
Last week, I took out the CMOS battery and measured the voltage with a multi-meter. It was over 3V if I remember correctly. But I will go get a replacement battery next few days to try it.

My friend told me that about one year ago, this R32 freezes randomly. He took out the hard drive, memory and dvd drive and used them in another laptop. The R32 was in storage until now. Before he put away this laptop, this laptop booted up okey.

At this point, I do not have the hard disk on this laptop. It has a 128M memory. I am happy if it powers up to BIOS. Then, I put in the missing components.
Paul

[JHEM]

Have you tried BOOTing it without the primary battery installed?

Please update your profile with your location.

Regards,

James

[embguy]

James,
Yes, I tried to boot it with the AC alone. It makes no different.

Paul
PS: Profile updated