R61 won't boot, fan not spinning, blank screen

[slname]

My R61 won't boot. It turns on, the power and battery leds are on, HDD led turns on for a short bit (removing HDD didn't do anything). I can open the DVD drive successfully.
It seems that the CPU fan is not spinning and the screen stays blank, even on external monitor.

Any ideas?

edit: I blew the fan with some canned air a couple of times - some dust went out but it's still not spinning. I tried removing RAM and got the 1-3-3-1 beep when both RAM boards were out.

[rkawakami]

If you are sure that the external monitor is not working (connecting it before booting the R61 and then using the Fn+F7 key combination to activate the external VGA port), then try the following:

Take out all of the memory, the DVD drive and all of the other easily removable hardware (MiniPCI, communication daughter card, PCMCIA card, ExpressCard, any connected USB device, etc.) and see if you get the missing memory beep code: 1-3-3-1. If so, that means that the motherboard is generally working like it should; however it still does not totally eliminate the motherboard as the problem. If you do NOT get the 1-3-3-1 beep code, then there's something wrong with the motherboard.

Assuming you do get the proper beep code with no memory, install ONE memory module and see if the system boots. If it doesn't, then move the module to the other memory slot and boot again. If that module doesn't work in either slot, try another memory module. What you should discover from this process is whether or not your modules are good or if you have a system (motherboard) problem.

Again, assuming that the system boots with at least one memory module installed, continue by re-installing ONE piece of hardware until the problem re-appears. If/when the boot problem comes back, the last piece of hardware you installed is causing the problem.

The fan not spinning could mean that the fan itself is bad or that power to the fan is missing.

[slname]

As I said, I get the 1-3-3-1 error, so it seems it's not a motherboard problem.

I opened up the laptop a bit, the fan is definitely not spinning when I turn the computer on. I don't think it's a faulty device (ie WiFi card or something like that), my guess is it's a CPU or fan power problem.

[slname]

Ok it now seems that the fan is in fact spinning (very quietly though )

I'm still having a blank screen (both with and without an external display). The HDD led lits up only on power on, after that only the power and the battery/plug leds are on.

[rkawakami]

<snip> I don't think it's a faulty device (ie WiFi card or something like that), my guess is it's a CPU or fan power problem.

That may indeed be true, but while it may not apply to an R61, I've personally seen several T2x systems that would not boot because of a bad MiniPCI card. It only takes a few minutes to remove those cards and it would eliminate them as being the source of the problem. Put another way, are you prepared to spend the money to replace the motherboad (or junk the system) when the cause could simply be a bad MiniPCIExpress wireless card?

[slname]

you've got a point there, I'll take a look at it before taking it in for repair work. thanks.

[slname]

ok so I got the laptop back, and the MBO is bad (I guess it's the graphics chip). repair work and new motherboard would cost me about 400$ so that's out of the question.

I was thinking of completely disassembling the whole laptop, is there anything I could try and do to try and fix it? I've seen some videos of people blowing hot air on their T2x (or something like that) motherboards...

[RealBlackStuff]

Here's your answer: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=89409
You could try and contact Nick Paton (poshgeordie) to repair your mobo, a lot cheaper than $400.-!

[mangel_ajo]

Hi!,

We had the same problem here, but finally, we discovered that the problem was the DDR2 module (2GB), we switched it with other one we had around and it started working.

The system gave no beeps when the module was connected, but beeped with unconnected module, with the new one it's ok.

I hope this could help others.