Thinkpads Forum

It posts. Or, does whatever the IBM bios does. Displays the IBM logo, and the 196mb of memory okey, then the thinkpad logo. Then it dies. Followed by 3 very rapid beeps.

The thing is, this problem is totaly intermitant, which leads me to believe it's a hardware fault. If you give it a couple of shakes, it seems to be okey, although I dont know what it is that I am shaking in order to make it okey.

That's about as much information that I can give you, if you need to know anything else please just post back.

This is doing my head in, many thanks in advance.

Try removing the RAM and reboot. Then try removing each "accessory" one at the time until you figure out what the problem is. (ie. battery, CD-Rom, etc.)

You could also read through the HMM:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mo ... 9n1033.pdf

Look for the "Beep Symptoms Table", since they don't list 3 rapid beeps. You might be able to determine which one might be the problem, seeing the possible scenarios.

The thinkpads I've worked on will "boot" to an error screen with all the plug in stuff removed---the hard drive, the floppy, extra memory.

So pull all that out to eliminate it as a factor.

Try booting first with only the battery in, and then pull the battery and try booting with only the power supply, see if that makes a differance.


Now, with all the drives, etc, out, you can tap here and there to try and narrow the area down.

I would be highly suspect of the power connector, and the spring terminals for the battery.

Have you downloaded the hardware manual?


As a last resort, get the hardware manual displayed, pull the thing apart, and look for loose connectors, etc, possibly even loose screws or screws that have shook out. I would tear the thing clear down, carefully following the manual, and reseat each and every connector more than once, to "wipe" any corrosion.


Of course, as with any electrical device, it's always possible that some component failed.

OK, I had the same issue and was receiving the same error on my wifes 600x. I looked up the error code and saw that it said battery. I just replaced the battery so I was a little upset to think the battery had died on me. Thought about the hard drive, but that didn't make since to me, try to boot to CD or A disk, nothing. Searched the forums for some help and after some frustration, I happened to look down and notice that the light on the power strip was off.

Her stupid dog likes to lay down under her desk and stepped on the trip switch and popped the breaker. Her battery just ran down to empty. I knew this trusty IBM which has beeen running without trouble for almost 6 years would not let me down.

I failed to do the basic of all troubleshooting. Check the fricking power.

Brian