Thinkpads Forum

I recently bought a second hand IBM Thinkpad 600x which was working perfect until I tried to upgrade and put in pc133 instead of pc100 ram. Now when I turn on machine I get 1 long beep and then 1 short beep and then the machine switches off.

I have removed the pc133 and put in fully working tested pc100 but still get the same beeps.

I have done some research on the net and the beeps seems to indicate I have broken the motherboard because of the ram.

I have tried resetting bios by pressing the reset pin hole near the power button and even tried removing motherboard battery but still get same beeps.

Is my laptop dead. Will I have to strip and sell parts on ebay.

Please help me. I build pc's in my free time but do not have alot of knowledge with laptops.

Cheers Lee

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

I just checked my copy of the Hardware Maintenance Manual and there is no mention of a one long, one short beep error code. In doing so, it triggered a recent memory, so I searched the archives and found this:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=35270

Installing a properly working PC133 memory into the system should not have damaged it. If, however, there was a short on the memory module, it could have caused a power problem on the motherboard.

Thanks for reply but I have tried pressing the logo and still get the beeps but I agree it could of been a short or something. The clips that hold in the ram have come away from the board. Looks like they were soldered to the board at some point and was wondering if this would make a difference but have tried running with both ram slots empty so that it just uses the 64mb internal ram but still get the beeps. How do you strip these machines? Has anyone done a picture step by step guide.

Cheers Lee

The Hardware Maintenance Manual that I was talking about in my first post contains all of the information you need to "field-strip" the laptop. A copy in Adobe Acrobat format can be downloaded directly from Lenovo/IBM at this link:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... DGNTQ.html

The two clips that hold in the memory modules are very critical to maintaining the proper electrical contacts. If one of them is missing it can allow the module to "pop-up" slightly and lose the connection. While this should not do any harm to the motherboard, it will make the system unstable in operation.

Did you try running the laptop on AC with no battery (not cmos) installed?