Thinkpads Forum

I have a a31p which will not boot. I get one beep, then three beeps then another three beeps and then a binal beep and lights flicker but then nothing. Initially the bios would come up indicating the date was incorrect. The computer would boot after the date was changed, until finally the CMOS would not come up. I replaced the cmos battery but to no avail.
Any ideas?
Yours truly
rmplayer

According to HMM, it's the DIMM or system board. You likely have one bad RAM slot.

Try swapping your RAM around.

Good luck.

Thanks, Both RAM chips will work alone but now the Windows screen comes up and hangs or allows the F1 or F12 keys to function only to find that they both hang. I had thought the BIOS might be corrupted. I wonder if the BIOS chip can be changed or upgraded or if I will need a new motherboard.

BIOS chip can't be changed or upgraded.

You obviously do have one bad slot...

Try removing your mini-PCI card (if there's one installed), your hard and media drives, and your battery and then start the machine using just the AC adapter. See if it still hangs then...

Report back the findings.

Good luck.

I removed the pc card, the dvd and floppy drives. battery, and hard drive. Yesterday the Windows 2000 window would occasionally appear, today nN\othing comes up anymore.

My assumption is that your GPU has started detaching itself from the rest of the board.

Have you tried hooking it up to an external monitor?

I haven't tried the external monitor yet but will tonight. There may be a problem since I can't get into the CMOS and am unsure if the settings need to be changed for the external monitor vs the laptop monitor. Are you familiar with the 1get39ww bios?

Fn+F7 should take care of that...when you turn the machine on.

Hello Bill,
I tried the external monitor and it worked twice showing the Widows 2000 screen, though the keyboard would not respond to either F1 or F12. Now neither the laptop monitor or the external monitor will come up. It is tempormental that way and will usually beep on the second attempt unless you move the DIMM. Is there a timer of some sort or what do you suspect is malfunctioning?

You have a motherboard problem.

It may be that the bad DIMM slot is affecting the operation of the entire machine, or that the GPU has started detaching itself.

Your A31p needs professional help.

Likely a new motherboard.

Good luck.

Hello Bill.
I was wondering, what is a GPU?

Bill...

GPU is your graphic card