W540 Will Not Start

[TryItOnce]

My W540 with Windows 10 will not start/boot.

It was working fine in the morning when I checked email, then shut it off. Later that night when I turned it on, the keyboard backlight came on briefly, which is normal, but then it stopped on the "ThinkPad" screen, and the light in the Fn button stayed on.

No hardware or software changes were made.

I have tries starting it on external power only, and battery only, no difference. Unplugged and left the battery out for awhile, then tried again, no help.

When holding F2 during power on, it stops on the "ThinkPad" screen, and "Entering Startup" is also displayed,but nothing else happens.

When holding Enter and F8 during power on, it beeps once then stops at "ThinkPad" and "Launching the Startup Interrupt Menu".

I have searched the forum, but have not found an answer to why it is doing this, or how to fix it.

Any ideas wold be appreciated.

[Brad]

Sorry you are having trouble.

If you haven't already I would disconnect all USB connections then try again.

Brad

[TryItOnce]

Thanks for the reply.

Nothing is connected to any USB port, and they all have been checked for damage.

[Brad]

Sorry to say it sounds like the motherboard has failed.

Brad

[w0qj]

Just bouncing ideas around before you actually go out and replace your suspected motherboard failure...

1. Try opening up computer to take out and re-seat all your RAM modules?

2. Take out your HDD/SSD and re-seat all of them.

3. ***How do we know that it is a motherboard failure, and not a HDD/SSD failure?

[TryItOnce]

Disconnected and reconnected CMOS battery, no change.

Took out SSD, when powered on, nothing happened, no display, no sounds, nothing but green power light out. When SSD reinstalled, stopped at Thinkvantage screen as before, but after a few minutes the display changed. Several horizontal lines appeared on the screen, rolling up and down. Let it do this for a few minutes, then rebooted. Display stayed dark


Took out all 4 RAM modules, and replaced one at a time. Nothing changed.

Now when the power on button is pressed, nothing appears upon the screen. The fan runs, and the bottom left area gets warm, but nothing else happens.

What else can I try?

[axur-delmeria]

Just a question:

Did you do all of that without disconnecting all power sources (charger and batteries)?

[TryItOnce]

The battery and power cord were removed when I disconnected and reconnected the CMOS battery.

The CMOS battery was left connected when I took out the SSD and RAM, but the battery was out. Put the battery back in to try to start.

[axur-delmeria]

Did you try powering up the laptop without any ram installed?

[TryItOnce]

No, only tried with one of four at a a time.

Will try no RAM at all tonight

Thanks for the help!

P.S. I could not find any reference to which RAM slot(s) should be used if not all 4 full. Does it matter which ones are used and unused?

[RealBlackStuff]

Not 100% sure but I think it's this:
if using only one pair (or 2 different pairs): 1 on bottom, left slot + 1 under keyboard, upper slot
the other pair: 1 on bottom, right slot + 1 under keyboard, lower slot

Hunting around, I found this: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P ... a-p/249257
Same for W510/W520/W530/W540/W541

[TryItOnce]

Tried with no RAM installed.

When the power button is pressed, the keyboard lights up briefly.

The screen stays completely dark.

After awhile the bottom near the upper left, below the ESC key, gets warm, but nothing else happens.

[TryItOnce]

Not 100% sure but I think it's this:
if using only one pair (or 2 different pairs): 1 on bottom, left slot + 1 under keyboard, upper slot
the other pair: 1 on bottom, right slot + 1 under keyboard, lower slot

Hunting around, I found this: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P ... a-p/249257
Same for W510/W520/W530/W540/W541

Thanks for the information on the RAM.

The 540 seems to have a different layout, all the RAM is accessed from the bottom, and the RAM is set up two towards the top, and two towards the bottom.