Interesting Thinkpad 770 - No video

[Medessec]

I recently picked up this 770 from someone who said they got it out of a storage bin they bought. Always sketchy buys, since there's no history or description on the thing.

But after getting it, the thing looked pretty solid. It's in decent condition, aside from some marks, gashes on the top lid, and there is one point where it's worn all the way through. But-it's in much better condition than any other 770 I've seen. The Pentium and Windows NT/95 sticker are on there as well, and both look pretty good. Not worn off, or rubbed a lot. The trackpoint is in the worst shape, but hey. Never a shortage of those. There is a Hard Drive, the caddy shows 4GB. The 770 itself is a type 9548, so I assume it's got the 200 MHz Pentium CPU. The PC card slots contained an Ethernet card and 56k modem, and it looks like the original modem had been removed. The Ultrabay contains a DVD-ROM drive, and looking in the RAM bays, there is RAM installed, and it does look like the original RAM. All the ports and fan don't seem to have a lot of dust, so it looks like this 770 has seen very little use.

I don't have any further stats, because plugging it in, and then trying to power it on, the indicators on the calculator-style LCD panel and lights flash, and you hear the "crack" from the speakers and the fan spin up, but then nothing. No video, no beeps. Turning it off powers it off instantly, so I assume it isn't loading Windows.

Taking the Hard Drive out of the caddy and hooking it up to my USB adapter shows the drive to spin up perfectly fine, and it appears to have an install of Windows 98 on it.

What's particularly interesting though is this white sticker on the bottom of the 770, next to the RAM hatch - It says:

"This system unit has been assembled in the United States using authorized componentry to the referenced solution type model under the IBM Authorized assembler program."

Then some numbers and schtuffs I'm too lazy to glance, type, glance, type. Dunno if that means anything important, but I just thought I'd note it.

Is there any common issue or solution to this failure to boot properly? I'd really like to see this 770 working, i'd hate for it to be an absolute dud.

[Neil]

So you never see anything at all on the display?

I have three or four 770 models around here, and only one of them has a working display. The inverters have failed on all the others. Don't know about anyone else, but in my experience with this particular model, the inverters are much weaker and more likely to fail that even the aging CCFL. That could be the case with yours.

Have you tried connecting an external monitor?

[Medessec]

Ah. I have attempted to connect to an external-still nothing. The laptop doesn't post any display.

It just seems like a video issue... but wouldn't I hear beeps then? I find it odd that the computer doesn't beep, or nothing is indicated to show that the laptop isn't functioning properly. The fan just spins up, the "powered on" indicator remains on solid, then nothing.

[rkawakami]

Download a copy of the HMM and go to the "No Beep Symptoms" section: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... FAN-3TSMGJ

[Medessec]

Oh my goodness... wow. After reading your post rkawakami- The manual showed that no beeps and no video, but power indicator on meant one of two issues- I needed to reseat the CPU board, or there was an issue with the system board. Yeay.

If the issue was the CPU board needing reseating... wow. Because, I've taken apart a 770 before, and I know that the CPU is in the very bottom of where you need to get opening up the keyboard-you basically have to take the whole darn thing apart just to get to it. But, I did it. And as I've said, I've taken apart a 770 before, so I'm pretty certain I didn't mess anything up, or forget anything on the "way out" (reassembling it).

I plug it in, flip the switch, and the laptop roars to life, with video and POST. And the typical 161, 163 errors (CMOS checksum bad, needs maor CMOS battery) show, but overall, i'm pretty satisfied. I got this thing to work! And i'll have to get another CMOS battery, and other stuff. But it looks like this is a perfectly good 770!

[mnowell69]

congratulations. I love the 770 serious, having 3 of them myself.

[Medessec]

Just an update-I have XP on the machine, and all the hardware is working brilliantly. Yes, XP's a bit slow on the standard 770s, but I kinda like being able to plug my flash drives in and not having to poke the driver myself.

SP2 is as new as I'll go though-SP3 really likes to slow down old hardware even more.