ThinkPad T43 will not go past IBM Think Pad screen

[haggin]

My Thinkpad was working fine but now when I boot it up, it will not go past the IBM ThinkPad screen. I have:

- pressed the blue ACCESS button, nothing.
- pressed F1 and delete - nothing
- pressed F11 - nothing
- tried to load up another OS - Linux - nothing

I also checked all other related threads here and did what they suggested. No luck. Love this computer but since I can buy another on ebay for less than $60, I am not going to kill myself for much longer trying to get this one going again.

Any quick advice will be much appreciated.

[Neil]

Hi haggin and welcome to the forum!

Looks like the most likely suspect would be a failed RAM module. Try this...if you have modules in both RAM slots, remove one of them and try to boot. Then replace it with the other one. Using each, one at the time, should help identify which module has failed. It's also possible that one of the RAM slots has failed (but less likely), so you may want to try each RAM slot, one at the time, just to make sure.

[Kasm279]

A failed hard drive (or maybe optical drive as well) can cause POST to hang. If memory doesn't solve the issue, try pulling the hard drive.

[RealBlackStuff]

Not to mention a failing GPU (if ATI) or a failing Southbridge (most likely candidate).

[haggin]

Not to mention a failing GPU (if ATI) or a failing Southbridge (most likely candidate).

Guys, thanks for all of the help and advice. What is a GPU and what is a Southbridge? Are those really bad? As you can tell, I am not really computer savvy like you all.

[Cigarguy]

Not to mention a failing GPU (if ATI) or a failing Southbridge (most likely candidate).

Guys, thanks for all of the help and advice. What is a GPU and what is a Southbridge? Are those really bad? As you can tell, I am not really computer savvy like you all.

GPU is the graphics processing unit, on these machines it's typically on a separate chip. The Southbridge, is the chip responsible for controlling I/O (input/output, USB, memory, etc). On this generation (T4x) the laptop frame is know to flex, thus flexing the motherboard which in turn can damage the GPU/Southbridge. This is commonly caused by lifting the laptop by one hand on the left or right corner.

When this happens, it's not worth trying to fix it as T4x series laptops are cheap these days. Beyond that T4x laptops with their single core CPUs and 2 GB RAM have a difficult time running any modern OS. As nice as the Flexview screens are, it's time to look at the T60 or newer.