R51 Beeping at Startup

[atct86]

Hi -

My R51 is beeping at startup, and just sits at a black screen, and does nothing.

Does anyone have any idea what is causing this?

[tfflivemb2]

Is it a continual beep, or is there a pattern? (ie. 1 long, 3 short, 3 short, 1 long)

Also, was it an R41? I hadn't heard of that one before.

[atct86]

Sorry its an R51, and i fixed it. It seems to beep when a 512mb stick of memory is in. When its out it works fine.

Could the memory be deaD?

[Fiish]

Since you don't have problems after removing said memory module, that's likely to be the cause of your problems. In which case the beeps would have been due to memory fault.

[Kendas]

Possible bad memory but... DON'T throw it out yet...

If the memory is not compatible it can lock all memory out on the ThinkPads. This will then generate the blank screen and beeping (beep pattern is not listed in the troubleshooting manuals for "no memory").

Make sure that the 512 memory type is listed for the R51. This includes speed, parity, edo, non edo, etc...

Most sites that sell memory (PNY, Kingston, AllMemoryUpgrades, etc.) have memory finders that will help determine what type is compatible with the different PCs.