i1400 2611-451 wont boot

[kurgan]

Hello all. Like it says in the subject , 2611-451 wont boot. I plug it in, charge light comes on (green for a second, then yellow), hit the power switch. The power LED comes on (green) and stays on, the HD LED comes on (kinda blinks or flickers) while I hear some HD activity, then NOTHING. No beeps, no display on external monitor of any kind. I have tried all the "make sure everything is plugged in secure and correctly" options. The machine used to boot up and run, but had no display on LCD. At that time it would work fine on an external CRT. I could wiggle the flat ribbon cable, and the LCD would come on. I ordered a used cable, but got garble on the screen so I bought a brand new one from IBM. To make a long story short, since I replaced the cable I have had the boot issue.
Thanks for any help given,
Justin Payne

[William Lueders]

This will sound strange but I have a 2611-412 and have had similar problems. Most were fixed with a change of CMOS Battery. Do that first.
I put a new LCD into mine some time back and couldnt get it to go either. After much wihning and knashing of teath I bucked up and turned the ribbon cable from the LCD around in the clip it attaches to. Reseated the clip and just generaly (for the umpteenth time) reseated everything I could get to. Fired it up and never looked back. Works fine now.
If you can get into the setup see if you can test all the components. You might find something there.
Good luck, keep us informed.

[kurgan]

Thanks for the info. Was it your cmos battery that fixed it? Could mine have caused this so suddenly? Its like it booted fine before, and after nothing. How exactly did you "turn the ribbon cable around in the clip it attaches to" ? My ribbon cable is flat, and can only be installed one way. Thanks for the help..

Justin Payne

[William Lueders]

My cable was flat also, all are as near as I can tell. On my unit the cable would lie flat in both positions. The already bent sections would comply with either orientation. I couldn't remember which way around was correct as I didn't make notes or pictures when I was taking it all apart. I apparently guessed wrong initially and inverted it. Reversing this corrected the screen not working and the error I was getting on boot up.

The re-seating might have had a bennificial effect also and been part of other issues. The re-seating was most likely responsible for the PCMCIA slots starting to work properly for example.

To correctly check just what did what I would have to make only one change at a time and then try the unit. After noting what worked and what didn't I would have to do it all again with only one more correction or adjustment and then put it all back together again and check. Repeat and repeat until all is repaired. Didn't have that time and wouldn't have the inclination in any case.

Hope that helps.

[William Lueders]

Oh yea! I always start with replacing the CMOS battery for all older equipment that isn't working right. I will always change the CMOS batt in all older TPs just on general principals. They get old, loose their charge or power and can and do cause all sort of problems.

A short reading of various posts here will show that CMOS batteries along with memory problems are the most common and hardest to noodle out problems that can crop up. Not always, but often enough to just start there and get these issues out of the way.

Cheers!

[kurgan]

I tested the cmos battery, and it had 2.8volts. I have tried removing, and reinstalling the memory several times. I have tried memory sticks that are known to be good. I hate to say it, but my gut is telling me that it's the mainboard or the processor. I've got a couple of sources for the mainboard, and if everything works out i'll get one to try. I'm really not sure what else it could be.

[kurgan]

UPDATE
I replace the mainboard yesterday, and it works ..... well almost . I have a different problem now. I can once again boot to a crt just fine. When I boot the machine by itself the LCD backlight flickers. I can see the thinkpad logo on the screen when the backlight is off if I look closely. Any ideas? Inverter perhaps?

[immortalsoule]

Having owned 2 of these thinkpads and realizing they are not all made the same, i tried a few tricks.

I did a LCD transplant and it worked for two weeks. Then, one day, i was working and turned it off and then back on and blam, no display.

So, like a good little techie, i began taking it apart:

First: The strip for turning the power on and off.
Second: The keyboard.

And this is when something WIERD happened. As i were pushing back the tab that held the keyboard....it turned on by it's self and displayed.

Of course, my first thought was "WTF is going on" because they don't just do this (and i probably never would have discovered it if i had not left the battery in).

But then, when i reseated the hard drive (because i was checking the CD player display (it was displaying an "SS" and not working correctly and found it was only half-plugged in (someone else must have had similar problems.

Well, to make a long story short, when i turned it back on...of course, no display.

But there was something i did notice during all of this: When the LCD doesn't display right, the hard drive led doesn't light up either so it's either something in the ribbon cable or the 2 pieces that seat on the main-board when you hook it up.

If it's the cable, then i'm screwed.

What i don't get is, i tried everything you guys had mentioned and it didn't spark anything and somehow i "accidentally" got it to work once? Could this be a short in one of the switches where it goes into sleep mode or something scarier?

I just don't get it, it's not very consistant.