Dead R51 :(

[rotarymike]

Hey all. Sad to announce, my lightly modded R51 died this week - not a great time to do it either, as school has just started. Thankfully I have an old 600X which is a tank

The R51 is the one talked about here http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 67&start=0

I've ordered a T400 from the outlet to replace it, but meanwhile I'd like to know what happened and if anything is salvageable.

At power on, you get the two lights (battery & power) but that's it - no HDD, no screen or backlight, no CD, no fan. Hooked up to external monitor = same. Tried swapping memory with another computer and HDD with another computer, no love. Ideas?

On a similar note, should there be a problem running a wireless card with only the main antenna hooked up? I managed to stuff an antenna in my 600X and I'm using an Intel BG2200 card from a T43 that was at work (and trashed) but it gets a bit warm. I do connect just fine.

MikeH

[rotarymike]

also tried swapping back in my Pentium M 1.5GHz cpu - no change. Nothing smells burnt inside.

[richk]

Probably motherboard, maybe power circuit, but reall hard to diagnose without seeing it.

[ajkula66]

Remove all the RAM and power it on. Does it beep?

[rotarymike]

yes.

1 beep
3 rapid beeps
3 rapid beeps
1 beep

still no backlight. CPU fan is on though (I started it without the top on it)

[rotarymike]

additional info:

tried it with just 1 256MB DIMM I had lying around from a friend's HP. Right speed and spec.

It boots! Or rather, it tries to - I've got the HDD out.

I could swear I not only swapped DIMMs but alternated them. I had 2x 512MB in it. One of those has made it into my wife's T41 to take her to 1GB, and it works fine. WTF?

...ps, please don't mention that I fixed it... I'm typing this on my new T400 and really don't want to send it back!