T43 2687-D4U starts up to blank screen

[hardie13]

My Thinkpad T43 will only boot up to a black screen. Before I tear apart the computer I'm trying to pinpoint what may be the problem. The power light and the battery light are both lit after starting the computer, and you can hear the fan running on the computer and what sounds like the computer booting up. About 1 min later there are a few beeps and then still nothing on the screen. Any help or adivce would be greatly appreciated. Thank you ahead of time!

[ZaZ]

Does it work on an external screen?

[hardie13]

I've attached an external monitor and tried to toggle it with Fn+F7 and nothing happens

[hardie13]

After about a minute, the computer gives one long beep followed by two short ones.

[RealBlackStuff]

Bad news, looks like your motherboard needs to be replaced:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 46018.html

[ajkula66]

Pull out all the RAM, turn the machine on and see whether the beep sequence changes.

Good luck and let us know.

[hardie13]

I have taken out the DIMM located under the keyboard, and now I get a long beep, 3 short beeps, pause, 3 short beeps. Is this a bad system board? And if so are there any options without have to replace the whole motherboard?

[ajkula66]

OK, the board is not completely dead...what I would do next is to disconnect the LCD from the motherboard, and then try to boot to an external monitor, switching RAM between both slots.

[hardie13]

I tried the RAM in both slots, I no longer get the beeps in the beginning as I did before but I am still getting no display on either the CRT or the built in LCD

[hardie13]

Sorry I forgot to add that I also took out the LCD and tried to just use an external monitor and hit fn+f7, still nothing. No beeps either.

[ajkula66]

The last but not least...power the machine on when connected to an external monitor and mildly press on the GPU while attempting the boot...the keyboard will have to be off, but connected for this one...

Good luck.

[hardie13]

After all of this talk I would hate to sound stupid but here goes, where is the GPU located on the motherboard for the T43?

[ajkula66]

Once you remove the keyboard, you should be able to see it, it's a square chip that says "ATi" on it

[hardie13]

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T43

I found pictures on here, but I still cannot find the GPU on my laptop, do I need to take out the touchpad and everything, or should I be able to access it under the keyboard? Nothing that I can see says ATi, and the spot I think it should be in has a big copper looking thing on it. Thanks in advance for all of your help!

[ajkula66]

My mistake, forgot about the long fan, just press on the far right portion of the fan that covers the GPU...