T60 won't boot

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marc_with_a_c · #1 Post by **marc_with_a_c** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:32 pm

My T60 will not boot at all. If you hit power some of the indicator flash initially but then the only thing that stays on is just the external power light and the power indicator light. I tried removing the battery and just booting it with the external power. I cannot seem to get it to post at all. Tried pulling backup battery as well.

#2 Post by **ZaZ** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:47 pm

Pull the battery then press the power button 10 times, holding it 10 seconds each time. Do it one more time, but for 30 seconds. If that doesn't work try pulling the memory, optical drive, hard drive and WiFi card, then powering it on. If it doesn't beep it's most likely a dead board. If it does beep try re-assembling it one thing at a time. Good Luck.

#3 Post by **richk** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:03 pm

I agree with the above, but also pull the power cord first.

Brad · #4 Post by **Brad** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 3:14 am

When the a/c adapter is connected are there any lights?

Brad

marc_with_a_c · #5 Post by **marc_with_a_c** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:54 pm

I tried doing the the power button pressing trick but no luck. I assume that was to be done with no power to the laptop at all, right?
I can get it to beep without the memory but not with it in. Even tried some different sticks which I know are working.

There are lights with AC only but only the power light and the plug light

#6 Post by **richk** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 5:06 pm

Try pulling all the drives, wireless cards, modem, wwan card (anything connected to the bus)

marc_with_a_c · #7 Post by **marc_with_a_c** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:18 pm

still no luck. Certainly a good exercise in learning the insides of the laptop though. No clue what it could have been. The only thing I can think of was this laptop was being reimaged when this occured and a bios pack was in it. Now this is an image we use on all of our T60s and I have not had an issue before this.

amol2670 · #8 Post by **amol2670** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 1:00 pm

I had a similar problem with my T60p. Nothing I could do to make it boot. So I called the tech support line to get it fixed under warranty. IBM agreed to fix, what I (and the guy on the phone) assumed was a bad board. As it turned out, they (only) replaced the keyboard. Yes the KEYBOARD.

What happened... I closed the lid and assumed the system was in standby, stuck it in the case and got in my car for my daily ride home. After a couple of stops (and more than a hour in a car on a 90+ deg. day) I arrive home to a VERY hot laptop that was no longer running. After I let it cool down I tried to boot it up and nada. The power light would come on, but nothing after that. No screen activity, etc.

So if you haven't tried it yet, and you aren't fixed, try removing the keyboard ans see if it will boot...

as ludicrous as it sounds, maybe it'll help.

ideal-pc · #9 Post by **ideal-pc** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:57 pm

Have you tried doing a full reset by removing the BIOS battery as well as all other power sources? If not it's worth a try. It's amazing how many non responsive systems just need resetting.

Although when you remove the battery in theory all power should be gone immediately but i have noticed some T4xx models need to be left without any power overnight before the resets work, I have no idea why this is but just a thought.

marc_with_a_c · #10 Post by **marc_with_a_c** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:04 pm

Thanks for all the replies. After trying all the methods we decided to just extend the warranty and send it in. I did try the bios battery removal though. I'll be interested to see what they say.

kai · #11 Post by **kai** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:18 pm

I encountered a very similar problem two days ago (T61 7662). I generally leave my laptop on at all times, except for when travelling a distance, where I'll put it into sleep mode.

Anyway, I was just doing an install of something which required a restart, so I left it to it. When I came back, the screen was completely blank - and the backlight was out too. There was just the three leds showing, ac power, battery and I think power? (It's like a 'Z' in a circle). I tried to move the trackpoint, press a few keys thinking it'd gone into sleep mode or something but it didn't do a thing. I then forced a power off by holding the power button for a while and it shut off. However no amount of turning on and off was coaxing the thing back to life. It would just power up with the three leds on and nothing further.

Over the course of the next few hours, I'd taken the whole machine to pieces to try work out what was going on with it. It wasn't the display as I got another machine and tried to hook up the other machine's display to it. I reseated everything. I did notice that if I attempted to boot up without any memory modules installed, it would beep an error code (1-3-3-1 beeps) so maybe there was some hope that the mainboard wasn't shot. I also noticed that on powering up, the cpu fan would spin for maybe about a second and then stop but there was no other system activity at all. I pulled out the bios battery for a bit. In short I did everything - including the press the power button 10 times thing. Nothing worked.

I just left the machine lying around for the whole day yesterday, completely unplugged without any battery plugged in either. It was fully reassembled though (minus HDD as I was pulling data off it) which means that the bios battery was in. I happened to have a few spare moments so I tried to plug in the battery out of curiosity. The machine powered up just fine (except the date was reset which is probably from taking off the bios battery). In fact, I'm typing on it now and I've restarted at least a dozen times now and it's worked without a hitch.

I honestly have no idea how, what or why but I guess the only thing I can say is to leave it unplugged for a while and hope for the best?

pdjmwj · #12 Post by **pdjmwj** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:05 pm

kai wrote:I encountered a very similar problem two days ago (T61 7662). I generally leave my laptop on at all times, except for when travelling a distance, where I'll put it into sleep mode.

Anyway, I was just doing an install of something which required a restart, so I left it to it. When I came back, the screen was completely blank - and the backlight was out too. There was just the three leds showing, ac power, battery and I think power? (It's like a 'Z' in a circle). I tried to move the trackpoint, press a few keys thinking it'd gone into sleep mode or something but it didn't do a thing. I then forced a power off by holding the power button for a while and it shut off. However no amount of turning on and off was coaxing the thing back to life. It would just power up with the three leds on and nothing further.

Over the course of the next few hours, I'd taken the whole machine to pieces to try work out what was going on with it. It wasn't the display as I got another machine and tried to hook up the other machine's display to it. I reseated everything. I did notice that if I attempted to boot up without any memory modules installed, it would beep an error code (1-3-3-1 beeps) so maybe there was some hope that the mainboard wasn't shot. I also noticed that on powering up, the cpu fan would spin for maybe about a second and then stop but there was no other system activity at all. I pulled out the bios battery for a bit. In short I did everything - including the press the power button 10 times thing. Nothing worked.

I just left the machine lying around for the whole day yesterday, completely unplugged without any battery plugged in either. It was fully reassembled though (minus HDD as I was pulling data off it) which means that the bios battery was in. I happened to have a few spare moments so I tried to plug in the battery out of curiosity. The machine powered up just fine (except the date was reset which is probably from taking off the bios battery). In fact, I'm typing on it now and I've restarted at least a dozen times now and it's worked without a hitch.

I honestly have no idea how, what or why but I guess the only thing I can say is to leave it unplugged for a while and hope for the best?

Wow, I just had the same issue as stated above. The reboot request that you hint at started for me with a Lenovo update request for the BIOS. I foolishly said yes even tho I know what can happen when the BIOS gest corrupted. Well the update crashed and burned. Lenovo says pay for support or don't call anymore.

Just as you have done my T60 is sitting in pieces as I look for the BIOS chip. I may pull it and see if I can get it reflashed. I'm going to put it back together to see if it come up as outlined above.

But, before I do that does anyone know WHERE the BIOS chip is located on the motherboard??

I cannot find the BIOS chip and the service manual does not point it out. I have not fully taken the T60 apeart and I'm only doing so ujntil I find the BIOS chip.

Thanks in advance....

Paul

Dermis · #13 Post by **Dermis** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:17 am

Brad wrote:When the a/c adapter is connected are there any lights?

Brad

yupp..this problem happened to me too. eiter a/c adapter connected or on battery...there is no light..is it about mobo problem?

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