T61 no video on lcd or external vga

[chris2021]

Is this by necessity bad video hardware? I just obtained an unknown T61, bought a charger. It looks like it wants to boot, can't swear that does, although I hear a grinding/whirring.

Can a 15.4" T61 take a T60/P motherboard, specifically any of these: 44C3700, 41W1362, 42T0294. These are fru's I think.

[axur-delmeria]

Remove CD/DVD drive and HDD. Turn on the laptop with just RAM installed. If no beep, turn off the laptop, disconnect charger and battery, then remove all RAM sticks--IIRC there's one slot at the bottom, and another under the keyboard. Connect charger, turn on laptop. If you get the 1-3-3-1 beep error code (1 beep, pause 3 beeps, pause, 3 beeps, pause, 1 beep), then it's probably bad RAM. I've experienced similar symptoms (no video on LCD or external monitor) on my X61 (which is of the same generation as the T61) due to bad/flaky RAM.

Test the RAM sticks one by one. Install one RAM stick at the slot under the keyboard-- make sure all power (charger, battery) is disconnected beforehand. You should run at least 2 passes of memory test software like memtest86+ for more thorough testing.

[RealBlackStuff]

T61 has both RAM slots together, under the palmrest.

[axur-delmeria]

T61 has both RAM slots together, under the palmrest.

Oh sorry, probably have misremembered... maybe it was a T40 series I was thinking of...

[chris2021]

There's no ram. I have sticks around, various speeds, all seem to be appropriate for 1 or more variations of the T61 (perhaps different speeds are specific to specific cpu options?). Gotta find them. I know where 1 is.

Thanks dudes! You're helping me in ways you probably didn't imagine!

Edit - incidentally I do get the beeps as described, whether the dvd is present or not. I don't think this has a hard drive (under palmrest on the right?). Someone broke some plastics slightly attempting to pull it apart I assume. It's not exceptionally i tuitive just how to dismantle it. All the bottom case screws are missing.

[RealBlackStuff]

You need 1/2/4GB per slot of PC2-5300 or PC2-6400 (a.k.a. DDR2-667 or DDR2-800).
Get the T61 15.4 illustrated manual from the HMM link above.

[chris2021]

And to think I passed up multiple 14" TPs over the weekend at a swap meet (search my posts) priced at 15$. Becauae they didn't have 15.4" screens. All worked. What's wrong with me.

[chris2021]

Pc2-4200 (533mhz) ram got it to boot. Says fan error then shuts off. I assume the fan is dead, we'll see. Screen looks blah. Need to replace that maybe.

[chris2021]

Incidentally that grinding noise is probably the fan. Lcds tend to brighten up when on for a while. This one may not be too bad.