T61p not booting, no POST

[Daniel1]

After hibernation, my daughters T61p (type 7665-AU9) no longer boots.
Powering it up shows
- fan shortly on
- power light on
- LCD lit but blank
- no beep
- HDD dim or flickering (hard to tell)

Powering it down gives 1 beep and off.

Powering up without RAM:
- same as above +
- 1 beep, 3 beeps, 3 beeps, 1 beep

I have taken out keyboard, WiFi card and modem card and checked that connectors are properly seated. All to no avail
All the above were done with battery or with AC adapter. DVD drive and HDD were removed.

Supposedly, connecting external display will make little difference? Is it the Mobo or just the CMOS battery? What next?

TIA

[RealBlackStuff]

It might still work with an external monitor, but my bet is on a bad nVidia GPU.
Unfortunately the only cure for that is a new motherboard.
If you don't need all the horsepower of that GPU, you should look for a board with Intel graphics instead (41W1487 or 42W7866).
All the parts from your 'old' board will fit on it.

BTW, that machine is a T61, not a T61p.
T61 (7665-AU9)
Based on 7665-13U: T7500(2.2GHz), 1GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1440x900 LCD, 128MB nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro

[Daniel1]

...
If you don't need all the horsepower of that GPU, you should look for a board with Intel graphics instead (41W1487 or 42W7866).

Not sure, where do these boards fall short compare to original one?

BTW, that machine is a T61, not a T61p.
T61 (7665-AU9)
Based on 7665-13U: T7500(2.2GHz), 1GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1440x900 LCD, 128MB nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro[/quote]
My fault. Machine looks so large compared with my X220

[ScottyBoy]

Not sure, where do these boards fall short compare to original one?

The Intel GPU is less powerful than the NVIDIA GPU but it can still easily do the job without any major issues - my tuppence worth would be to also go for an Intel GPU based motherboard but also install the Middleton BIOS onto it as well, so you can take advantage of native SATA-300 speeds, hardware whitelisting removal, etc, etc.

[Daniel1]

Thanks for your advise

[RealBlackStuff]

Machine looks so large compared with my X220

Now you know! Size isn't everything!

[QWERTY Andreas]

If the motherboard is dead, and you are just about to throw it away - try to check my thread. You can fix it by baking it!

However the fix will never be permanent.. But it will make it usable for some time. But no matter what - all laptops will die one day.. So no fix will be permanent anyway.

[TuuS]

Besides the fact that baking the board could destroy other components on the board, it's definitely a lot of work removing and replacing the board when you know you'd be lucky to get more then a few weeks out of it. Your best option is either an Intel board or an nVidia board with proof that it came from a laptop manufactured in august 2008, they do cost more if you're lucky enough to find one, but it's the only option that will give you the powerful graphics that isn't likely to fail. I just sold my last 14.1 widescreen august 2008 board, but I'm hopeful more will be available.

[Daniel1]

I have ordered a mobo. How to tell its manufacturing?

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using Tapatalk 2

[TuuS]

I have ordered a mobo. How to tell its manufacturing?

If you ordered it already, then it's a bit to late to be asking, but I'll warn you that most T61 series nVidia boards sold online have been improperly repaired, either baked/heatgunned by a crook trying to take your money, or sometimes reflowed using proper equipment by a technician who just doesn't understand the root of the problem. To sum up the problem with buying a replacement board as succinctly as possible, most good "virgin" boards that have never failed are still in their original laptops and being used, and most (nearly all) boards that have been removed, were removed because of gpu failure. Fixing one by installing a new GPU is very costly and problematic since there are no reliable sources for new GPU chips, so most boards you get are ones that have failed and been improperly repaired. When I get replacement boards, which I do often, I select the laptops form corporate laptops that are going to liquidation. I know for sure that these haven't been baked or reflowed, but nonetheless I still run them for a full 7 days with temps monitored including several hours of intensive GPU stress tests. Naturally since I have to purchase a complete laptop and do a weeks worth of testing, I can't sell the boards for the same price of those selling baked boards, and no one having a good quality board would offer it for sale on a website like ebay, that would be like trying to sell a genuine Rolex watch on a street corner in HongKong, where vendors are all claiming to have genuine Rolex watches for $100, and you're trying to get $5000 for one that is worth every penny of $10,000... smart people are going to assume you're selling a fake, and dumb people will assume a genuine one is only worth $100.

As for determining the date, look at the laptop BEFORE the board is removed. The date on the bottom label will list the model number, serial number, and date code. A date code of 08/08 (2008/august) means that laptop was originally equipped with the new (updated) GPU. Now boot it up and press F1 to enter bios setup and compare the serial number with one on the bottom label, if they don't match, walk away, if they do, remove the keyboard, palmrest, bezel and heatsink and check the date on the actual nVidia chip, the actual date on the chip can vary quite a bit, but most 08/08 boards have a date code of about 0825 (more or less), which means 2008, 25th week. If the date is before 0820 then you probably have a board that was swapped. If you have a date after 0829, then it gets complicated as you probably have a replaced board that has been rechipped. Some of them are good, but not as valuable as a genuine 08/08 system board. In this case I'd remove the board and look for a lenovo orange sticker that says "serviceable used part" if it has one, then there is a good chance the board will be good.

I know I promised to be succinct, but there is no simple way to tell a good board and the odds of getting one by purchasing a random board online are virtually nil, most sellers know their value very well and if it was a real 08/08, they would be boasting the fact and offering proof. Also beware of sellers trying to get a premium for a board with a chip date of 0808, which means febuary 2008, not august, its the laptop date that you need to look at and if the board is already removed, then you'll never know for sure what it was.

[Daniel1]

So, a mobo by itself cannot be pinned down,.sigh.
I went for an Intel board. Hopefully, it will give me some mileage.
Thanks

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using Tapatalk 2

[TuuS]

So, a mobo by itself cannot be pinned down,.sigh.
I went for an Intel board. Hopefully, it will give me some mileage.
Thanks

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using Tapatalk 2

Correct, you can get a general idea of the manufacturing date by the gpu date, but there were many factories making them and the best evidence shows that the old and new chips were made simultaneously, with the same part numbers and dates.

The date of an intel board doesn't really matter.

[Daniel1]

Hi. Thank you all for your advice
The laptop runs just fine with the replacement mobo.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

[TuuS]

Great news. The Intel boards do work very well, combined with some high-end options they make very nice laptops. I do naturally prefer the nVidia, but the good ones are costly.

If you focus on the Intel's strong points, reliable, cool running, power saving, you'll agree they are a fine graphic system. There are also a number of games that support the x3100 so you don't have to completely give up gaming.