Unholy Moley! Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 I have a IBM Thinkpad A30. When I start it it beeps four times (1-1-1-1) and then just sits there with a blank screen. I tried reseating the memory, the keyboard and the cable to the screen. What the heck is wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Supervisor Posted January 24, 2010 Supervisor Share Posted January 24, 2010 Hello, I looked at the Beep and no beep codes - ThinkPad A30/p, A31/p page on IBM/Lenovo's support web site and the beep code you mentioned was not listed. Given the age of the system, my initial thought is the CMOS/RTC backup battery has finally failed. You could try replacing it and see if that solves the problem. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unholy Moley! Posted January 24, 2010 Author Share Posted January 24, 2010 Thanks for the reply. I tried replacing the battery, but that didn't make a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenji Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 does the screen show any sign of life, at all? Have you tried plugging in an external screen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unholy Moley! Posted January 24, 2010 Author Share Posted January 24, 2010 Nothing on the screen, no output to an external monitor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unholy Moley! Posted January 24, 2010 Author Share Posted January 24, 2010 Recording of the beeps: blackholes_bleepblorp.mp3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tha Bloo Monkee Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 (edited) Have you done anything major to it or did you just turn it on one day and it beeped? See if it boots without the hard drive and/or CD drive connected. Try different RAM (or if there's 2 sticks, remove 1, try it, if it still doesn't work try it with the other, etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilev Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Try booting with a live Linux CD just to make sure the video chip / screen are OK 4 beeps on a Thinkpad usually mean a problem with Security Chip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unholy Moley! Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 Turned out to be a bad RAM module. Thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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