Beeping hell

[Griller]

My beloved 2008-vintage T61p (15.4" model) failed to boot up a few days ago - blank screen no beeps; power, battery and AC lights on.
Guessing that the CMOS battery may have died, I removed it to check, but it seemed fine (+3.1V), so I put it back in again.
I then got 4 short beeps (not 4 x 4).
I then tried reseating the DIMM. I got a 1-3-3-1 beep pattern.
Reseated the DIMM again (after giving the contacts a good clean), and I now get a 1-4-1-1 pattern, which doesn't seem to be documented.

Any suggestions what to try next please?

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

Try removing the CMOS battery altogether and powering on, let us know what happens.

[Griller]

Thanks. I've tried that - I now get no beeps.

[ajkula66]

Thanks. I've tried that - I now get no beeps.

But no POST either ?

[TRS-80]

I had exact same "four beeps" (not repeating) symptom on one of my (pretty sure was working, last time I checked) 14" T60 just the other day. I got it working by doing the following:

Completely remove the regular battery (especially if it is old / dead).

I never actually disconnected the CMOS battery (not sure this is good or bad).

Hold the power button down for 30 seconds. I think this is supposed to clear CMOS or power or...? Not sure really, if this is even required or what it does for that matter. Read it on forum somewhere.

If you like, burn incense now and say a prayer to your god. It may be equally as helpful / relevant as the previous step, for all I know.

Upon each change of memory stick(s) I would make sure the board had no power (from PSU nor battery). I don't remember now if I did the "press button for 30 seconds" gimmick every cycle or not.

Then I started varying memory sticks (and positions) until I found the working combination(s). This included swapping in some known good stick of memory from another machine.

At one point I felt a very bad gritty / grinding feeling when inserting one stick, as if a grain of sand was in the channel. I took a closer look but didn't see any debris other than a bit of dust nearby. So I blew it all out anyway. Upon closer inspection, the gold contact fingers on one of the sticks were apparently damaged. At first I thought it was debris but it didn't come off with alcohol nor fingernail. Anyway, that ended up being the bad stick in my case. I don't know if I damaged the contacts myself, they became de-laminated, or what happened.

That last bit may have only been relevant to my situation, but hopefully one or more of things earlier on might be helpful for you.

[Griller]

Thanks. I've tried that - I now get no beeps.

But no POST either ?

Nope. Just the power lights and some whirring (I guess that's the CPU fan and possibly the HDD spinning up)

TRS-80: Thanks for the ideas. I'll see if I've got another machine that I can borrow a DIMM from