T61p exhibiting 1 long and 2 short beep and black screen

[davidausterweil]

Hi Mark,

I have been having this issue with my T61 for over a year but figured it was hopeless and did not look into it further.  However, now I find I need to use my laptop again and discovered your post for a fix.

Can I still have my laptop corrected for this issue?  

Thanks,

Dave

[TuuS]

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davidausterweil wrote:

Hi Mark,

I have been having this issue with my T61 for over a year but figured it was hopeless and did not look into it further.  However, now I find I need to use my laptop again and discovered your post for a fix.

Can I still have my laptop corrected for this issue?  

Thanks,

Dave

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Dave,

Mark has stated in prior replies that he's not able to reply to all members directly, but to answer your question, the free repairs are long expired. If you want to fix it yourself, there are some cost effective options including a limited supply of the updated system boards from 08/08 units. When this suppy is exhausted, your only option for a reliable board may be a $575 replacement from Lenovo.

Sorry I couldn't give you better news, but I think if you go this route you'll find that it's not that difficult to fix.

[Yacek]

Hello,

It seems that my beloved T61p finally crashed due to NVidia chip issue.....  is the Lenovo policy to replace faulty motherboards still valid ? Here in Poland we have a number of authorized customer services centers, the closest one in Warsaw is RamSERWIS. But before I go to them with my T61p I would love to know if there is a little chance for my t61p to be covered with Lenevo replacement policy... any ideas ?   

[eecon]

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Yacek wrote:

......  is a little chance for my t61p to be covered with Lenevo replacement policy... ?   

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No, not from Lenovo anymore (assuming your original or extended warranty has expired).

However, I'm sure Forum Member TuuS will soon step up to offer some do-it-yourself low cost fixes.

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[Yacek]

bad, very bad news ...

My warranty expired July last year....why things love to fail soon after warranty expires.. ???

[eecon]

The Lenovo repair program ended one year ago.

__________________________________

[tp_dev1]

Hi All ...

I know that this was the issue Lenovo acknowledged the defective piece.. and I also read the thread by MarkLenovo which says that Lenovo was fixing this till March 31st 2011 post warranty..

The issue here is my GPU started failing just this March (2012).. MY warranty expired in 2010...

I called Lenovo they said they can't do anything about it..The option they gave is repair which could cost 600$...

They should have atleast notified of the defective piece but they never did...

I want to know my options

1) replace motherboard... but could not find new motherboard...all refurb and may have same defective piece...

2) throw it in bin (1100$)...no warranty.. no luck or just my bad luck...

3) explore legal route... (just read about rex vs apple for similar type of defective gpu)...

Moderator Note; post merged in, subject edited

[lotsasand]

Just FYI, what ucsblaw wrote works. At least so far. I am in Africa, long after warranty with my T61p and was worried when my laptop just beeped at me when I tried to start it. I thought it was the heat and sand here in Niger, then thankfully I found this forum with suggested fixes. Since getting a new board would take time and money, I thought it wouldn't do any harm to try the temporary fix first, then maybe the baking one day if needed.

I just tried the temporary fix and my screen came back to life.

In case others still come across this problem, I would recommend giving this a try.

Thanks for the help in this forum.

[dsavard]

The reason it works is explained in the comments of the youtube video ucsblaw refers to. Here is the link to the video: HP DV2000 Video Card Problem Fix  and here is the reason it is working:

"The reason this works is the faulty BGA solder on the GPU chip. When you heat up the laptop the metal is expanding and making the electrical connections on the chips work for a while. If you are mad at HP for this crap, let them know!!! send Emails and contact consumer reports!!! The only way to teach them this is wrong is stop buying hp products and tell them why you don't want their products."

And it confirms this is truly a problem with the manufacturing of this xxxxx board and nothing else. In conclusion, Lenovo should have replaced for free all the defective boards as I always said and think. Even if some think otherwise because they are making bucks at the expense of the poor customers we were.

[TuuS]

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dsavard wrote:

"The reason this works is the faulty BGA solder on the GPU chip. When you heat up the laptop the metal is expanding and making the electrical connections on the chips work for a while..." .

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This is an accurate description of the failures of previous generations of GPU chips, in which case reflowing or reballing the solder connection would fix the problem, but in the case of the nVidia, it's not a fault of the board, it's the actual chip that developes fractures internally. Crazy schemes like baking the board in an oven work about as well as fixing a burned out lightbulb by tapping on it, if your really lucky you can get it to light up and it may last for a few seconds, a few days, but it's not "fixed" by any stretch of the imagination.