Any #Thinkpad experts here?
I have an older L420 on which I installed LInux. After it gets to the bios and before it opens the bootloader it beeps a seemingly random number of times. I have counted anywhere from 5 to 13 beeps. After it's done with this, it boots normally.
I've already flashed the latest bios and loaded the default values. No change.
Any idea what this could be? I've looked at several websites which explain thinkpad beepcodes, but none mention this behavior.
I checked the RAM and ran it with only one of the two installed modules, tested both and tested every slot, no change.
(the last, higher, beep is me turning the computer back off)
Andreas (82MHz)
npub1hv…fa368
2026-03-30 12:37:04 UTC
Author Public Key
npub1hvw4ja4qkt0hxsvp4qumye7zzusuyvwe4hs6x4dyhhfxkfkc6yvqefa368Seen on
wss://relay.ditto.pubPublished at
2026-03-30 12:37:04 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "b637e0eab1ecf68cab8518cf276b25babb0fc093765667bef5bcf9b6b2321f56",
"pubkey": "bb1d5976a0b2df734181a839b267c21721c231d9ade1a355a4bdd26b26d8d118",
"created_at": 1774874224,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"t",
"thinkpad"
],
[
"imeta",
"url https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/116/318/147/523/137/466/original/c30fcb653c05583d.mp4",
"m video/mp4",
"dim 1080x1920",
"blurhash UMD+#n8{tSn$1QrpX9jF?bV@S2oJo#oMS2jY"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/users/82mhz/statuses/116318157162187835",
"activitypub"
],
[
"client",
"Mostr",
"31990:6be38f8c63df7dbf84db7ec4a6e6fbbd8d19dca3b980efad18585c46f04b26f9:mostr",
"wss://relay.ditto.pub"
]
],
"content": "Any #Thinkpad experts here? \n\nI have an older L420 on which I installed LInux. After it gets to the bios and before it opens the bootloader it beeps a seemingly random number of times. I have counted anywhere from 5 to 13 beeps. After it's done with this, it boots normally.\n\nI've already flashed the latest bios and loaded the default values. No change. \n\nAny idea what this could be? I've looked at several websites which explain thinkpad beepcodes, but none mention this behavior. \n\nI checked the RAM and ran it with only one of the two installed modules, tested both and tested every slot, no change.\n\n(the last, higher, beep is me turning the computer back off)\n\nhttps://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/116/318/147/523/137/466/original/c30fcb653c05583d.mp4",
"sig": "a94d617cec2d298058823ff3926c8b82bdcfe0862390a8f3fbc78a22616458de061a1b708d45e70979568f21b08776756be6650b4f3400b7079d3e83b9d656d6"
}