Yout don't need a battery to run your laptop. The spinning sound you hear is most probably the HDD, not a fan. I don't think there is a fan in a 486 SLC 50 thinkpad.
Did you try to insert a boot diskette? Does it try ro read/boot?
The screen remains black, right? It can be a failed backlight or inverter. To check if it's the case you can use a flashlight to see if there is any image/characters on the screen. You may need to find the right angle to see anything. If there is no image then it could be bad cable. Further diagnostics will require an external display.

Edit. There is 4 Mb of memory preinstalled, so it should work without additional memory card.

Bondi wrote on 2021-09-28, 09:03:

Yout don't need a battery to run your laptop. The spinning sound you hear is most probably the HDD, not a fan. I don't think the […]
Show full quote

Yout don't need a battery to run your laptop. The spinning sound you hear is most probably the HDD, not a fan. I don't think there is a fan in a 486 SLC 50 thinkpad.
Did you try to insert a boot diskette? Does it try ro read/boot?
The screen remains black, right? It can be a failed backlight or inverter. To check if it's the case you can use a flashlight to see if there is any image/characters on the screen. You may need to find the right angle to see anything. If there is no image then it could be bad cable. Further diagnostics will require an external display.

Edit. There is 4 Mb of memory preinstalled, so it should work without additional memory card.

I can't see anything with a flashlight and I tried plugging my Acer AL1711 into it via the VGA cable and it didn't pick anything up. I might try making a boot disc and inserting the floppy. Although do you think without a floppy I should see something at least on the screen?

Tyrant wrote on 2021-09-28, 09:15:

Bondi wrote on 2021-09-28, 09:03:

Yout don't need a battery to run your laptop. The spinning sound you hear is most probably the HDD, not a fan. I don't think the […]
Show full quote

Yout don't need a battery to run your laptop. The spinning sound you hear is most probably the HDD, not a fan. I don't think there is a fan in a 486 SLC 50 thinkpad.
Did you try to insert a boot diskette? Does it try ro read/boot?
The screen remains black, right? It can be a failed backlight or inverter. To check if it's the case you can use a flashlight to see if there is any image/characters on the screen. You may need to find the right angle to see anything. If there is no image then it could be bad cable. Further diagnostics will require an external display.

Edit. There is 4 Mb of memory preinstalled, so it should work without additional memory card.

I can't see anything with a flashlight and I tried plugging my Acer AL1711 into it via the VGA cable and it didn't pick anything up. I might try making a boot disc and inserting the floppy. Although do you think without a floppy I should see something at least on the screen?

Yes, there should be something. Usually if a thinkpad finds nothing to boot from it displays something like this.

You may need to enable external VGA output by pressing some key combination.
Here is the manual for it for more details http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbb … iles/tpvol2.pdf

Bondi wrote on 2021-09-28, 09:23:

Yes, there should be something. Usually if a thinkpad finds nothing to boot from it displays something like this. 6iz1d7x0u9h3 […]
Show full quote

Tyrant wrote on 2021-09-28, 09:15:

Bondi wrote on 2021-09-28, 09:03:

Yout don't need a battery to run your laptop. The spinning sound you hear is most probably the HDD, not a fan. I don't think the […]
Show full quote

Yout don't need a battery to run your laptop. The spinning sound you hear is most probably the HDD, not a fan. I don't think there is a fan in a 486 SLC 50 thinkpad.
Did you try to insert a boot diskette? Does it try ro read/boot?
The screen remains black, right? It can be a failed backlight or inverter. To check if it's the case you can use a flashlight to see if there is any image/characters on the screen. You may need to find the right angle to see anything. If there is no image then it could be bad cable. Further diagnostics will require an external display.

Edit. There is 4 Mb of memory preinstalled, so it should work without additional memory card.

I can't see anything with a flashlight and I tried plugging my Acer AL1711 into it via the VGA cable and it didn't pick anything up. I might try making a boot disc and inserting the floppy. Although do you think without a floppy I should see something at least on the screen?

Yes, there should be something. Usually if a thinkpad finds nothing to boot from it displays something like this.
6iz1d7x0u9h31.jpg

You may need to enable external VGA output by pressing some key combination.
Here is the manual for it for more details http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbb … iles/tpvol2.pdf

I can't seem to find any info on there about enabling the VGA port, I did inspect the ribbon and it seems to be ok.

Tyrant wrote on 2021-09-28, 10:00:

Bondi wrote on 2021-09-28, 09:23:

Yes, there should be something. Usually if a thinkpad finds nothing to boot from it displays something like this. 6iz1d7x0u9h3 […]
Show full quote

Tyrant wrote on 2021-09-28, 09:15:

I can't see anything with a flashlight and I tried plugging my Acer AL1711 into it via the VGA cable and it didn't pick anything up. I might try making a boot disc and inserting the floppy. Although do you think without a floppy I should see something at least on the screen?

Yes, there should be something. Usually if a thinkpad finds nothing to boot from it displays something like this.
6iz1d7x0u9h31.jpg

You may need to enable external VGA output by pressing some key combination.
Here is the manual for it for more details http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbb … iles/tpvol2.pdf

I can't seem to find any info on there about enabling the VGA port, I did inspect the ribbon and it seems to be ok.

It's Fn+F7
See page 47(57)

Bondi wrote on 2021-09-28, 10:15:

Tyrant wrote on 2021-09-28, 10:00:

Bondi wrote on 2021-09-28, 09:23:

Yes, there should be something. Usually if a thinkpad finds nothing to boot from it displays something like this. 6iz1d7x0u9h3 […]
Show full quote

Yes, there should be something. Usually if a thinkpad finds nothing to boot from it displays something like this.
6iz1d7x0u9h31.jpg

You may need to enable external VGA output by pressing some key combination.
Here is the manual for it for more details http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbb … iles/tpvol2.pdf

I can't seem to find any info on there about enabling the VGA port, I did inspect the ribbon and it seems to be ok.

It's Fn+F7
See page 47(57)

I had a hunch that was it by the symbol on the keyboard, I tried that and it wasn't working

Tyrant wrote on 2021-09-28, 10:23:

Bondi wrote on 2021-09-28, 10:15:

Tyrant wrote on 2021-09-28, 10:00:

I can't seem to find any info on there about enabling the VGA port, I did inspect the ribbon and it seems to be ok.

It's Fn+F7
See page 47(57)

I had a hunch that was it by the symbol on the keyboard, I tried that and it wasn't working

Then it's probably bad mobo or video chip...