Question Laptop won't start ?

[asus_i5]

Laptop model: Lenovo ThinkPad P51

Sequence of Faults
-I plug the laptop into the power cord (power button blinks 3 times)
-Press the power button
-The fans spin for a second or two, the keyboard lights up
-The laptop powers off

Possible Causes/Solutions Which I Attempted Already
-The GPU fan, while it span briefly, made a laboured kind of sound.
Now it spins freely since I took it out of it's housing
-There is RAM in the laptop (tried using different pieces in separate ports)
-I fitted a new BIOS battery (I don't know if that would help or even make any difference to a laptop powering on while plugged into the mains)

There is no Beep Code, though strangely there was initially

I would appreciate any help you can offer

 

[nbdja]

Hello.
Do you have Win 10 on it ? UEFI Bios ?
When this problem started ?

 

[asus_i5]

I bought it like this
I don't know about the BIOS because it won't even boot that far
there is no OS since there is no hard drive

 

[nbdja]

i would install an hard drive before going further