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Thread: Doesn't Boot...Sometimes

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    Doesn't Boot...Sometimes

    Ok, been messing with this one for a few days and perpetually running in circles with it. Maybe you guys can help!

    IBM ThinkPad T41.

    The computer doesn't boot up -- sometimes. That's the kicker right there that has me thrown. In fact, most of the time it boots up fine, so it's hard to intentionally recreate the problem.

    I first learned of it when a user sent it back saying it wouldn't boot up properly. Plugged it in here, cranked it up, came up perfectly. Rebooted, no problem. Rebooted, no problem. Left it running all day, no problem. Rebooted a couple times more, no problem.

    The next day, put it into standby -- problem. It wouldn't come back up.

    Rebooted, fine. Put back into standby, fine. Reboted again, fine. Another day goes by, just fine.

    Shut down, doesn't boot back up. I can hear it taking power, hear the fan running. No hard drive light, no nothing -- the only light I see lit looks like a titled "Z" inside a circle (I have yet to figure out what that light MEANS, haven't been working with IBMs for long, and never saw these on Dells).

    Power down, power on, same problem. Little "Z" light lit, nothing more. Just the fan running.

    Shut down, leave sit a bit, come back later -- boots up fine! Rest of the day, boots up fine. Reboot over and over, no problem. Go into standby, comes back up.

    Come back hours/day later, shut it down, won't boot back up. "Z" light lit, nothing more. Wait a little while, try again. Boots up fine. Rinse, cycle, repeat.

    I ran WinDoctor on it that I downloaded from IBM's site. All hardware passed all tests except for the HDD, which hung during the SMART test twice, never would complete, but never produced an error either -- just hung as if the hard drive was busy. So ran Western Digital HDD diagnostics for a second opinion, passed all tests. Went back to WinDoctor, passed all tests. Nothing but nice little green checkmarks. Ran chckdsk just as another precaution.

    Reboot, fine. Reboot again, no problems.

    Came in this morning, had left in standby overnight. Comes up fine. Reboot, fine. Windows froze, so I powered down without properly shutting down to see what would happen.

    And here I am back to the one "Z" light and running fan, nothing more.

    And a last FYI, battery is removed -- running on AC adapter.

    Any ideas? I'm not sure where to run with this next, especially since I can't reliably reproduce the issue...
    Last edited by AngelicKnight; December 11th, 2007 at 04:22 PM.

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