Laptop Refuses To Boot ?

[Wolfgang]

Dear All,
Purchased a used IBM Thinkpad Z61t on Tues.
Used it on Tues,no probs.Tried again yesterday,it won't boot.I have a warranty but can't get to their tech support until 27th Dec.I'm guessing, with my limited PC knowledge,that it's some kind of BIOS problem ? On power up the hard drive makes all the right noises.The Windows XP start up page has the horizontal blue bars.They start moving left to right,then it's a blue screen & it tries to re boot.
Anyone have any pointers ?
Thanks & Merry Xmas.
Geoff.

 

[Awfers]

Yes, and?

 

[Wolfgang]

Yes and ?...........

...............how do I fix it ?

 

[redcastle]

Bit of a long shot Geoff but unplug it from the mains, now take the battery out and leave it for ten minutes or so.
Dont put the battery back in just the mains lead, now try the pig dog. It may have inadvertenly gone into some sleep/hibernate mode, doubtful but any port in a storm

p.s you haven't been into the bios have you?

 

[Grey Beard]

I think if you hit Function F8 as it boots, it should go into a menu which allows safe boot up mode. This is a simplified boot which doesn't load a lot of the drivers (one of which may be causing a problem).

If that boots in Safe Mode you will get a low resolution screen but the main operating system will be operative and then you can by process of elimination, identify the fault.

I had a problem with the Master Boot Record on my PC so was unable to access anything, but I had had some intermittent problems in the days just prior to the failure and had managed to salvage some of my critical data.

F8 on start up is worth a try.

Grey Beard

 

[Wolfgang]

BIOS ?

Red,
Was in the BIOS briefly with the tech support on Thurs,but had to leave it & go to work.I know how to get to it.It was supplied without a battery,power is mains only at the mo.

Grey,
No joy when I try from safe mode.

 

[redcastle]

Difficult at a distance. There's a chance you may have changed the AHCI setting, hunt in the bios for it and under hard disk mode ( I think) if its on turn it off. If its off turn it on then probably F10 save and exit

now that's a proper shot in the dark but if that setting is wrong it does give a blue screen

best of luck

 

[jonny5859]

just another thing to add to the mix check you haven't left a CD in the drive and its trying to boot from it and not the hard drive, my friend did this (ok it was me) and once cd was taken out it booted up no probs..