Thinkpads Forum

I have a 1999 Thinkpad that suddenly has some issues. Upon boot-up I get 'Real Time Clock' and 'CMOS Battery Bad' errors. When I enter Basic Systems through F1, it freezes in the real time clock area. The arrow keys don't work. The esc key doesn't work... nothing. It just gets stuck there everytime.
And it won't start up at all anymore beyond boot-up. I can't 'Start Windows Normally', 'Use Last Known Working Configuration', nada. Freezes on a black screen.
I've already tried replacing the battery to no avail.
From basic reading it looks like it might be a motherboard problem and if that's the case it may have to be trashed.
Any ideas? I'd really like to hold onto it for a while longer.

Thanks,
Jean

I would advise you to download a bootable version of PC Doctor for DOS and turn it into a CD. (You'll need to use another machine to do all this.)

Stick the CD into your machine and boot from it. Then run PC Doctor. Run all the tests and then post on here what it finds.

Welcome to our forum
Any more detailed info on your TP model, like the 7-character TYPE? (e.g. TYPE 2647-5TU on the bottom of the laptop).

Sorry, jm_davis22, I only just noticed you are new to the Thinkpad Forum. Welcome from me as well.

jm_davis22 wrote:I have a 1999 Thinkpad that suddenly has some issues. Upon boot-up I get 'Real Time Clock' and 'CMOS Battery Bad' errors.

After ~10 years, you are probably at the end of life for your ThinkPad.

Cheers,

Bill B.

jm_davis22, did you replace the battery pack or the backup battery? When seeing a 'CMOS Battery Bad' message, i would replace the backup battery.