T43 remains at IBM logo.

[Reo51St]

I have a T43 2668-71U that will power on but stops at the IBM logo.

I push the Access IBM button but it remains at the logo.

It will stay at the IBM logo until it is powered down. “1,2,3 4 hours”

Tried known good keyboard with no change.

Thanks for any help.

[killer]

I have a horrible suspicion that your HDD is causing the problem.

Things you can do ...

1. Have you added RAM? If so, remove a bit at a time. Does the fault still occur?
2. Get onto the Lenovo website and download the IETY47WW facility that enables you to make a DOS bootable copy of PC Doctor. Use this to run diagnostics.
3. Report back.

Good luck.

[rkawakami]

I'd say that the first thing to try would be to remove all of the "extra" pieces and see if the laptop gives you any of the expected error codes/beeps. Take out all memory, hard drive, Ultrabay device, CDC, MiniPCI and/or PCMCIA cards, disconnect all USB cables. This should give you the typical 1-3-3-1 beep code (bad/missing memory). If you get that, you can at least assume that some of the motherboard is working as it is supposed to. If you don't get any beep code indicating missing memory, then the problem is with the motherboard. Could be as easy as a bad solder joint (need some luck in finding that) or something major. Let's assume that you get the 1-3-3-1 beep sequence. Plug in the following pieces one-at-a-time, while attempting to boot the system and note what happens:

- one memory module; should boot without 1-3-3-1 beep code and let you access BIOS and/or indicate that no bootable system was found. If you still get the 1-3-3-1 code, then you might have a defective memory module or a problem with the memory socket - try another module and try the other memory socket
- (optional) assuming that the system boots without any beep error codes, run the memtest86+ diagnostic to confirm that all bits of memory are working properly. This obviously requires either a floppy or Ultrabay optical drive to be installed
- if you believe that the memory is working, I would suggest that you first install the MiniPCI card and try booting again. I've seen several times when a defective modem or wireless card would cause boot/power problems.
- if the MiniPCI is not the cause of the boot hangup, then try installing the modem or modem/Bluetooth card next and check to see if the system boots properly.
- continue to install each piece until the system repeats the hang.
- in the event you get to the point of having all of the pieces re-installed in the system and it does boot properly, then you can assume that there is/was an intermittent event which caused the issue. Could have been a bad connection to one of those pieces you had removed or that there's some problem on the motherboard which may come back if the system is stressed/flexed/stared at wrongly .

ref: http://www.memtest86.org/

[Harryc]

Try booting from a CD. If that works, suspect your hard drive. You could also try removong your hard drive to see if the boot sequence goes any further.

[ajkula66]

I'll be following this thread VERY closely since I'm in the possession of a T43 that exhibits similar behaviour...

Having removed everything that I could think of and replaced it with a "known good one" still got me nowhere...

It's NOT a GPU problem since you can press on it till you're blue in the face and it makes zero difference.

It will NOT boot from a CD, be it a bootable PC-Doctor or Linux.

It will pass the IBM logo and boot from the hard drive once in fifty times.

I'm at the end of my rope and completely out of ideas...apart from unscrewing the last few screws and parting the darn thing out...

[Nameless]

I'll be following this thread VERY closely since I'm in the possession of a T43 that exhibits similar behaviour...

Having removed everything that I could think of and replaced it with a "known good one" still got me nowhere...

It's NOT a GPU problem since you can press on it till you're blue in the face and it makes zero difference.

It will NOT boot from a CD, be it a bootable PC-Doctor or Linux.

It will pass the IBM logo and boot from the hard drive once in fifty times.

I'm at the end of my rope and completely out of ideas...apart from unscrewing the last few screws and parting the darn thing out...

Maybe it's the southbridge chip? All ATA devices hang off the SB plus all USB as well. And some people have reported problems with SB's that were cured after reflowing them........... just a thought.

[Reo51St]

Do not know why I did not try this before but when I came into work today I pushed down on the CPU heat sink and it went on to the BIOS.

When I push the down arrow key to go to DATE/TIME nothing happened?
Then I push down on the heat sink and it moved down?
Its like the comand for the down arrow was stored and when I pushed on the heat sink it processed the command?

I think this one will go on the stack of laptops for reflow.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[rkawakami]

Based on that little piece of information, I'd look at all of the crystals on the motherboard. There's several package styles; some can look like a small ceramic block with a frequency specification stamped on it (10Mhz, 32.768Khz, etc.) and two silver endcaps (what actually gets soldered to the board), while others can look long and thin and have four leads. What prompts me to suggest this is what I found one time on a T23 motherboard. One of the crystals had hairline cracks on the solder joints. At times the system would act like it was put into a suspend state; the boot process would stop unless one corner of the case was flexed.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 14#p271414