T30 froze, restarted and wont go past IBM Thinkpad startup

[614joe]

This happend some months ago, it froze totaly so i turned it off. Turned it on an it wouldnt go past the black IBM ThinkPad start up screen.

Then in the bottem left hand corner of the screen it says
Press F1 for IBM BIOS Setup Utility
Press F12 to choose temporary boot device

Nothing else, and if it stays at the screen to long (bout 2min) it will beep twice an go to a black screen saying
ERROR
1802: Unauthorized network card is plugged in - Power off and remove the miniPCI network card.

This ERROR screen will also come up if you press F1

F12 will say Preparing Boot Device List for a while then beep twice and go to a all black screen with nothing.

We've taken this laptop to numerous friends that work with computers and so on, none of them know how to fix it. ALSO *they cant get the CD drive to boot to just reinstall windows, nor a external CD drive or external Floppy. I can put in the windows CD and nothing, dont load or anything, stays at the IBM Thinkpad start up screen...

Dont know what could be wrong. Got it an it worked perfect for a week then while i was playing some lil game on a website listing to music it went into a total freeze. No buttons responded and the music stopped so i just turned it off an on an its like this now lol.
Didnt add anything or do anything to it for it to randomly do this...

Any ideas and how to fix or where? An sorry the post is so long, im just trying to be descriptive.

EDIT:
JMO 1 of the ram slots were bad i think because i look at the 2 ram slots and only one has ram and its a 1gb.
Do you think that maybe both the ram slots went bad?
Just brainstorming lol,

[UnixNut]

I know this sounds a bit obvious, but have you tried removing the miniPCI based ethernet card from the slot? What happens when you do?

[614joe]

I thought about that...but when it comes to inside computers im out of luck. I had no idea what that is or where its at or what it looks like lol.

[UnixNut]

Right, well it's unlikely to be a RAM issue (otherwise you would not see the logo at all when you turn it on, it would just beep at you). If you want to fix this you either have to do it or find someone else to do it for you. Thankfully you don't have to take apart your entire computer. Look at this picture of a T30's bottom:



This image has the battery and all the covers already removed.

Above the RAM slots (bottom right on the picture), you have a black slot (off centre of the base), this is the miniPCI slot. If there is a card in there, carefully remove it. Now try starting your PC again. If this still fails (or there wasn't anything in the slot in the first place) then we move up to the little square above the miniPCI slot. This is the Network card that is built in by default on Thinkpads. It is held down by two screws. Unscrew these and carefully remove the card from it's connector underneath. Then try booting again and reply with the results. Hopefully this will help us narrow down the list of potential faults causing your symptoms.

[614joe]

I removed the miniPCI slot or what ever and it actually loads up now! It takes a long time to get off the IMB start up screen then goes to a black screen for a quick second and loads up windows.
Wow thanks lol, but by removing that what does that do? Is there any side effects?

[UnixNut]

You're welcome, glad it worked!

Well, you lose the functionality provided by the card you removed. Normally on Thinkpad's this is either Wireless networking, Ethernet (wired) networking, or the Dial-up modem. Test any of these three and see if they work. You can always buy a replacement if you need the functionality again.

It should also boot faster after the first few times. It will boot slowest just after you made a change, as the BIOS has to do a rescan and take note of what has changed.

[614joe]

It was the wireless which i can live without for now because my home uses the Ethernet cord.
But wow, im speechless. Everyone that looked at it over looked that message and was looking at inside it not seeing anything was wrong when all along it was dead in front of us lol.
But yea man thanks alot, if i could id hug ya lol.

Im just wondering is there any reason why the wireless card just randomly made the laptop stop working? Did it just go bad or what?

[rkawakami]

In my experience with the T23, the model just preceding your T30, defective MiniPCI cards account for systems which either refuse to power up at all, freeze at the IBM splash screen or prevent (re)loading of the operating system from the install disks. Most of the time it's the modem-only version of the card that goes bad but the wireless cards can also do the same. I've never bothered to figure out what goes wrong with the card; they just end up in the trash can.

[614joe]

Soooo should i risk buying a new wireless card or will it just go bad like this one?

[RealBlackStuff]

If you get an Intel 2200b/g or intel 2915b/g you should be fine.
If it's a non-IBM/Lenovo model, you may have to apply the no-1802 hack.
We'll discuss that once you have the new card.