Booting issue

[JBUK]

I have a T61 which is dual boot XP and W10 using a USB keyboard and external 1920-1080 LCD with Intel graphics. It has had a strange booting issue for some time, every now and then when booting into XP it freezes just when the XP flash image comes up, the image is visible faintly but the backlight has not switched on.
Just talking about XP now it happens almost never unless I make a configuration change, like a driver update for example. It also does it when booting back into XP from W10. If the Tpad locks up and freezes requiring a power off it will always fail to reboot.

Recovery can be by simply doing a power off and unplugging the SSD for a few seconds or alternatively unplugging any of the external devices and or pulling the power lead. Or just going into the BIOS and changing a setting can restore normality although very recently it would not respond to any of the above until I reset the BIOS to defaults, then it booted up perfectly.

Ideas anyone ? Its my wifes machine and domestic bliss will not be restored until I can sort this out.

[ajkula66]

A couple of questions:

1) What is the condition of the battery, and is it genuine or aftermarket ?

2) What SSD is in there ?

[JBUK]

A couple of questions:

1) What is the condition of the battery, and is it genuine or aftermarket ?

2) What SSD is in there ?

The battery is one with about a 30min life. Not sure if it is genuine or not. But I think its genuine. The T61 is tucked away behind the monitor on wall hooks as I run it without the Thinkpad LCD so is not easily accessible, I will have a look tomorrow though.

SSD is a Samsung Evo 240 250gb, it shows no problems in SMART and I run Samsung Magician's TRIM from time to time.

[Screamer]

I have a T61 which is dual boot XP and W10 using a USB keyboard and external 1920-1080 LCD with Intel graphics. It has had a strange booting issue for some time, every now and then when booting into XP it freezes just when the XP flash image comes up, the image is visible faintly but the backlight has not switched on.

The Windows XP flash image, as in the black booting screen with the loading bar that has the blue squares in it? Or are you referring to something else? Besides that, does Windows 10 suffer from the same freezing problem too?

Assuming that the problem only affects Windows XP, have you tried checking if XP has the SATA AHCI driver installed? Does your T61 have 'Compatibility' mode set in the SATA options of the BIOS?

[JBUK]

The image I mean is the XP flag with the loading bar. Not sure about Win 10 as it is used only in desperation and very in frequently.
To keep it simple I am assuming therefore it is just XP . Whilst it could well be a driver issue I guess, as far as I can see all the correct drivers are loading including AHCI each time - except that is when it just hangs up on me as described.
I was hoping someone else had come across this problem and could help me with a resolution.
Can the BIOS get corrupted anyone ?

[Screamer]

I don't think the BIOS can get corrupted, but the CMOS battery that stores the BIOS' settings can become corrupt. When the BIOS does get corrupted, it is most likely a corrupt BIOS image that has been flashed. That is a very rare case though.

I never came across this problem, but I am guessing that the BIOS somehow has something to do with this. Do you have the latest BIOS version? Also, when you resetted the BIOS settings to a factory default state, did you change anything?

[JBUK]

I don't think the BIOS can get corrupted, but the CMOS battery that stores the BIOS' settings can become corrupt. When the BIOS does get corrupted, it is most likely a corrupt BIOS image that has been flashed. That is a very rare case though.

I never came across this problem, but I am guessing that the BIOS somehow has something to do with this. Do you have the latest BIOS version? Also, when you resetted the BIOS settings to a factory default state, did you change anything?

Perhaps flashing the middleton bios again might be beneficial. Won't do any harm at least. Strange thing was that after I reset the bios to defaults when I went through the config again the settings had seemed to be just as I would have set them. For example it retained AHCI for the disk and also Analog/VGA for the display. I don't remember having to change anything. I am not 100% sure on that but it certainly booted up straight away.
The cmos battery seems ok as I do not get any time drifting.
Another oddity happened last time. The Tpad froze while in use, it does this every now and then perhaps every two weeks. After powering down it then just would not reboot past its usual sticking point. I tried it twice then just left it til the morning.

Then in the morning it had reset itself and booted straight up into XP !

[Screamer]

If you did try flashing middleton's BIOS again, how did it go?

As for your T61 freezing out of the blue, I am beginning to suspect that the fault might be related to the motherboard. I can't think of any other reason that would intermittently cause your T61 to freeze out of nowhere, besides the motherboard. Although I could be wrong on this, but is your RAM faulty in any way? Try using MemTest86 to see if there are actual problems in your RAM modules.

[JBUK]

I have decided to try another T61 for a while to see what happens as far as the issues it has. This will at least tell me if it is indeed hardware related. So far it has been behaving itself with the same SSD fitted from the problem machine. Win 10 is not activated but it still works so is not a problem in the short term.