Thinkpads Forum

I have been having an intermittent problem on my T61 running XP Pro. Occasionally (maybe 3 times a week). When I boot, the following will happen:

The machine will Boot up as far as showing the Microsoft XP Splash Screen with the Microsoft Flag, and the rectangular progress bar. But, the screen (all graphics and text) will be VERY DIM, and there will be NO (not even initial) activity in the progress bar. Trying to reboot (power down/up again) several times and/or letting the system "rest" a few minutes will eventually allow for a completely normal boot.

I am at a loss as to what might be causing this, and how to troubleshoot it. Since it is not reproducible/intermittent I cannot send it in for service.

Do I have any other choice but to live with it until/if it fails completely?

In trying to narrow this problem, I noticed one thing. On a normal boot, the Window XP Logo/Flag starts out dim, and takes a few noticeable seconds to go from very dim to bright. But, the times that thins freeze, it just comes up on the screen at the dimmest, and never gets brighter (and the progress bar never moves).

Does any one know what is controlling the transition of this splash screen from dim to bright? The GPU? Maybe knowing this would help narrow the problem?

Any ideas?

Look in the event log. See if there is a message.

I had that on my T61p running Vista 64-bit some months back. It only happened a couple of time, and then totally disappeared with time and updates. I don't really think I had a hardware issue, but your situation may well be different than mine. ... JDH

The following occurs to me after some thought: Any botched startups (about 3 total) occurred with the Atheros wireless card (which never worked reliably), whereas NO problems at all with the Intel wireless (which works a treat). Note from my past post that I had been a long-time Atheros fan.