Thinkpads Forum

Hello, I have used Thinkpads for years, my T60 (2007-62U) was recently purchased used. It is about my 15th Thinkpad, between me, my wife and two kids in college.

The search engine has been disappointing, so I will just ask.

1) On power-up, I get the screen about the ThinkVantage button.
Pressing F1 says something about the Bios settings, then goes to a black screen with a non-blinking cursor in the upper left, and a 1" high color bar across the bottom. It hangs there, I've waited over ten minute and nothing.

2) Again on power-up, the "ThinkVvantage button" screen, I press F12, the message says Preparing boot device list, goes to black screen, cursor in upper left, 1" color bar, and permanent hangup.

Anyone have any idea what am I doing wrong? I thought I knew my way around these things. I was all ready to pop in a 500gig hdd and really roll! My kids are through their college, and this was supposed to be a personal gift-upgrade from my T30 - but so far has been disappointing.

It is still under warranty, the 100gig hdd crashes under extended writes. I could send it in, but really wanted to upgrade to 500gig. Plus, I'm not too excited about the factory installed bloatware.
I thank all you folks in advance for your expertise and advice.
Bob

Remove the 100GB drive then hold down F1 on boot. Does it now go into BIOS?

I removed the 100gig hdd.
On power-up, pressing the F1 or the F12 yield the same result - black screen (the color bar and the upper left corner cursor are both gone.
I waited about 5 minutes each time - nothing but black screen.
Bob

Do you have an external keyboard that you could try the same on? Also if you power up and do not press F1 or F12, wait about 5 minutes. Does anything display? Also, try both of these things with an external display hooked up. Any change? Try hitting the FN-F4 key combination a few times.

Don't have access to another keyboard tonight, but it does seem to respond to the F1 and F12 keys - it just hangs up.
It boots with the 100 gig drive, I just can't write to it more than a very small file. It's large download that hangs it up, does not matter if it is from the net or a thumb drive or USB external drive. (In fact, I'm typing on it now.)
PC diagnostic gives error messages on the hard drive.
I guess it might be best to send it in.
The Lenovo site tells me that I am entitled to warranty service until 2/5/2010.
What does "EZServ/Depot service" mean? Do I "call for shipping box"? Where do I find the number to call?
(As many Thinkpads as I have owned, I've never had one still under warranty!)
Thanks again for the help.
Bob

I would definitely send it in for the BIOS and HD issues. Depot repair means that you call it in to Lenovo, they overnight you a box, you put your Thinkpad in it and ship it to them. The repair is done at a center and then the Thinkpad is shipped back to you. Normally the turn-around is within 5 business days or so. I would back up important data on the drive and zero it out, but that's just me. Also, if this is the original drive, make sure that you've created the recovery media. Do not ship them AC adapters or optical drives...remove them. Remove everything except for what's being repaired.

I have contacted Lenovo for in waranty service. They are sending a shipping box, I will let you all know the outcome in a week or so.
Thanks again.

Harryc wrote:I would definitely send it in for the BIOS and HD issues. Depot repair means that you call it in to Lenovo, they overnight you a box, you put your Thinkpad in it and ship it to them. The repair is done at a center and then the Thinkpad is shipped back to you. Normally the turn-around is within 5 business days or so. I would back up important data on the drive and zero it out, but that's just me. Also, if this is the original drive, make sure that you've created the recovery media. Do not ship them AC adapters or optical drives...remove them. Remove everything except for what's being repaired.

Do you advocate removing the battery also Harry?

Cheers.

If I was 100% positive the repair issue had nothing to do with the battery I would remove that as well. The problem is that often power issues can manifest themselves in strange ways, so be sure that the battery is not the issue or else you will receive a return box with no trouble found marked in big letters on the maintenance log.