[FIXED] X20 slow bios boot

[zaqrack]

Hello!

I'm a happy owner of an X20, but since yesterday I have the following problem:

It takes nearly a minute to get past the POST & BIOS, and also to enter the BIOS.

When set to diagnostic mode, everything runs fine, and after all the checks done there's this annoying delay - with the HDD led lighting, if the hard disk is installed.

What I've tried, and none helped:
-removing the HD
-removing memory
-removing CMOS battery
-removing battery pack
-BIOS is already the latest version
-ignoring HD boot, setting it only to CD-ROM
-booting with and without ultrabase

I suppose the origin of the problem was that I accidentally removed the Ultrabase at the wrong moment during a reboot. My other guess is a HDD problem, but removing it doesnt solve the problems. Unfortunately I have no other disk to check with.

Any help is appreciated, I have no more ideas

[zaqrack]

rebuilding the partition table fixed the problem!

[boomshalek]

I have the same issue (ca. 25 seconds to get past the POST) on a T42.

I have 3 candidates to solve it by searching this forum:
First is your tip rebuilding the partition table. So my question:
how exactly did you REBUILD the partition table. i bootet into my debian, ran fdisk, did not change anything and choosed to (w)rite the partition table again. but this didn't help.

Second is that i would have to LOW-LEVEL format the harddisk because i once made a change in my BIOS to disable HPA.
Source from 9th post in this thread

Third is, that if i choose a diagnostic boot, the Intel PXE Boot Manager is the one taking ~20secs, so maybe a Controller update flash went wrong.

As you can see, you method seems to be the easiest and less time consuming than the others. But i would appreciate if you could explain how exactly you did resolve it.

[proaudioguy]

I have the same issue (ca. 25 seconds to get past the POST) on a T42.

I have 3 candidates to solve it by searching this forum:
First is your tip rebuilding the partition table. So my question:
how exactly did you REBUILD the partition table. i bootet into my debian, ran fdisk, did not change anything and choosed to (w)rite the partition table again. but this didn't help.

Second is that i would have to LOW-LEVEL format the harddisk because i once made a change in my BIOS to disable HPA.
Source from 9th post in this thread

Third is, that if i choose a diagnostic boot, the Intel PXE Boot Manager is the one taking ~20secs, so maybe a Controller update flash went wrong.

As you can see, you method seems to be the easiest and less time consuming than the others. But i would appreciate if you could explain how exactly you did resolve it.

Could a bad backup battery cause this? Cheap and easy to replace.

[zaqrack]

As you can see, you method seems to be the easiest and less time consuming than the others. But i would appreciate if you could explain how exactly you did resolve it.

As i recall it was a simple win98/XP boot CD and the command fdisk /mbr, which of course messed up my grub install, and I had to reinstall it. Presumably dual-booting win/linux caused the problem for me.