X31 hang on Windows XP bootup

[natureview]

Just got myself two Thinkpad x31 but one of them is displaying a strange behaviour. It will hang on booting up to windows XP. Tried changing the hard disc to the good notebook and it will boot up properly. Likewise the good notebook hd in the second notebook will encounter the same hang on boot up issue.

I have tried changing the ram between the two x31 and still the same behaviour on the x31. Did a diagnostic using IBM PC Doctor and everything is fine.

Is there anything else I should try on this X31?

Both X31 are the same model type 2672-CBA. Both loaded with XP Service Pack 2. One of the harddisc is loaded with IBM x31 image and the other have licensed winxp installed.


Gabriel
Thinkpad R31, R50, T23, T42 and X31 user..

[Marin85]

Are you sure both X31 are completely identical? It could be that XP keeps searching for some component (just a guess)...

[mazzinia]

Try to start the one having troubles in safe mode ( F8 very quickly during the startup, and chose safe mode without network ).
If it boots, means one of these 2 things (maybe there are more options but I cannot think of those at the moment):
1)one of the internal peripherals is not using the correct driver (look at wifi / ethernet / modem)
2)one of the internal peripherals is faulty and hangs the notebook while the os initializes

Case 1) , check the P/N and Fru of the mpci wifi card and of the modem

Generally, you may want to try also to remove the mpci wifi card and the modem, and see if it boots. Both are easy to access and remove, just under the keyboard.

[natureview]

Thanks for the tips. Just retried booting up minus the mpc modem and wireless card. The thinkpad x31 still hangs on the windows boot up screen. The fan is running and expelling lots of hot air. Anything else to try?

Thanks

Gabriel

[T39andcounting]

One question I have is has this ever worked? If not, do you have the option to return it to the supplier? If you don't have that option, and it's never worked, I assume there's no data on the hard drive, so I'd suggest trying a fresh install of XP, or a 'repair' install of XP. Doing so you'll make sure all the correct drivers are installed. If XP won't install, then you know you've got bad hardware somewhere!

One other thing to try why I think about it, have you compared the BIOS of both laptops? Are they the same versions and are there any differences in the settings?

[mazzinia]

What T39andcounting wrote is a very good point...

In general you could try to keep only 1 sodimm installed, starting with slot 0 and moving to slot 1 if the problem persists. Some X31 have been reported developing a problem with one of the 2 sodimm slots.. problem that would actually hang the notebook... and at this point smells like a ram issue.

By what's has been written before, I should assume that it boots to the HPA diagnostics and that those (pc doctor for dos) run correctly. Is this correct ? If so, I would suggest to run memtest (dos) and some other testing tool that can stress the notebook (if you have an optical unit to boot from, download Hiren's Boot cd... otherwise it can be run also from an usb stick but you'll have to find the instructions to convert the cd image).

Another thing that would hang a notebook/pc is an heatsink not correctly working... but before checking this the other things should be tested. And all this is assuming that the notebook worked when you got it...