Thinkpads Forum

My old X301 which went to go live with a friend came up with a strange problem that I not only haven't seen, but haven't heard of before. So, I thought I'd post it here and see if anyone else has some thoughts.

When he goes to start the machine, it behaves as it nothing is happening. Then 10 or so minutes later, the computer will go ahead finish posting and boot up.

I've tried changing out the RAM to no avail., although no socket gives the 1-3-3-1 RAM error. Still does the same thing when I only have RAM in the other socket though.

Bit of a mystery.

It might be worth checking the Boot-sequence in BIOS.
Change it to 1=CD, 2=HD and remove all the others by highlighting them and pressing "x".
Then save and switch off.
Cold-boot again, better?

RealBlackStuff wrote:It might be worth checking the Boot-sequence in BIOS.
Change it to 1=CD, 2=HD and remove all the others by highlighting them and pressing "x".
Then save and switch off.
Cold-boot again, better?

Unfortunately; no change.

Check to see if BIOS extended memory test is enabled. Load BIOS defaults. Pull hard drive and see how long it takes to boot from a CD (use anything that will boot; memtest86+, PC Doctor, live Linux, etc.).

While you're at it, replace the CMOS battery. Just in case.

Good luck.

Sorry for the delay guys, but I'm back from a trip to Taiwan now. Anyway, I got the back and tried booting from a Live Linux CD, and it does exactly the same as Windows in that it gets power, then waits and waits for some time (about 10 minutes) till it starts the boot process.

I probably should have bought a CMOS battery before I left, but things got crazy so I didn't have time. I guess I'll let my friend try that for himself when he picks it up this weekend.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.