a22m thinkpad - a few questions/problems

[djkrackajack]

Hey all, I am new here. I kind of quickly brushed over the forums and I think my first question/problem may have been answered in the sticky. It may not be though because I have used the laptop flawlessly for the past 2.5 years with no problem with the power (re: first question). I so wish I came here before I bought my laptop though. I'm sure all the other answers are posted elsewhere on here but kind of in a rush but if anyone can help me out with posting an answer to my probems I would appreciate it just the same...

I have an a22m IBM Thinkpad 900MHz (P3) with
192 Megs Of Ram and 20 Gig Drive.

My first question/problem is this...

1) Powering Up Problems
=======================
Very recently My laptop has been acting strange. It will not power
on consistenly. If I use it and then shut it down I can't power back
up. The harddrive will flicker momentarily when I push the power
button but it will not "turn over" to start up. It used to be I
leave for about 20 minutes and come back to it then it would power
on again. I'd have to remove the AC and battery though. But now it
seems to be taking 1/2 a day or so. And sometimes it still doe snot
power on. It seems like a fairly simple solution but I can not
figure it out. I do not think its related to the battery or ac but
maybe it is? If anyone can help me with this one I'd appreciate it
as well. To also explain I use my laptop 5-6 Hours/6 days a week.
Not sure if that has any bearing on it.

2) Misreporting amount of Ram in Bios and Windows
=================================================
For some reason almost everytime I turn on machine it is only
reading 128 of Ram. Which is the one stick. The other stick is 64
Megs. The thing is soemtimes (not very often) it reads it as 192
Megs but most of the time it does not. Even I went into the Bios
and it reads 128 most of the time and 192 some of the time. Does
anyone know why this woudl be happening. I know the 128 Stick is
Kingston but I think the other stick is a different brand. Would
this matter? Basically Bios and Winodws is misreporting the amount
of ram I have. If anyone can help me find a resolution to this it
would be nice. I been dealing with it for 3 years now. I recently
updated my bios and it did not help it (not that I was expecting it
to).

3) Misreading Processor Speed
=============================
There is probably an easy answer to this one but if someoen can help
me with it woudl be great. I have a 900 MHz and it ALWAYS reads it
as 900 MHz in the Bios and thats what I was told it was. Howevre
almost everytime I go into Windows (XP) in reads it as 600 MHz, 699
MHz or soemthing considearably less (200 MHz). This is with both
the Battery and AC is plugged in and also on Battery Power.
Someone told me to ignore the number that Windows reads it as
because its based on whats in the Bios. Not sure I believe that.
Liek I said I updated my Bios and it has not solved this problem
either if anyone knows a soltion this it would helpful as well.

Thank you all. Jordan. My specs for this machine are again listed
below.

A22m Think Pad (PIII)
900 MHz
192 Megs Of Ram (1 stick of KIngston 128 Megs and 1 other Brand of
64 Megs)
20 Gig Harddrive
8 Megs of Video (I think?)

[djkrackajack]

After reading the forums I think I have dedused the 1st problem and a Solution. Maybe a problem with the CMOS battery. Before I venture to even take it out, I have to figure out where I'd pick up another one first in my city. I assume the other answers are in the forums as well and I will try to seek them out. Perhaps the reason why I am not getting any responses. But if anyone can help me out by answering them would be great. Either way, this is a great forum I wish I came accross it way before this. Could have helped with alot of issues that I had to figure out for myself.

[robert_l_ross]

Just out of curiosity, on the problem with the processor speed, what do you have the speed step settings at in the bios? Did you check to see if you have it on the power settings all the time? That might cause it to read slower even when the ac adapter is plugged in.

...just a thought.

[Deb Suran]

One of mine, the only A22 I have left, reads 699mhz in WinXP with a 1gig CPU even though it clearly ran faster than a similar 800mhz A22 I gave away today (so I can't check that one for you). I'd ignore the reading.

For your RAM, test the chips one at a time, each one in first one slot and then the other, to see if you can narrow down the problem to either a chip or a slot.

And yes, your power issue is as described in the sticky I wrote, I have had much too much experience with your exact problem. Follow all the instructions in the sticky in order and if you don't see an improvement either the mobo or the CPU is kaput. Sorry.