T22 Power-up / Boot problem - non OS related

[krewe]

Hello Group,

I've got the following problem with my T22:
A few months ago, it started with occasional "check date and time settings" errors when I powered up the TP. This message took about a minute or two to appear after power-up, while the screen showed the IBM Logo. I then entered date and time and everything was fine for weeks, untill the error kept reoccuring once in a while, in weekly / monthly intervals. I could live with that, but now the problem is, that about 9 of 10 power-up's won't go past the Initial Logo screen. No beeps, or printed errors.
It might power up, right away, but it also ( most of the time ) would need about up to 31 ( this was my highest count ) power-ups to proceed to the bootloader. When I press either F1 ( Bios setup ) or F12 ( temporary boot device ) the screen will change immediately, by 100% to either "entering setup" or "preparing boot device list" but will not go any further, leaving no option but to turn off or to CTRL-ALT DEL.

I checked the forum and found this old, unresolved, dead post with the very same problem on another TP model:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... light=boot
I decided to open a new topic, with a bit more specific title, though.
I already did the following checks:

1. Removed both DIMM's, resulted in expected beep codes.
2. tryed both DIMM's uniquely in both banks, no impact on problem.
3. removed mini-pci LAN, HD, CD-ROM, battery pack. It did not even complain about a missing OS.
4. replaced CMOS Battery ( aka backup battery in service manual ) by a newer one ( although its voltage readings were ~ 3V anyway ). did not make a difference.

This is my System:

Machine type/model: 2647-DB6
BIOS version: 16ET32WW (1.12 )
OS: W2K & Linux
Bootloader: GRUB

Anyone out there with an idea ? I would only unwillingly dump my dispite this properly working T22.


Thanks,

Krewe