A31 Hangs on Shutdown, Fails to Boot, Ibm Replaced Sys Board

[tomstarich]

A31p 2Ghz/1Gig Memory XPpro- started to hang on log off and shut down. The problem was not every time but intermittant. Often if A31p was shut down right away after boot up, it would shut down just fine.

The following trouble shooting was conducted.. (Its a long read so you can skip to the bottom if you don't like long reads)

McAfee Security Suite was loaded and McAfee recommended to go to the registry and change a (bscan floppy on shutdown setting from 1 to 0) Key is located under Network Associates\TVD\Shared Componants\Mc Shield\Configuration... Change binary value of bscan floppy from 1 to 0.
This did not solve the problem but it may help someone else.

Security Suite consists of Virus Scan, Firewall, Privacy Service, and Spamkiller.... Finally all the McAfee software was removed... and
any software that did duplicate functions and was no longer needed was also removed through Add Remove Programs..... But still the hangs on shutdown and log off problems continued

I tried Selective Start up to eliminate any programs that were starting up during boot. Using run\msconfig. Even though I had a minimal start up and few items in the system tray, still no luck. Log offs were freezing and shut downs were still freezing intermittantly.

Ibm was contacted and they said could be a software conflict or a software issue. They gave some final suggestions.
*Remove all attatchments, USB, PCMCIA Cards try that
*Try each memory chip separately
*Unplug and Reseat the hard drive.
*If none of the above fix the problem...back up all data and reimage the drive using the original load from Ibm I NEVER Got that FAR..

Before I had a chance to reimage the system, after reseating the memory and the hard disk carefully I ran into more TROUBLE

Even though I had reseated the hard drive an memory with all power unplugged, battery out and I had grounded my self for static.)

After reseating memory and Hard Drive The computer would not boot at All! Yikes! Just a black screen and no hard drive activity when it was powered up.

Ibm was contacted and they had me try the following:
*Shut off power with the button, remove ac and battery. Push the power button 10 times and on the tenth time hold it down for 10 seconds. (This I am told is to eliminate any residual charge on the system board and internal componants) No luck in getting a boot up yet.

* Power up and try plugging in an external monitor and using fn f7 to switch display to external monitor.. No Luck this baby was really dead.

Ibm said they were sending out an Easy Serve box, and wanted me to ship my A31p to Memphis TENN for repair.

First I took the computer to a local computer store and they used Ghost to copy my C drive for safety then I shipped the computer to IBM. I told IBM they could reload the system if necessary.

IBM fixed the computer the very next day after shipment! I just got word from IBM that the whole System board was replaced.

Does this mean the system board was bad or is it just the fastest way to repair a computer and get it back to the customer in 3 days?

I believe my problem will be solved when the computer comes back from Memphis, Tenn.

Any comments or ideas on what went wrong?