A30 won't boot, disk drive light stays on

[slowbiscuit]

Hi all, great resource here. I've got an old A30 that just decided not to boot yesterday after working fine for months. It will power up but the disk light does not go out. No beeps at POST, it just lights up all the leds and then all but the disk and power lights go out. No startup screen, no nothing, just hangs.
I've narrowed it down to a problem with the left Ultrabay (Plus I think), which has the DVD drive. I noticed that the Ultrabay light for the DVD goes on at boot and then turns off (the bay light for the floppy stays on). The DVD seems to power up normally - the DVD light goes on as it spins up then shuts off. If I remove the drive from the bay, the A30 disk drive LED will not stay on at boot but it still hangs as before.
I've tried removing all devices (DVD, floppy, hard disk) but it still hangs at boot with no drive light, just the power light. I've also tried removing power completely by unplugging power, removing the battery, and removing/replacing the CMOS battery. But nothing helps, it just hangs with no beeps no matter what I take out.
I'm thinking that the system board has a problem talking to the DVD Ultrabay since the drive light stays off if I take the DVD out, but the connector is integrated into the mobo. I pulled the keyboard and bezel to take a look but everything was tight. There's no cables that I can see.
Anybody seen this problem before? Thanks in advance.

[JHEM]

1) Reseat all memory.

2) Open it up and reseat the CPU in the mini-ZIF socket. (Clean the fan while you're under the hood and put a dab of Arctic Silver between the fan and CPU.)

Report back.

Regards,

James

[slowbiscuit]

Tried the memory reseat, didn't fix it.

#2 is a pain, but I don't see how the PC would work at all if the proc was not properly seated. Thanks for answering.

[slowbiscuit]

Interestingly enough, this problem was caused by a bad IBM High Rate Wireless card (the 802.11b MiniPCI card). Removing it fixed the problem and allowed my A30 to return to normal. Could also be an intermittent connection or a short with the card, because it worked once when I reinstalled it and then hung the PC again.

I will solve this for good with the installation of an Intel 2915ABG card, wanted to get an upgrade to 802.11g using the internal antenna anyway.

[schen]

I'm sorry I didn't see this post until now, since I had the exact same problem on my wife's A30! I could have saved you some hassle! I did the same thing you did and it went fine. Glad to see it went well for you though!

[slowbiscuit]

Thanks man, I was kind of kicking myself after I figured it out, it was the only thing I didn't try initially.

I just picked up the Intel 2915ABG 802.11a/b/g MiniPCI card for $20 shipped on ebay and it works fine, no need for BIOS hack or anything. Using stock Intel PROset drivers and XP to manage the connection (I did not install the PROset card manager, just the drivers).
IBM must've disabled that stupid wireless card check in the later BIOS revs.