T60P Won't boot into Win 7. New mainboard just installed.

[Truthfinder]

Good evening one and all:

A very good lifelong friend of mine passed away last week and his family has given me his
2008-83U , T60P which has just be completely redone by the Lenovo repair Depot.

The following work was completed a couple of weeks ago: The below items were replaced.....

1. Mainboard
2. 1 gig ram module
3. 14: SVGA+ Display
4. Top Lid Cover
5. Hinges
6. PCMCIA Door Cover

Anyhow, my pal installed a 250gig HD and did a ground up install of Windows 7 Pro. This was a retail copy. Since the repair, the T60 won't boot up into Windows. I beleive this is a result of the new mainboard that was replaced. I guess the opperating system thinks this is not the same ThinkPad.
Ca anyone direct me on getting this system to work so I don't have to format the drive and start over. I would hat to loose all the great software Norm had purchased and installed on this unit. Moreover, it's just too much work to start over.
Kindest Regards, Steve

[Harryc]

I don't think it's an issue with the mainboard being new or not programmed. In looking at your sig, I think what I would do first (after I backed up the T60 drive drive) is swap the hard drive from the T60 into the T60P to see if it boots. If it does, then we need to look at the W7 install on the new 250GB drive.

[ZaZ]

I believe it's an activation issue. See here. Windows 7 was installed then the board along with a lot of other parts were swapped out, which would trigger the activation error. I think OP needs to call Microsoft and get it straightened out.

[Harryc]

I'd think that the Activation routine would post an activation error on boot (or after entering windows) if this was an activation issue. Many times I've replaced hardware and the only time I've noticed an activation problem is when I go to reactivate Windows. To the OP, does any activation error appear? Does any error appear at all? What exactly happens on boot? If the board was replaced after the install of W7 (not clear from the OP's post), I agree that the install 'may' need to be reactivated because of the potential changes in the BIOS version or machine type/model/serial if they were not programmed by the repair tech after replacing the system board. I think it would still boot into Windows though unless the hardware change itself introduced the need for another driver which would prevent boot, like a new IDE controller or video driver...not the case here. The result there would usually be a BSOD.

[TTY]

It could be that the new motherboard doesn't have a current BIOS. You'll need version 2.25 or later to run Windows 7.

[Truthfinder]

Hi everyone and thank you all for the info.

Ok, here's the deal.... Lenovo did relace the mainboard and after loading another HD with a XP restore, the T60P ran for about two hours at which time the replacement board took a Cr^P.
With that being said, I just got another box from Lenovo and the unit will be heading back. This thing has been to them THREE times in a two week period. They can't seem to get it right, so now they have upgraded it to another level of repair, whatever that means. I just hope it means that someone who knows what they are doing can get my unit back to the unit it was before things went bad.

I'll post once it gets back in my hands to see if Win-7 works or what. I would hate to have to format my drive and start over. Too much to loose.

Steve

[Harryc]

I would hate to have to format my drive and start over. Too much to loose.

...I hope you didn't send the laptop in for repair with important data on the hard drive. The rule of thumb with these depot repairs is that you should remove all customer replaceable FRU's before sending it in ....hard drive, optical drive, extra RAM, battery, AC adapter.