Boot Screen Info Does Not Show UP - can't get BIOS page

[rim1112]

When my T60P is turned on, the HD ramps up normally and you can see it is booting, but the screen remains solid black and remains that way until the WIndows Vista 'ball' appears, just ahead of the Windows Password screen. The PC runs okay, Vista Business, 2gb. The problem is that while pressing the blue Thinkvantage button does seem to halt the PC and I think it is probably in the BIOS screen, you can't see anything so I don't really know. Anyone have any ideas how to get the normal boot info page to show up again? Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

Try an external monitor first, you may have LCD problems.

[rim1112]

HI,

Thanks. I did try that just to make sure the laptop wasn't set up for only external monitor as we sometimes stream a movie to the 'big screen', but that wasn't the problem. Works on either or both screens by Fn control selection as it is supposed to. No boot screen info shows up on either. PC works fine except that there is nothing showing until the Vista 'globe' and then the password screen. If you;ve got any other thoughts, let me know. Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

I'm guessing here: maybe a faulty, slow inverter, that needs to build up enough power to finally 'light up' the CCFL.
OTOH, it should show a picture on an external monitor, which then points to VRAM on the motherboard that is starting to fail...
What happens if you hit F1 at startup, and then wait a while to see if BIOS comes up?

[rim1112]

Not sure if I tried F1, but did try the blue Thinkvantage button and the system seemed to pause in the boot process, and I'm guessing it was awaiting further input. Of course, since I couldn't see the choices, I restarted and it just went back to the same blank sceen during the power on/windows boot sequence.

The video works fine with no signs of any 'flakey' happenings. I really believe it to be a software problem or some boot option that somehow got turned off.

For example, here is some info wrt HP & Compaq PC's:

Follow these steps to enable or disable the HP or Compaq logo screen:
Restart the computer.
If your computer came with Vista or later, press F10 repeatedly to enter the system BIOS screen.
If your computer came with XP or earlier, press F1 repeatedly to enter the system BIOS screen.
Select the Boot section using the right arrow key.
Select Boot-time Diagnostic Screen using the up and down arrow keys.
Press Enter to select boot-time diagnostic.
Select Disabled to show the logo screen or select Enabled to remove the logo screen and display diagnostics.
Press Enter .
Press F10 , and then press Enter to save the changes and exit the system BIOS.
The start up screen has been enabled.

Of course, the same issue arises, that is, if the BIOS screen doesn't display, it's pretty hard to make any changes! Catch 22?

[RealBlackStuff]

The blue button only works if you have a recovery partition on your HD.
Why don't you press F1 at bootup, like I suggested?
That's the only way to get into the BIOS.
And forget about that HP crap, it's totally irrelevant for a Thinkpad!

[Cigarguy]

^^^ Yep what he said. You might have to reflash the BIOS.

[rim1112]

Pressing F1 during bootup merely halts the computer with the blank screen. No hard drive activity. Pressing Escape begins HD activity and eventually the Vista Windows ball and password screen. A cursor arrow appears a few seconds before the ball.

[ajkula66]

Well, if you can't get into BIOS by pressing F1, you have a problem...likely a hardware one.

Remove the hard drive, start the machine and press F1 again. Is the BIOS accessible now?

[rim1112]

Ok- fixed. The machine was in 'Presentation Mode'. Once I corrected that, normal Thinkpad boot screen appeared. All good. Thanks to all.