Stuck at Thinkpad boot screen T400 *PIC*

[MikeCL]

I was wondering before I order some USB ports is that the only reason on this model why this would be stuck on this screen because the USB port is broken and the pins are touching the metal of the port?

[ajkula66]

No it's not.

Various forms of motherboard failure can manifest themselves in this manner.

Bad DIMM or slot can do the same thing. Many other things as well.

Once you've received the unit, check the USB ports, and if they're not at fault, we can troubleshoot further, point by point.

Good luck.

[MikeCL]

No it's not.

Various forms of motherboard failure can manifest themselves in this manner.

Bad DIMM or slot can do the same thing. Many other things as well.

Once you've received the unit, check the USB ports, and if they're not at fault, we can troubleshoot further, point by point.

Good luck.

Ok It should be here Monday so I will check that.

[MikeCL]

http://imageshack.us/a/img835/1042/dsc00603va.jpg

Admin edit: Removed large (>200KB) inline image; please keep them ~50KB

[MunkyCheez]

I was wondering before I order some USB ports is that the only reason on this model why this would be stuck on this screen because the USB port is broken and the pins are touching the metal of the port?

Yes, it's quite possible that the damaged USB port is the only problem preventing your T400 from booting. Of course, this may be happening because of something entirely different malfunctioning, but this exact thing happened to a T500 at the computer shop at which I work. The T500 did the same thing as your T400 is doing: when you would power it on, it would just hang at the BIOS splash screen. We tried different sticks of DDR3, no luck. I had known about the damaged USB port since the time that the computer was brought into the shop, but I had no idea that it would be the culprit for this type of problem.

Long story short, assuming nothing else is wrong with your T400's motherboard, replacing the USB port or even bending the pins so that they don't contact other metal components should solve your problem. In your picture, it looks like pin 1 (+5V) is shorting out with the frame around the USB port. Bending this to match the other 3 pins should fix the issue. Good luck.

[MikeCL]

Yeah I made sure I read everything I could on this issue, it sucks for the people it happened to I had something happen to me like this on a 18-1 media reader that had a USb port on the front, I pulled out my printers USB cable not putting force on it and the white plastic part just pulled right out, so it's no longer useable :-/

[MunkyCheez]

Yeah I made sure I read everything I could on this issue, it sucks for the people it happened to I had something happen to me like this on a 18-1 media reader that had a USb port on the front, I pulled out my printers USB cable not putting force on it and the white plastic part just pulled right out, so it's no longer useable :-/

I agree -- it does suck. I know this sounds kind of dodgy, but if you had the plastic piece couldn't you just super-glue it back into place? There's pretty much nothing to lose.

Also, did bending the pin back fix the issue with your T400?

[MikeCL]

I agree -- it does suck. I know this sounds kind of dodgy, but if you had the plastic piece couldn't you just super-glue it back into place? There's pretty much nothing to lose.

Also, did bending the pin back fix the issue with your T400?

The laptop came this way.. no biggie since I will be installing a new jack. And yes I've been on the laptop most of the day today so it's working fine.