R61: Takes Two Tries to Start

[ArtShapiro]

A couple months ago my old T61, which I had given to a relative several years ago, was returned to me because it was allegedly stone dead. (This was posted in the appropriate forum.) It started for me without incident, but then failed twice in the next three days, requiring the ten-powerbutton-push trick to restart. It hasn't failed since.

In the meantime, I took its disk, put it into my completely-stable R61, reactivated, and shipped the R61 to that relative.

A couple months pass, and I receive word that the R61 is having troubles. I was told:

When I turn it on, it starts to do a normal start-up. The desktop screen comes on and about 3 seconds later, the computer shuts itself down. I then push the on button again and it starts up normally. I went through this routine 6 times today spread out over 12 hours.

Any ideas on this one? I never had any problems with the machine. I don't know if this is going to get worse - it's obviously only a nuisance now. I had the owner confirm that it reproduced with the battery removed, and similarly on battery with the power brick disconnected. The machine is running Windows 10 but that would seem to be irrelevant here.

Art

[RealBlackStuff]

My first suggestion would be to blame Micro$haft.
Apparently W10 has something like a "fast-booting" option, which has been the downfall of many a laptop...
I am totally against W10, especially after reading so many negative postings all over the web.

[ncovert]

I would also point the finger at Windows 10. Perhaps a forced update (as per M$ policy) borked the bootup sequence?
Perhaps it automatically switched to assuming the computer has UEFI firmware - which is of course not present on an older machine like the R61.

[ArtShapiro]

I just heard that turning off Fast Boot did not change the behavior.

Could I get some clarification on the other suggestion, with respect to UEFI setting in the BIOS? I'm not sure what to look for.

Art

[theterminator93]

There won't be any UEFI stuff in BIOS as that didn't become a feature on any ThinkPad until the *20 series of 2011. Anything insightful in event viewer?

[ajkula66]

Boot a "live" Linux CD/DVD/USB and report back.

[ArtShapiro]

The machine is 3000 miles away with a completely (irritatingly) computer-illiterate relative; the terms "Linux" or "Event Viewer" might as well be in Swahili. I might be able to connect in and look at Event Viewer. As reasonable as it seems, a Linux CD boot is essentially impossible unless the machine gets returned to me yet again, and each round trip is probably 30-50% of the machine's value.

Art

[jaspen-meyer]

A 'perfectly working machine' running a disk pulled from a machine with similar problems...
The disk is responsible -- or rather the OS on the disk. Install Linux on a drive and mail it to them.
Include some remote desktop software on the drive so you can get on the machine and hold their hand.