T42 freezes when fn key pressed, even in bios

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jkprime · #1 Post by **jkprime** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:01 pm

I have a thinkpad T42 which has just come out of warranty. It has started to exhibit very strange behaviour. Whenever the fn key is pressed it will lock up, and can only be restarted by holdong down the power button. This is repeatable and will lock the sytem at any time, even when in the bios screen, or in pre desktop area.

I have followed the IBM troubleshooting guide, and tried removing and reseating components as well as running the PC doctor diagnostics. The diagnostics show no problems.

At the same time the trackpoint and ultranav have stopped working and do not appear under device manager.

This behaviour seems to have started after the latest bios update, though I cannot be sure. I would be tempted to try and downgrade the bios to the previous version, but this is not available on the IBM support site.

Any advice is welcome and very appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

James

IBM T42
768MB Ram
80GB Samsung HD
Windows Xp Professional

#2 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:26 pm

jkprime wrote:This behaviour seems to have started after the latest bios update, though I cannot be sure. I would be tempted to try and downgrade the bios to the previous version, but this is not available on the IBM support site.

Just click on one of the links in the table near the bottom of the page.

T42 BIOS updates - including older versions

jkprime · #3 Post by **jkprime** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:47 pm

Thanks for the info, can't believe I missed that.

I downgraded the bios to the 3.13 version, unfortunately pressing the fn key still freezes the system, any other ideas as to why this might be happening would be greatly appreciated.

This seems very strnage to me, I can't believe its a motherboard problem, but it seems rather severe to be a keyboard issue.

jkprime · #4 Post by **jkprime** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 6:10 am

Just got off the phone to IBM tech support, they are suggesting its a mainboard problem. Obviously this is an expensive solution, any other suggestions or alternatives out there.

James

cruzlite · #5 Post by **cruzlite** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:52 am

Re-format/Re-install OS.

#6 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 1:26 pm

I'm guessing mainboard problem, because I read somewhere that the Fn cannot be mapped to act as a different key like the alt and ctrl keys can. I read that it changes the scan codes of certain other keys, but does not send a scan code itself to the OS (at least this is how I understood it). If the OS is not ever normally reading any scan codes from the Fn key directly, then reinstalling the OS wouldn't seem to fix the problem.

If it's not the mainboard, then it would be the keyboard itself or it's cable. IMHO.

jkprime · #7 Post by **jkprime** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 1:33 pm

Thanks for the info on the fn key, makes me think that IBM may have been right with the Mainboard issue. Tried a clean install a while ago to no avail.

Does anyone know how much a mainboard replacement costs?

James

#8 Post by **daeojkim** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 11:54 pm

Ebay is probably the best place to find one.

I do not know which T42 you have but may be it may be a nice upgrade.
I pretty sure that T41, T42 uses same chassis so a T41/p system board may also be available.

JK

T42 freezes when fn key pressed, even in bios

T42 freezes when fn key pressed, even in bios

Re: T42 freezes when fn key pressed, even in bios

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