R40 hanging at logo -- hardware or bios problem?

[richpearl]

after 3 months of problem-free usage while travelling, my R40 -- model #2897 -- has begun to hang at the logo. i used F1 to enter the bios utility, changed nothing because i did not know yet what to look for, and then exited to ponder and do some research. to my surprise, WinXP loaded, and all was fine until i rebooted and got the same result, hanging at the logo. this time, however, when i exited the bios utility, my CD-DVD combo was not recognized. this had not been the case on the previous excursion to the bios utility, where after loading XP i was able to burn a data CD with the files i wished to have backups of.

looking around online, i noted my BIOS, version 1.18, is outdated. i then ran the update connector and it told me i was current. knowing this to be untrue, i have downloaded version 1.21 and printed out the instructions. i intend to update tomorrow.

i do, however, have a couple of questions i hope someone will be kind enough to comment on:

is there a way to get the cd-dvd back while in windows? i used to see it as a hardware device that could be unpluged or removed, in the same manner that i turn my wireless pc card. it's no longer there. is there a place to initiate the CD using the Thinkpad Utility?

should i use the add hardware app in the control panel? if so, how? the wizard does not find anything new.

should i use the system restore that comes with XP, and go back to when all was well? will it restore the bios settings?

or should i not seek to fix this from inside windows?

if that's the case, should i concern myself that because the computer has been hanging at the logo, pre XP stub, i will have problems running the bios update utility? i know that shutting down during this procedure can do severe damage. is this an operation for a pro?

will it help if i go first into the bios utility and turn back on the default settings? bear in mind that the notebook came to me already up and running, so i have never seen the default settings.

all comments and help will be appreciated. i wish to thank in advance any responders, and i hope there's a solution here that will help others.

best wishes to ALL,

rich pearl

[jon]

Sometimes the BIOS will hang for a while trying to detect devices that aren't behaving properly. Maybe there is something wrong with your CDROM drive. I had this happen on an old laptop some years ago.

No, most likely it has nothing to do with Windows. If the CDROM isn't showing up in the BIOS, then Windows won't see it anyway. No need to troubleshoot from within Windows; especially don't waste time restoring the original drive image. If it shows in the BIOS, Windows will see it.

If your computer has been running fine so far, running a BIOS update probably won't fix anything. Did you look at what changes have been made since your BIOS version? Any mention of CDROM drive issues?

This just looks like something is wrong with the drive, maybe just a loose connection. Did you try removing and inserting it into the bay again? Do you have another drive to test with? Have you done anything recently eg. dropped it, bumped it hard, spilt coffee on it etc...

[monty cantsin]

should i concern myself that because the computer has been hanging at the logo, pre XP stub, i will have problems running the bios update utility? i know that shutting down during this procedure can do severe damage."

Yes, that could happen in the worst case. Try to rule out any severe, hardware-induced failures prior to flashing a new BIOS.

Press the <ESC> key when the logo screen is showing up and tell us whether the Power-On Self Test reports any malfunctioning devices.

[Danci]

I have a similar problem, the bios can't seem to find the cd-rom and it sometimes takes 2-3minutes just to get past the boot screen..

sometimes the cd is shown in windows and sometimes it's not, I have a hunch that is has something to do with the WLAN card cause when the cd-rom is shown in windows and i deactivate the WLAN card the cd dissapears from 'my computer'.. Donno if anyone has had a similar problem but hope someone can give some comments on it..

I have a R40-2722 - latest bios...