T21 blue screens then won't POST

[carpet]

Hi all,

Nice work with the forums, you seem to have a real nice community here.

Apologies if this has been answered before but the search function doesn't seem to be working (giving me SQL errors)

I've had my T21 for about 3 years now, and it was bought reconditioned, so in all it's older than that. I've had Win 2K installed on it and also XP recently to see if that changed things but exactly the same problem.

Recently it has started throwing up a blue screen just in the middle of anything that I could be doing (be it browsing or using a text editor, doesn't seem picky), or the screen will freeze completely (ie pointer won't move, key input does nothing) - the second is usually if it has been knocked or moved quickly.

If I then power it off and give it a couple of minutes then power back on, I can hear it come to life (fans whirr, CD is spun if in the drive) but the screen or the Ultrabay indicator don't come on and it doesn't POST and just sits there humming.

It will then only work if I turn it off and come back to it the next day, and will do the same thing again after a while.


My thoughts are it's either a heating issue (as leaving it for a day makes it work) or a HDD issue (as knocking it can cause it to freeze) or maybe even both.

Anybody able to suggest a sensible set of actions I can take to check what could be causing these problems, or has anybody seen this issue before?

[carpet]

Can anybody even recommend which parts may be worth replacing to try and solve this?

Is it going to be either the HDD or the motherboard, or something else I've not thought of?

[JHEM]

Can anybody even recommend which parts may be worth replacing to try and solve this?

Is it going to be either the HDD or the motherboard, or something else I've not thought of?

First, welcome to the Forum.

Second, get the HMM for your unit as you're going to have to go under the bonnet.

I would check for problems in the following areas. Clean the fan WELL! Make sure it's firmly seated on the CPU and renew the thermal paste. You might want to ensure that the CPU itself is correctly seated in the mini-ZIF socket, the T2X series have a history of the CPU coming loose.

Make sure your RAM is correctly seated.

Report back.

Regards,

James