XP will not load.

[maxemo]

I'm trying to load XP home on a Thinkpad T20 but it hangs up while loading. It gets to 34 minutes left and then it locks up. It has 2 128 sticks of RAM and I've tried taking them out one at a time but I get the same result. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Thinkpaddict]

I had the same thing happen to me with a T23. It turns out the CPU was overheating, and apparently caused some of the CPU pins to lose contact with the socket. After 3 or 4 tries it worked, but the computer kept hanging up unexpectedly. After some troubleshooting, I determined that this only happened during either peaks of temperature, or when going from high temperatures to low temperatures briskly. To make a long story short, I run that computer on a low speed now, and it never hangs (I resorted to that because other, more practical solutions, failed).

I think before the OS is loaded (like in your case) there is a setting in the BIOS to run at minimum speed. Try that. Or try blasting your air conditioner , and raise the computer slightly (for example, use two magazines on both the left and right sides, so that the bottom airs out well. If the problem you have is related to temperature, that might work.

Of course, the problem might be related to other hardware in your laptop such as memory, or could be caused by bad XP CD media.

[rkawakami]

Difficult to analyze the problem based upon this amount data, but my first guess would be bad sectors on the disk drive or your CD drive is having problems with reading the CD. If you have another hard drive that you can throw in there, try that. If you have another CD or DVD drive, try that too. If those solutions are not possible, then I suggest that you download PC Doctor from one of these sources:

If you have a floppy drive and three disks:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4YZM3F

If you have a way to burn an ISO image CD:
http://www.mypchelp.com/~dsmith/ibmutil ... pcdiag.iso

Backup site:
http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t23/ibm_t22_pcdiag.iso

Create the floppy disks or CD and then boot the laptop using said disk(s). Once PC Doctor is running, first execute the processor and systemboard diagnostic tests (located under the far-left menu heading "Diagnostic"). If those pass, then run the full memory test. Assuming that all of the previous tests pass, you can be fairly sure that the motherboard is okay. Run the fixed disk test. The tests run there are non-destructive (i.e. it does not overwrite any data). If that disk test passes, there is another one you can run under a different menu heading (which I forget at the moment). That one actually will write and read each sector on the disk and can take a LONG time to run. There is also a test to verify that the CD/DVD drive is operating properly. Make sure you load a CD that is mostly full; the Windows XP install CD would be a good one to try.

(edit: 1/2007 - Added ISO image backup site)

[maxemo]

I have tried two different hdd's and they both hang at the same spot. I'll try pc doctor this weekend. Can you tell me a link that shows how to take this T20 laptop apart. The bottom does get a lttle warm and I'ld like to see if the fan is needs to be cleaned.
Thanks

[rkawakami]

I have tried two different hdd's and they both hang at the same spot.

Sounds like a bad Windows XP disk or CD drive. Any idea exactly what step Windows was working on? Do you remember what the messages on the screen were? I know you said your machine locks up, but is the nature of the hang a BSOD (blue screen of death) or does the system simply lock up (no response from keyboard or mouse)?

Can you tell me a link that shows how to take this T20 laptop apart.

A copy of the Hardware Maintenance Manual for the T2x series can be found at this link:

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4UYM3F

Please note that these questions and answers are already available in this FAQ:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=1689

It does take some searching around to locate all of the FAQs since they are in different forums, but if you start at the "thinkpads.com Support Community Forum Index" link near the top of each page, you will eventually find it. Also try the "Search" link in the banner at the top of each page to see if there already is a thread with a problem similar to what you have.

[gearguy]

This might sound a bit stupid to some but try resetting all of the BIOS settings to their defaults.

Windows XP sometimes has trouble installing on PCs with BIOSes that have been altered by other OSes, if your BIOS doesn't have a built in restore option, just take out the mobo battery for a few mins then pop it back in.

[Kyocera]

I'm going to share my story about this same problem with a 600x, tried several different hd's 12g/40/60. Set bios to defaults, new bios battery, killdisk'd the HD first. I was using a burned CD of XP (very legit because it is a backup of the one for our Company). I searched and searched and found that burned copies can cause problems but it has worked on many other systems so I ruled that out. One time when it locked up I went to shut it down and bumped the on/off switch accidently and the HD light came back on and it started loading again, it stopped again around 23 minutes so I thought what the heck bumped it again and it started loading again. I know this is bizarre but ultimately I got it loaded and it works. Go figure

[maxemo]

I'm running the pc doctor as we speak. Depending on what this shows, I'll try resetting the bios. How would you go finding out if the windows xp disk is bad unless you try it on another computer?
Thanks for all the replies.

[rkawakami]

How would you go finding out if the windows xp disk is bad unless you try it on another computer?

PC Doctor has a CD/DVD diagnostic under the Interactive menu. Load the XP disk and then run the diagnostics. The Linear Scan does just that; steps from one sector to the next in increasing order. The Funnel test jumps from the first sector to the last and then back to the second then to the next to last, etc. (really makes that laser sled fly!). The other test is Random, which does exactly that; seeks random sectors. Those tests should tell you if there is a problem with reading any of the sectors on the CD.

If you have chosen to run the "normal" tests, then these CD tests are part of that suite, however you should make sure that the Windows XP disk is loaded before starting the tests.

[maxemo]

While running PC Doctor, the computer freezes or locks up while running communication tests at "Intel Modem Register". I have to hold the power button to reset it. Its done this 4 times. Is this a mother board issue?

[rkawakami]

Try removing the MiniPCI modem under the panel toward the middle-back of the bottom (left side of IBM label) and repeat that test. Could be a bad modem hanging things up...

edit: Sorry, but I tried to find a copy of PC Doc around here but I ended up having to burn another CD of it. I looked at the test you cited. It appears to be part of the internal modem test. Unfortunately, the T23 I have here at work at the moment is one that does not have the original modem in it. In fact, it was the cause of the system not booting for the previous owner (he sold it to me on eBay a couple of weeks ago . I understand that these modems can cause all sorts of problems when they fail.

[maxemo]

Well when I removed it. the test showed NA and went right thru. It ran the quick diagnostics with no problem. I'm going to try and run the normal diagnostics and see what it says. I did try and run the windows xp home program again and it said it was looking for a file "ASM" but couldn't find it on the disk. Maybe I'll try and reformat the HDD again and start over from scratch without the PCI cca in it.

[maxemo]

After I removed the mini pci cca the xp load went smoothly. I replaced it after I was finished and it worked for awhile and then the computer locked up again and would freeze when I tried to restart windows. I guess I'll get on ebay and pick up one. Thanks again for your help.