new member ? t-23 system will not boot up past ibm screen

[Scooter1]

hello all, i just got a t23 2648 gu2 at a yard sale for ten dollars, all i got was the comp. and powercord. when i turn it own it goes to the ibm screen with the options in the bottom f1 and f12 then the comp goes to a black screen with a line blinking. i do not know much about comp. so please help. and i will need very detail instructions. dont know where to begin.
....

[Harryc]

Welcome to the forum. Have you tried to install an OS, .e.g. Windows XP ?

[Scooter1]

i think its got windows xp professional. how would i load it if i dont have a cd

[Harryc]

You wouldn't, without a CD. Does this machine have a CD drive? If you boot into BIOS (hold down F1 on boot), and go into startup, then boot, is HD0 listed and what model is it listed as?

[Scooter1]

it has a sticker on the bottom that gives the product kee for windows xp so i guess its got it. how do i know if it is installed and is the some where i can download windows

[Harryc]

...how do i know if it is installed and is the some where i can download windows

See my previous comment about going into BIOS. You can't download XP, it has to be purchased as an OEM or retail CD, or else you can purchase the original T23 recovery CD's.

[Harryc]

ic25no20atmro4 is an Hitachi drive. Run the Hitachi drive fitness test.
http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT

[Scooter1]

i got into the phoenixbios 4.0 release 6.0 for imb thinkpad

cpu=mobile intel r pentiumr 111 processor 1.00ghz-h

638k system ram passed

254m extended ram passed

512k cache sram passed

system bios shadowed

video bios shadowed

umb upper limit segment adress: dc00

fixed disk o: ic25n020atmr04-0

atapi cd-rom: cd-w28e

mouse initialized



press f1

pressf12



will that info help yaw tell me what to do?

harryc, i tried what you said and it did not work

[Unknown_K]

Black screen with line blinking is maybe BIOS password?

[Scooter1]

unknown, under rfid security i do have a clear frid security error status
and under ibm security i have clear ibm security chip
how do i clear these?

[ajkula66]

Press "enter" on both, then F10 to save and exit...

Blank screen with a blinking line is NOT a password of any kind, these will show up as a lock symbol...

[nikki605]

Last time I had a blinking line on a blank screen, the boot device (HDD, CD/DVD drive) had no bootable OS on it.

[Neil]

Blinking curser can result from missing or corrupt MBR also. My suggestion would be to boot from a live Linux CD of your choice and mount the drive to see if there is anything on it. If it's blank then you know to install an OS. If Windows is installed, then you know to try and repair the MBR.

[nom]

Hi,

if the Thinkpad still has the original harddisk, you might have a chance to restore the pre-installed Windows XP by pressing the "ThinkPad" button at startup.

As Neil said, the Master Boot Record (MBR- some important date on the harddisk for starting the operating system (Windows)) might have gone kaputt, so another thing worth a try might be the Rescue and Recovery repair media. Download the .iso file, create a CD-ROM from it. Start the Thinkpad with the CD, press "F12" to choose the CD-ROM to start from and see if the tool lets you restore the Master Boot Record (MBR).

Hth,

Nom