Service Forum

Calveley · Nou Venit Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 2

IBM A21 For test, previous history unknown.
Power source AC adapter
1. Without hard drive but with RAM
At ‘switch on’ IBM Think Pad screen appears and after a few seconds is replaced by a line of meaningless characters about 50 mm from the top of the screen. If this is left on the line of characters slowly moves down the screen.( in about a minute)
The backup battery was low and was replaced. The fault appeared fixed.
It was now possible to access the BIOS Setup facility.
2. Hard drive was fitted and OS installed using CD ROM drive.
Programs installed. Computer worked well and was used on the net for about an hour.
Unit was switched off and not used for a few days.

2. At next switch did not boot and the fault had reappeared. Backup battery voltage now
normal and conclusion seems that ‘cure’ above was coincidental.
Replacing RAM makes no difference.
There are no ‘beeps’.
Operation of pressing Control/Alt/Del will reset the unit and the IBM Think Pad screen reappears.

Any suggestions gratefully received

Calveley

steve5214 · Membru Activ Joined: 07 Jan 2006 Posts: 61

I had a T22 that did the same kind of thing... no matter what i did it would fail as booting, if it got that far. Would offer to boot 1 out of 10 times. I switched hard drives and did the same just took it a little longer to fail the first time then after that just as usual.I spent a few weeks trying to fix it...
I never found out exactly what caused it but the T22 is absolutely fine now.
I would suggest removing all batteries including CMOS. leave it dead for a day or two then try it again without the hard drive in it just to see how it goes... boot to cd of somekind.
I dont know much about these things but for the T22 I always suspected some kind of malicious software problem... obviuosly bios infection ? like i say im no expert but thats how it felt.
Cheers
Steve.

Calveley · Nou Venit Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 2

Thanks for the suggestions, Steve, I am awaiting a new back up battery at present as the one in the laptop is possibly below normal (2.8 V.) I have attached a temporary back up battery with jumper leads but it is a bit messy and the tests are inconclusive. I will try what you suggest and hopefully will have a new back up battery in time to reconnect it all.

Cheers

Calveley