T400 stuck at boot up screen

Hey gang, we have a T400 that was fine this afternoon. Went to boot it up tonight and it only seems to get as far as the initial pre-bios screen with the Thinkpad logo. It says to press the blue ThinkVantage button to alter the normal boot, but no matter what I press at this point, I can't get it to go any further than this.

I've tried pressing all of the F-keys. Are there any other key combo's I should try here? Any other tricks which might help it boot up? I've also tried removing the battery and power cable, letting it sit, but that didn't appear to help either.

Thanks in advance!

 

Fn + F-key.

 

Hey guys, I've found a few threads and have done the suggestions of removing the main battery, removing the CMOS battery, pressing the power button 10 times, etc. Still stuck at the very initial boot screen.

I do have another question - it appears the main battery may be dead, or very close to it. When on AC power, it'll power on and get stuck. When on battery, it won't even try to boot up. Assuming the battery is dead, could this be the problem as to why its getting stuck where it is?

 

Can it boot on AC without the battery installed? A dead battery should not stop it from booting, but I guess its possible there may be something else wrong with the battery circuitry.

Aside from the battery, you could try reseating everything (HDD, RAM, wifi card and anything else you might have installed). If that doesn't help, try removing everything and see if anything changes. If not your motherboard is likely at fault. If yes then reinsert one part at a time until it gets stuck again.

Of course, remove power to the system before messing with any parts.

 

Remove the main battery and boot a "live" Linux CD to see whether the machine is usable that way.

Report back with any progress or lack thereof...

 

Thanks for the continued responses.

Yes, the PC can start up without the battery in, while connected to battery power.

I removed the HDD last nite and was able to get data off. While trying to boot without the HDD, it still gets stuck. I don't think its even getting to POST or the PC would have complained about the lack of hard drive, right?

I also tried booting with a Win 7 disc in, and the same thing. It just never gets that far. I suppose I can try with a live linux CD if you think that'd be any different?

I'm really stumped by this one. Probably something on the motherboard.

I did reseat the RAM and HDD. I even took out 1 RAM stick at a time to see if it was perhaps one of those, but no luck. Let me see if I can find where the wifi card is....

 

I'm sure you'd have tried this already if you could, but try another battery? Also, you said it boots up if connected to the wall without a battery. What happens if you boot it up without the battery and then pop the battery in after it's booted?

 

I'm not sure I'd want to try that. If the battery is messed up enough that it prevents the computer from booting, I'd be afraid that popping it in afterwards may blow a fuse on the motherboard. Then you're looking at replacing the motherboard (unless you're handy with a soldering iron and can replace the fuse yourself), which is going to be a lot more expensive than buying a new battery.

Just to make sure, the computer DOES boot up fine on AC without the battery installed?

EDIT: If the computer works fine without the battery, then your problem is most likely the battery, but if its not, I just remembered that some time ago my T42 got stuck at the IBM splash screen. Since it was already an old machine at the time I decided to part it out so I started by removing the optical drive. Just for the heck of it I tried powering it up without the optical drive and voilà, it worked! Putting the optical drive back in crashed the computer, so I knew for sure the drive was the culprit.

 

Probably true, but if the system is a goner otherwise, it might be worth a shot. It sounds like a battery problem anyway...

... so if that's true, just getting a new battery could be the solution.

 

Most of the current "live" Linux CDs have a RAM testing option as well, and that's where I would start if I were able to get to the screen in question...

T400 is a fairly reliable platform generally speaking, and I'd hate to see you ditch the machine without a good reason...

Best of luck.

 

I am experiencing the same problem. I have a W510. I saw this thread so I'm hoping this info will help. But I don't understand what key you are recommending. I see the FN key in the bottom left corner, and I see F1 through F12 keys, but I don't see the other key after the + sign in your recommendation.

 

Check for broken USB ports. I've had several T400's with busted USB ports that would not boot if any of the broken ports had leads that were touching each other or the chassis.

 

I think you might have nailed it. Checked the right side USB and it looks normal. However, when checking the left side ones, both are missing the little black piece and prevents the mouse (or whatever from going in the wrong way) and one of the ports had the pins all mashed down.

I'm guessing the kids aren't going to be allowed to touch Mom's PC anymore.

So these USB ports - are they soldered to the MB or is it an easy replacement?

Thanks for the continued comments guys.

 

Oh boy, I straightened out the pins and now the laptop will POST. Going to stick the HDD back in and see what happens. This is good news.

 

Press & hold "Fn" key, the press "F*" key.

Sometime the BIOS lose the ability to recognize single entry, then you need "Fn" as function key to active "F*" keys. "F*" mean F1, F2, F3.........