T61 Froze and Won't boot anymore.

I love thinkpads, so I'm trying to stay positive here.

I have the Following error when I boot up:

Failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To Fix the problem:

1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and then click "next"
3. Click "repair your computer"

I have no disk, so I contacted support and they want me to do a factory restore. I just spent 3 days configuring this machine and I hope there is a way of fixing this without having to loose everything and start from scratch.

After the above lines it says:

Status: 0xc000000f
Info: the boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

Then if I try to start the system again I get the following:

File: \Windows\system32\config\system
Info: Windows failed to load because the system registry file is missing, or corrupt.

I'm hoping for a better way out.

 

Background Info:

T61 Core Due 7500 2.2Ghz -- 3 gig of ram (1 from lenovo 2 transcent).
1 Gig Turbo Memory -- NVS 140 Graphics -- 7200Rpm 100Gig HDD -- Vista Ultimate 32bit

I got my T61 4 days ago and it was a rocky start on day one,(laptop froze like 4 times in the first 4 hours that I used it) but once I updated Windows Vista Ultimate, and downloaded all updates from lenovo, the laptop was stable and behaving like it should throughout day 2.

Day 3 was just great as well. Installed office 2007, installed firefox, opera, adobe web suite and my usual software. Everything was perfect during day 3. I used all my apps and all was great until I installed Sony Vegas 7 and the SQL server didn't install properly. I tried running the program, but the media manager didn't start. Then I thought "well this sony vegas was for windows xp, so maybe I should uninstall it”, so I did. The process was fine I proceeded to configure outlook and move my pst, etc. After I was done with all that and was surfing the net and the computer froze completely and I had to restart by pressing the power button.

Day 4 (this morning); I was surfing the net and it seem to behave fine, but then I began to be bothered by a hot palm rest (It might've been hot from day one, but just now I noticed it) so I started to read about that and see if other people had experienced such a thing with the T61, didn't see much on it so I went ahead and tried to find a HDD Temperature program to see how hot the hard drive was. I installed a couple programs that didn't seem to work (Maybe not for Vista?), then I uninstalled them. One of them kind of gave me an error while uninstalling, so I decided to forget about the hot palm rest for now.

Restarted the computer and went online, things were ok; but then the computer froze. Internet explorer was not responding. I tried to log out and couldn’t, tried end task and did not come up; so I did a hard shutdown through the power button.

After that the computer gave me the errors above and I’m lost.

It will not boot to save mode in any way, and other than that I don’t know what to do.

I think the problem might have been that I’ve been installing programs in vista that were for XP; I kind of went careless with this I guess.

I did a hard drive diagnostic from the bios and the HDD seems to be fine.

Any help really appreciated.

 

i never had an issue with heat with my T61 when it was working. the thing ran very, very cool. seems like there's something very wrong with your machine (obviously). is the fan running? i'd just send it in and have them diagnose it if time isn't an issue.

 

Seems for me a software issue, not hardware. Since it is a new machine, I would format and reinstall windows. One question: do you have turbo memory? This turbo memory seems to cause some problems without change some configurations. Do a search about that here in the forum.

The warm (not hot) palm rest may be normal. If your machine has discrete graphics and 7200 rpm hd, it is normal to be warmer than a machine with integrated graphics and 5400 rpm. Moreover, my machine was warm in the palm rest during the first days. After a clean install and with some weeks using it, the machine seems now cooler.

 

Yeah, I think it is a software issue. I would hate to restore though, hours and hours of configuration and installation would be wasted.

If at least I could repair the OS without having to go to factory defaults. I think this is possible to do with a vista cd which makes me wonder why Lenovo doesn't include the vista disk with the laptop. I give it a day or two of replies before I format.

 

About Turbo memory

 

I knew of those Turbo memory problems before buying the laptop, so I kind of took a chance. If I get it to boot again, then I'll deal with those.

I know a friend that has a copy of Windows vista business, so hopefully that get's me to the repair console. First I have to go get the copy though. I'll see what I can do then.

 

I assume your vegas copy is bootleg.
Any editor worth his salt would never ever consider installing the application designed for another os.
edit

and you better do a clean install, don't even think about a repair job, u r just postponing the inevitable.

 

disable hybrid power saving in power management..your freeze issues should be solved!

 

I didn't think about XP vs Vista while installing anything to my laptop. It only came to me after the sql told me that there were comparability issues and it crashed. I installed all my software without reviewing if it was compatible or not (bad thought process, I know). I installed the same programs I had in my T23 with XP from the same cd’s and same everything.

I’m not an editor by the way. I use Vegas because it was given to me as a gift with my new Canon HDV20 camera; I have used the software like three times though. I am planning to use it more with my new computer though… if I ever get it to work!

Again, if I ever get it to work I will proceed to solve these problems with the suggestions I've received.

 

I've been reading about this and it looks reasonable if I have to start over again from scrach; but I'll try to avoid that for now. Although I have to agree that a clean install will be better. I had a bit over 100 processes prior to my computer crashing an burning!

I'm going to visit my friend now to see if his vista cd works for me. If it doesn't then maybe it works for a clean install.

 

For future reference I was able to fix my computer with the vista repair using a vista disk.

I called Lenovo twice and both reps told me that my only way out was to do a system restore to factory defaults (that means losing all data and all programs).

Both reps also told me that they do not supply any type of disks with their systems, we are supposed to burn a copy of the recovery disks and that’s it. No OS disk, no recovery, no nothing is sent with the laptops. Funny, but I did get 7 recovery disks with my laptop when it arrived. The reps swear that they do not ship any type of disks.

Then I went and got a friends copy of windows vista. I have Vista Ultimate installed; his copy is Vista Business Upgrade. It still worked!

I popped the disk in, followed the instructions to go to repair. Then Vista told me that it was checking for errors. Then it told me that it will restart and if the OS was not fixed it will try again. After this, it was done and I was able to boot up again.

Now... I am in shock! Why would a pc manufacturer not supply a person with the OS disk, considering it took me 5 minutes to fix this problem? It took me longer to get the disk because I had to go to my friend’s house 2 times (20 minute drive to go and then 20 to get back). I might even do a whole new thread on this; I just can’t believe they would have you wipe all your data and software when a simple 5 minutes can solve the problem with the right resources. That CD saves hours of backing up data, restoring, updating, reinstalling sotware, etc.

I might add though; after reading about clean installs I think I’ll be going that route. I have 94 processes running right now and I think that's outrageous.

I did a clean install in my T23 with XP pro and used it for 2 years without trouble; so I guess I might have to do the same in order to be happy with Vista.

That’s it for now!