[Mrs_needlecrafts]

I am working on fixing my son's IBM ThinkPad T43p laptop. I have tried most of the things mentioned on the other websites. I have not changed anything in the computer. I did clean up the hard drive and defraged it a week before it did this. I get what looks like a normal start. The IBM logo flashes on the screen, the fan runs, the drives whirl like normal. Then the screen goes black, there is an error message, but it is so quick I can't catch what it says. Then the white cursor starts to blink. I try to type a command (thinking it could be a command promt), but it doesn't register any letters or numbers. I went in and changed the boot listing to have the CD/DVD first and the Hard drive next. The F1 and F8 keys are the only keys that do anything during the bootup. I wonder if I have to replace the BIOS chip? I removed the SODIMM DDR2 with a different one and it did nothing. I burned a disk to try to recover the XP Pro, but it acts like it stutters while working to read it. Any help would be nice. I know I can get this back up and running if I can just find the right order and steps to do it. Thanks for reading my problem.

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Hello Mrs_needlecrafts.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,

I'm sorry to hear about your issue. We will try to help you resolve this as soon as possible.
Please understand we are all volunteers and we are not here all the time. Sometimes it may be a extended amount of time to get back to you. If it has been more then 3 days please shoot me a PM and I will try to get back to you quickly then.


First issue is we need to get a look at that error or what is commonly called a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death)
Hopefully by following the next steps we can achieve this.

BSOD outside of Windows



Start your system and at the Second post screen tap on F8 to get to the Boot Menu
Use the Arrow Keys to Scroll down to the line that says "Auto Start On Error" and highlight it.
Click Enter to disable it
The system should reboot and if not then do so.
When the BSOD shows it will stop so that you can reply with the STOP ERROR and any parameters.

[rshaffer61]

Hello Mrs_needlecrafts.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,

I'm sorry to hear about your issue. We will try to help you resolve this as soon as possible.
Please understand we are all volunteers and we are not here all the time. Sometimes it may be a extended amount of time to get back to you. If it has been more then 3 days please shoot me a PM and I will try to get back to you quickly then.


First issue is we need to get a look at that error or what is commonly called a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death)
Hopefully by following the next steps we can achieve this.

BSOD outside of Windows



Start your system and at the Second post screen tap on F8 to get to the Boot Menu
Use the Arrow Keys to Scroll down to the line that says "Auto Start On Error" and highlight it.
Click Enter to disable it
The system should reboot and if not then do so.
When the BSOD shows it will stop so that you can reply with the STOP ERROR and any parameters.

[Mrs_needlecrafts]

Thank you, for getting back to me. I went to the Windows Advanced Options Menu and highlighted 'Disable automatic restart on system failure' because it was the closest to what you told me to do. I hit 'Enter' and the message "Please select the operating system to start: Windows (default)" comes up (written in white). At the bottom of the screen is a "Disable automatic restart on system failure" written in blue (background is all black). I hit the "Enter" since the only one to highlight is Windows (default) and it is already highlighted. It then flashes the "Invalid Boot.INI file (yes, I restarted it over and over again to get that much). I am still working on the secound line under that message. I will post it when I get it.

[Mrs_needlecrafts]

I finally got the message after several restarts and a lot of focus. It is
"Invalid boot.INI file"
"Booting from C:\windows\"

I hope this helps to finding what to do next.

[rshaffer61]

Next question:
Is there any data on the hard drive that needs to be safe?

[Mrs_needlecrafts]

No, there is nothing on it that can't be replaced. I have my son save all his stuff on a seperate storage flash drive. I am more than happy to wipe it all clean.

[rshaffer61]

No, there is nothing on it that can't be replaced. I have my son save all his stuff on a seperate storage flash drive. I am more than happy to wipe it all clean.

Now that is a smart mother for sure.
Well Since the boot.ini file is messed up and nothing of importance to worry about how about we take the system back to factory setup like it was brand new?

[Mrs_needlecrafts]

Thank you. I think taking it back to the original setup sounds great. I purchased the laptop used and have no boot or recover disks. Is that going to be a problem?

[rshaffer61]

Turn the system on and what we need to do is to get into the BIOS area.
On my system it is the DEL key on the first boot screen.
Try F11 on yours.
Once there you should see something about Recovery Partition and this is where you want to go.
From there then you would want a full recovery or system recovery.
This should return the system back to factory settings.
Let me know if you can get to the BIOS and what the options are.

[Mrs_needlecrafts]

OK. I get into the BIOS and have:

Config
Date/time
Security
Startup
Restart

I do not have anything on any of those windows that say anything about partions.
Cofig has:
Network
Serial Port
Infrared
Modem
Parallel port
PCI
USB
Floppy Drives
Keyboard/Mouse
Display
Power
Alarm
Memoery

[Mrs_needlecrafts]

The Date/time is accurate.
Security:
Password
Fingerprint
IBM Security Chip
IBM Predesktop Area:
Holds recovery image(s), HW diags, service utils.
Secure: No user or SW-Initiated changes
Normal: Change allowed: contents hidden from OS.
Disabled: Not usable. Visible and reclaimable.
BIOS Update Optoin:
Flash BIOS Updating by End-User. Configure Flash BIOS Updating Options:
Disabled: Entering supervisor password is required to update Flash BIOS when supervisor password is installed.
Enabled: Flash BIOS can be updated without entering supervisor password.
Memoery Protection

[Mrs_needlecrafts]

Memory Protection:
Enabled: If your OS supports Data Execution Prevention, this setting can prevent virus/worm attacks that create memory buffer overflows by running code where only data is allowed.
Disabled: Normal state.
Note: reset to disabled if your required applications can't run.

I hope this will help.

[rshaffer61]

OK this is very detailed but it is not giving us what we need.

I'm looking to see if i can find another way but it is looking like the recovery partition is the only option without the original cd's.

[Mrs_needlecrafts]

I did download software on a disk from the IBM Support web site. I would like to try to do a total redo of the hard drive instead of a partial.

[rshaffer61]

OK before we go any further with this I would like to suggest you call IBM and see about obtaining a full set of recovery cd's for your system.
This will assure that if this problem cannot be resolved through a Recovery Partition that we have another way to do this. I would also suggest asking them to verify if there is a Recovery Partition on the system we can access.
Here is the number to call them
877-426-6006
(Monday to Friday
from 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM ET)