Hi,
My Think Pad started freezing a few months ago, Now it is really bad, it froze, I shut it off (not proper windows shut down), and now when I boot it up, it says it cannot find ROM, then it has three listings, Bios, something, and something else (sorry, thought I memorized them but should have written it down), each of them has a colon :00 next to it. I tried diagnostic mode but still the same thing. Can it be saved? I hope so, at least the hard drive, I got busy and haven't backed up in 2 or 3 months.
Please help! I can provide more info on what happened if you need any.
THX

7/16/2006 7:59:46 PM

its hopeless

7/16/2006 8:03:07 PM

would love to help... but umm... to me it sounds like the HD... back up as soon as possible... maybe somebody on here knows more about those errors... definately write them down if you see them again and post, surely someone will understand them better

7/16/2006 8:08:36 PM

Well, I fooled around with it for a while and you're not going to believe how I got it working again. When it got to the black screen at boot up it would say
LAN Driver corrupted boot agent cannot continue

Then it would move on and stop at this point for good and say
ERROR
Expansion ROM not initialized - PCI on Motherboard
Bus :00, Device: 00, Function :00

So I was pretty frustrated and just started trying keys, like ctrl alt del, F10, ctrl s, ctrl break, etc. Finally I hit ESC and it took me to windows login and I think it's working.

So now what do I do? Obviously this thing is screwed up. I am doing a virus scan, defrag, del unneeded files like temp internet, anything I can think of that may improve performance until I can get the real problem solved. Anybody got any advice?
Thanks for your help
JPF

7/16/2006 11:02:01 PM

do a checkdisk on the hdd to check for errors and bad sectors. if it's hdd related, u'll get a shit-ton of errors, etc.

7/16/2006 11:09:13 PM

My Thinkpad's HD died twice (got a new one installed after the first died), it seems to be their curse.

7/17/2006 3:58:24 PM

i smell a restoration/reformat coming

7/17/2006 4:08:20 PM

my thinkpad lags really bad when i open simple programs like outlook, wmp, or IE, and it is free of viruses/spyware. Like, when i'm playing music and open the internet browser, the music skips until the page is fully loaded. I would think it's a hard drive problem, but if you look at the cpu usage meter, it jacks up for little processes and takes forever to complete them. This leads me to believe that it could be a RAM or processor problem. Any thoughts? It's about 2 years old by the way.

7/17/2006 6:21:14 PM

not enough ram

and it has a slow hard drive to increase battery life

7/17/2006 6:24:22 PM

but i never really had this trouble before, so it puzzles me. I have a gig ram, and a 7200 rpm HD. Plus, it's plugged in.

7/17/2006 6:50:10 PM

Hey y'all, please don't laugh but I can't remember how to get to the ms dos prompt.
I ran check disk by using the "run" option but I'd like to get to an ms dos prompt so I can mess with it more and can look back and see what it did each time. Can someone please tell me how to get to the ms dos prompt?
Thanks for the help.

And no, I don't have trouble working my toaster oven.

7/17/2006 9:02:55 PM

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt

7/17/2006 10:32:09 PM

start > run > cmd

7/17/2006 10:34:46 PM

Hey,
I ran the scan and it does have errors. Is it ok to do the chkdsk /f now? Is there anything I need to do prior to running the fix?
Thanks,
JPF

7/17/2006 11:21:50 PM

Turn your laptop over and list the exact model number.

EX: 2888-EU3, 1847-CTO, etc.

It will be on the back on a black/white sticker that also has your serial number. If you don't mind, give your serial number also. I'll look up the exact error codes along with your warranty. Assuming it's under warranty then you have nothing to worry about (except possible data loss and having to use a loaner computer).

7/18/2006 1:12:56 AM

Quote :

"Assuming it's under warranty then you have nothing to worry about (except possible data loss and having to use a loaner computer)."

lol

7/18/2006 5:34:52 PM

^ I meant as far as getting the parts replaced for free...probably should have broken that sentence up and made myself a little more clear.

7/18/2006 7:07:07 PM

Hi, It turned out they had to replace the system board and I managed to get everything backed up before I took it in. Thanks for the help with this problem.
PS They did it for free!

7/27/2006 1:07:41 PM