Hello All,
My IBM thinkpad T30 wouldn't boot. On power up it displays the diagonal IBM Thinkpad splash and says
press F1 to enter setup, F12 to select boot device.
can sit there forever, or if I press F1 or F12 it shows an almost similar splash screen and says Entering setup or Creating Boot device list. Hangs.
However while is is hung above, if I press Esc, it will do a POST and then hang again. This time it displays the POST and detected devices...then says the same F1 and F12 messages without the splash screens.
I have checked the CMOS battery - voltage is fine 3V. Main battery is also good.

Now the discovery--If I remove the DVD writer and keep it out. Then Power up. It allows me to get into the BIOS settings from where I say restart - and voila it will boot up with XP perfectly. As long as I keep the DVD writer out I can reboot, do whatever without any problem at all. Second reboot onwards, I don't even have to go into BIOS- it does it itself normally.
Now I tried inserting the DVD writer while XP is running- it did recognise it as NEC etc and showed me a green arrow in the right bottom corner. But the drive is not seen in explorer and cannot be used. If I reboot now--I am back to square one with the machine hanging at the splash screen.
Same problem if I insert the DVD writer while powered off.
Challenging problem--I just hope nothing is wrong with the system board.
Thanks in advance,
Sam