Urgent request for assistance

[Connie in TN]

I recently purchased an IBM TP with W2000 Professional
installed. (I use W98 on my PC; am only somewhat computer
literate.) While editing a document in Word 2000, using
the TAB key to indent each line, the screen suddenly went
black and after a couple of seconds, IBM appeared in the
upper R corner, with the words "Thank Pad" in lower L
corner. I shut it off, then back on again -- and was
returned to the same place. I pushed ESC and I heard the
"beep", then black screen with several boxes. In top
center, a rectangular box with a zero in left corner, an
irregularly shaped rectangular box within the first box,
and an arrow flashing upwards. Across the lower part of
the screen are 12 boxes, each one labeled F-1 through F-12,
with 4 flashing arrows pointing downward over the F-1 box.
I pressed F-1, and in the upper left corner were the
numbers, I9990301 and underneath that, I9990305. What have
I done? Have I inadvertantly entered setup? If so, how do
I exit and return to the desktop?

 

[Bill James]

I believe what you are seeing it the screen that appears when the IBM BIOS can't load the hard drive. Been awhile since I've seen that one, though, so not sure on the details. I would first try booting to BIOS setup and setting to default. You should also be able to tell there if the drive is being detected, and I'm thinking there also may be some diagnostic tests you can run from the BIOS setup. When you first start the computer, you should see a message that says something like Press F2 (or other key) to enter setup, so just select that key when the prompt appears.

There are many diverse models of ThinkPad, so if you need more help please include the model number in your post.

--

Bill James
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User

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