Good Day Everyone, I have a IBM ThinkPad R30 laptop running win2k that is
experiencing bootup problems.  It's a pretty good unit:
win2k/offxp/internet/email/quake3/etc runs great on this laptop, it's a p3
700/1000mhz (intel speedstep applet allows you to change the speed of the
cpu if you're running on battery or ac power), 256mb ram, 8mb video card,
15gb hd, 24x cdrom, 3.5" floppy drive, 2usb ports, built in 10/100 ether nic
& 56k modem, etc.  Recently this laptop starting experiencing problems
during bootup.  Instead of launching win2k after the power-on password it
goes into bios setup screen, the date shown is not the current date (it's
always mth's,days and yrs off, ex. Instead of today's today it shows
11/24/2059 - the date changes each time this happens), all of the settings
are messed with such as boot up sequence, power saver modes, cpu startup
speed, cdrom speed modes, numlock/caplock settings, etc. So after I go
through and correct all these settings,save the settings before exiting the
bios setup screen and the laptop reboots and win2k runs fine again.  I can
run win2k for a day or days on end without powering off with no problems,
but if I power off the unit and reboot it 2 or 3 times, the bios setup
screen rears it's ugly head and all the settings are messed with again.
It's not a virus issue from what I can tell, I'm running Norton Antivirus
with current virus definitions as of the end of jan03 and I've run a full
virus scan which detects nothing.  Win2k runs great when I finally get into
it, no speed issues, fatal errors, etc.  I'm running win2k w/sp3 and all of
the latest/greatest win updates applied.  The laptop rechargeable battery
itself is in good shape, I get about 2 hours working time on a full charge.
The harddrive is in good shape, I defrag, run chkdsk & Norton Disk doctor on
a regular basis and no errors are ever found.  Does anyone think this is a
possible motherboard issue (I hope not the warranty ended dec02 and would
probably cost thick cash to fix!) or possibly a cmos battery that is dying
(do newer laptops still run with cmos batteries to retain bios settings
info? I assume they do but I've never popped the lid on this laptop to check
out the internal hardware.)  Any suggestions would be welcome!  Thanks for
your help....rob,wpg

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