Hang Before Post

[saberman]

ThinkPad x201 8GB RAM 500GB HD Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Occassional, when I poser on the machine I will get the initial gray screen and the system just hangs. Usually, I can get around it by pressing the power button. Recently, this did not work. The system just sat there with a gray screen -- brighter at the bottom and getting darker toward the top. No matter what I tried I could not get it to shut off the screen or to start the post sequency. Finally, I pulled the battery and then put it back and was able to start the machine. Is there any type of reset button somewhere (like a desktop has) that would allow me to reset the machine without pulling the battery? Why does it occassionally hang like this? Any suggestions/information would be appreciated.

[richk]

If you have a warranty, call support. Probably, something is failing in the POST. If you have no warranty, I would run a diagnostic on the hard drive and the memory. I would reseat both.

[saberman]

The unit is six months old and still under warantee.  I even bought the next business day warantee enhancement.  Unfortunatelym, although Lenove charged my credit card for the enhanced warantee they say they have no record of it.

I have run all of the diagnostics that Lenovo provides and they all report the system is fine.  But I don't think their diagnostics actually test everything.  i had a problem with the wi-fi radio -- it would not turn on.  But Lenovo's diagnostics said everything was fine -- just there wasn't a hot spot in range.  (The laptop was two feet from my wireless router which was happily connected to machines upstairs at the other end of the house.)

I am loath to open the unit up and start reseating components.  Expecially, since the unit doesn't show the first splash screen -- which means it isn't even going into post.