So, it's time for another installment of "Hey Jeanna, will you fix my computer for me?"

This time, I'm dealing with an old IBM ThinkPad 380ED, P166, 48mg Ram, 2.1G HD.

Father-in-law bought it years ago, upgraded it from win95 to win98 at some point, and all was well.

Yesterday he brought it to me saying it wouldn't boot. Why? Doesn't know, just won't boot. Oh, and the battery's dead.

Battery being the least of my worries, I plugged it in, turned it on, it booted beautifully to Win98. Obviously, the last thing done on the laptop was a format and reload of the OS - splash screen welcoming me to Win98 and not a single other thing installed. Worked beautifully, for what it is, and I couldn't find a thing wrong with it. Even the battery seemed OK and was charging nicely.

I puttered around a bit then restarted the computer. Lo and behold, it informs me that there is no boot disk detected, please insert boot disk and press F1.

I've tried at least two dozen times -- it seems the first, lucky, time was a fluke. I used a win98 startup floppy, and could not navigate to the C:\ prompt that way either. No drive C recognized at all.

I'm unable to take the laptop apart to check connections, etc. I tried, but could only get it part-way (there must be some hidden screw, clip, or something, but I couldn't find it). I was not reassured when a spring fell out into my lap when I *did* get it partially opened! I believe it was only to the CD drive, though, which I had noticed did not "spring" open when used.

So... any suggestions?

Hi Jenna W, can you boot into the BIOS (either pressing F2 or the Delete Key) when the laptop starts, and check the boot order.

I can't get into BIOS. Have no idea why, but neither Delete nor F2 is working and it gives me no indication if there's an unusual key which must be pressed.

However, the computer just booted again -- normally. I'm sure when I restart, it'll fail.

The only pattern I can see is that when it's turned off for several hours, it seems to boot correctly once? Going on only two good boots, that could be coincidence.

So, after some research (Google is indeed my friend) I found my way into BIOS. Start order is fine. BIOS has a self test which refused to test the HD - I don't think it could see it either.

Two good startups, then let the computer run for a couple hours, couldn't restart. It seems to boot only when cold.

Ideas?

Sounds like the psu is shot and the temps are killing it.