I got an IBM Thinkpad T42. For probably over a year it hasn't work, and I didn't try to really do anything since I got a new thinkpad right before it stopped working. I'm trying to fix this up for someone now.
 
Here's the problem.
 
When I power on, I press the blue 'Access IBM' button.
After a minute, i get the following message:
 
\minint\system32\biosinfo.inf could not be loaded
error 4096
 
I then restart the system until I get to the screen that tells me windows XP did not shut down normally.
I choose safe mode.
 
When it starts to go through everything, these are the last 2 files it gets hung up on.
 
mup.sys
agp440.sys (the last one)
 
I only include mup.sys because that's a problem I've had with my other thinkpad when it overheats and crashes sometimes.
 
When all the files are listed, something comes up at the bottom of the screen for a few seconds saying something about pressing escape.
 
I press escape.
 
A blue screen comes up only for a second. All I was able to read was "bad image checksum."
 
It then goes to the windowsXP load screen with the graphic and the horizontal bar moving. (it's not frozen, just gets hung up and loops forever)
 
I restart the system. try 'last good configuration'
 
and as I type this, it's been about 15 minutes at the windows xp load screen.
 
 
 
Anyone have any ideas?
 
Not sure if it's corrupted files, a corrupted HDD that needs replacement or something else. I was possibly gonna sell this so I want to know if it can be anything besides the hard drive.

I should also note that I have some files on here I'd like to recover, so I haven't tried to reinstall an OS from scratch. Plus this was a notebook I got from my school, so no cd's were included. I do have a copy of XP though that is currently not being used on any pc. I'd prefer a way to fix this rather than just write over it if it is at all possible.

Okay, I took some pictures of what it says when it only flashes for a second.
 
When going into safemode, 2 different things happen.
 
1st it sometimes takes like 2 minutes to load the files. when this happens, the blue screen says:
 
STOP: c0000221 unknown HardError
\SystemRoot\system32\ntdll.dll
 
 
 
The second one is when the files load quickly.
 
STOP: c0000221 {Bad Image checksum}
The image kernel32.dll is possibly corrupt. The header checksum does not match the computed checksum.
 
 
I've also gotten this once when starting in safe mode.
 
Under a black screen it says:
 
There has been a signature failure.
A disk read error occurred.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.
 
 
Everything seems to point to corrupted hard drive, but I've read that 'STOP c000021' errors can be linked to other hardware failures such as memory. Anyone have an idea?

Could try running the hdd mfg's diagnostic/repair software.  Could get a Windows CD try  Repair but doubt it would help but never know.  Finally, you might be able to  create Linux startup CD and recover your data, but someone else would have to help you do this

I tried to run the ubuntu startup disk just to see if I could run the os off the cd. It works, so I'm doubting it's any other hardware issue. When I tried to partition and install, It wouldn't recognize a hard disk to do so. Plus when loading it gave many errors which I believe were about the hard drive. So i'm guessing the HDD is done.  
 
One thing I find wierd though is I can't remove my hard drive. It's stuck. (I know how to do it and it's not me.) So now I'm thinking it might even be a broken SATA port or something. I'm gonna try taking the cover off and see what the problem is.

nevermind. forced it out. can't ever remember it taking that much force to get a hard drive out though.

Time to get a new drive, that one is cursed

I'm just gonna buy a new one and put it on craigslist. If anyone needs a <SPAM>
 
I really wanted an explanation of how I could get so many random error messages though.. If anyone has an explanation despite my problem being resolved, please post. My curisoity and other future searching members might find it interesting.