TP 600X Always Boots to Easy-Setup

Question

Hello...
It's a 600X 2646-D3U. BIOS is BIOS ITET55WW, 11/30/99
I bought it used in 2004 and it has served two kids reasonably well. They've moved on to more current hardware and I'm trying to bring it back to life. 
I replaced the 'button' battery, the li-Ion battery and the keyboard. It had/is been running WXP for a few years. But...
No matter what I do, it always boots to the Easy-Setup screen. I've gone through all the options there and confirm/reset the config & boot options.
If I then select 'Restart', it comes back to the Easy-Setup screen. If I just press ctrl+alt+del from the Easy-Setup screen it boots to WXP and the Windows Logon screen.
It's almost like the F1 key is stuck down during power-on. There are no indications that the F1 key is not working correctly.
Any suggestions/help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

I believe that a stuck F1 key is about the only one you can have stuck on the keyboard and still be able to boot into Windows.  I just duplicated your problem with one of my 600X systems by continuously pressing the F1 key and booting.  It goes right into the Easy-Setup menu and then Windows after the CTRL-ALT-DEL, while still holding onto the F1 key.  The F1 key is typically used by Windows programs to bring up a Help window. For example, if Firefox (3.5) is running, pressing the F1 key will open a tab at the support page; Internet Explorer opens up a popup Help utility.
You can verify the functioning of all of the keyboard keys using PC Doctor for DOS.  The program can be downloaded directly from here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-495KW2
This program will create a bootable floppy with the diagnostic program.  If you prefer to use a CD-R, then I host the same file as an .ISO here:
http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_600x/dgpcdoc.iso
Boot the system with the media and select the 600X from the menu of supported systems.  Once the diagnostic is loaded, select the Interactive Tests menu option (using the trackpoint or arrow keys and then pressing Enter) and then the Keyboard test, the Keyboard Keys and finally the 84 key(US/Hebrew) option.  That should display a crude map of the keyboard.  Pressing any one of the keys will cause the corresponding key on the display to go "reverse video".  My guess would be that you won't be able to get any reaction from the F1 key.  I was able to completely load the PC Doctor diagnostic and get to this test while keeping the F1 key down the whole time.
The fix would be to try to pry off the keycap of the F1 key and see if there's anything you can do underneath.  I was able to get the keycap off by lifting the "back" side of the key toward myself.  There's a plastic/rubber dome which should be present.  If it's "deflated" then that is the cause of your problem. If it's missing, then there's probably some contamination on the board (i.e., a short) which makes the keyboard think you're pressing the key.  It might be possible to replace the dome but you have to glue it down without interfering with the switch contacts.  It's probably easier just to get a replacement keyboard.
Ray Kawakami
X22;X24;X31;X41;X41T;X60;X60s;X61s;X300;X301;Z60m;Z61t;Z61p;560Z;600E;600X;T21;T22;T23;T41;R50;A21p;A22p;A31 and A31p
Not a Lenovo employee; just a volunteer helping out here
All personal links to PC-Doctor software removed 8/2012 by mfg request