just wondering about possible probs with Thinkpad

I'm just looking for suggestions as to what you all think the problem here might be.
I have a Thinkpad T21 850Mhz. I bought it manufacturer refurbished (I know, probably not that bright to begin with!) but it still has a 1 yr warranty from IBM.
Since day one I've been having probs. When I first turned it on I received errors about the OS needing to be reinstalled (Windows 2000) due to missing files. Whatever, I didn't care, I'd just reinstall. Well, it wasn't set to boot from cd-rom so I tried to access BIOS and discovered I couldn't get in. I yanked all drives out and still couldn't access the BIOS. So, I called IBM and they immediately said to send it in and they'd look at it (at their expense, of course). While waiting for my box to ship it in to arrive, I thought I'd try and flash the BIOS. Did so and that seemed to take care of that prob. I then proceeded to restore the whole system. The laptop came with 128MB ram and I put in another 128. Everything seemed fine for about a day and then the keyboard quit responding - couldn't hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to logon. I yanked out the extra ram but still had the problem. The box arrived and off to IBM it went (with only the original 128MB) with a letter detailing the recent problems.
Received it back last week with a note saying they didn't find anything wrong with it (surprise, surprise). So, booted it up and I could log on again. Seemed fine - weird. Put the other stick of ram in . Then after about a day, I noticed, when booting, that not all of the ram was being recognized - sometimes 128, sometimes 64 (HUH?!), sometimes even odder amounts like 102, etc). I yanked the second module out but that didn't take care of the problem. Now, sometimes it powers on but the screen remains black with no hd activity. Could take 3 or 4 tries and it boots successfully. Other times, it boots fine but them just reboots itself after a half hour, 10 minutes, whatever. Random occurrences, however. So, of course, I called IBM and they're sending another box and will look at it again. Noticed again today that I can no longer access BIOS.
I know that there's the chance it will get there, work fine, and they'll just send it back because I can't give them specific ways to recreate.
My thought is the mainboard since the BIOS was trashed when I got it and is again trashed along with the weird things happening with the memory and such.
If they send it back to me again without fixing/replacing something, I'm going to tell them I want the mainboard replaced or the entire laptop or something because I don't want to keep playing these games with them over and over and over.

So, what do you think? Any other ideas as to what the problem may be? I don't think it's the memory since the probs occur with both or either stick in.

 

Its a laptop...whadda ya expect? But seriously, It is probably that stoopid mobo. I'd tell ya to "dump it and buy another" but often times you can't do that w/ a laptop...they are two darned expensive and its near impossible to build your own laptop like you can do for an easy $600 dollars on a PC. If you DO have the money, nothing beats a Dell laptop. As for your IBM, I like your mobo idea. Crazy laptops.

 

Contact IBM again and insist that they replace the machine with one that works properly. I have been using Thinkpads for years with no problems. IBM should stand behind their products.

Oh, and you couldnt give me a Dell....anything.

 

WarC:
I know, I know - I shouldn't have bought a Stinkpad. My preference would be a Dell any day. I didn't even *need* a laptop but couldn't resist the price and it was loaded.

Monk_:
I plan to do that if the issue isn't resolved this second time. Their support has been pretty good so far so I can't complain about that.