My trusty old IBM T30 laptop will no longer boot with the latest
    kernel-4.7.9-200.fc24.i686
    kernel-4.8.4-200.fc24.i686
    kernel-PAE-4.8.4-200.fc24.i686
It will still boot
    kernel-4.7.7-200.fc24.i686

The grub2 menu is displayed, and after selecting the 4.7.7-200 kernel
there's a 2-3 sec delay with blinking cursor, then I'm prompted for
the encryption passphrase for the /home filesystem.  Then the
voluminous messages (from removing the rhgb boot option) scroll forth
and bootup proceeds normally.

However, If I choose any of the newer kernels, the blinking cursor
remains forever; no prompt for the encryption passphrase occurs; the
keyboard is totally non-responsive.  Power cycling is required to
recover.

Things I've tried:
- dnf remove <the "bad" kernel>, and reinstall it.
- Rebuild initramfs-4.8.4-200.fc24.i686.img with dracut.  The new file
  is only one byte bigger, probably due to a different date, and still
  won't boot.
- Added the secret 'dis_ucode_ldr' boot option, as revealed in
  https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/4qrl1k/kernel_46_wont_boot_how_can_i_troubleshoot/
  but this seemed aimed at newer IBM laptops, and indeed, had no
  effect on my T30.
- Updated the BIOS.  The T30 has two components:  the BIOS and the EC
  (Embedded Controller).  My BIOS was up to date at version 2.10
  but the EC was v. 1.03, while v. 1.07 was available.
  Sadly, updating to EC v. 1.07 did not alleviate the problem.

Any thoughts, shared experience, commiserations, suggestions?

What can be so different about these newer kernels?

	David A. De Graaf    DATIX, Inc.    Hendersonville, NC
	dad@datix.us         www.datix.us