T41 has IDE controller question mark and exclamation mark?

Message

csmthinkpad · #1 Post by **csmthinkpad** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 1:59 pm

........in device manager. I have installed XP onto my laptop. I have updated windows XP. I have loaded drivers manually from Lenovo. All that was left was "IDE controllers" giving an exclimation. When I start the computer, it is detecting the IDE controllers but can not find drivers. I have installed two INF chipset programs (if you want to call them that) and that has not helped. I went to Lenovo site and downloaded all the critical stuff from them using the auto driver install program and the IDE's STILL have a problem.

I also have infared exclamation mark and a exclamation mark on COM1 . I have searched the internet for this problem and can not find an answer.

This has been going on for years and I basically ignored it, as it works just fine that way, but now its time to sell the laptop and the buyer is like wtf?? What am I missing?????????

side not: my T60 also has two "unknown" question marks in the device manager.

#2 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:55 pm

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Under Device Manager, it should tell you which IDE channel is having a problem. If there's a "+" sign next to the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller line, click it and it will expand. The primary IDE channel will be your hard drive. The secondary channel is the Ultrabay. Since it appears that you can boot the system into Windows, I would guess that you are having problems with the Ultrabay (secondary) channel. If that's the case, then try removing the Ultrabay device and see what happens. If that doesn't help, then here's what I would do:

- remove the hard drive and Ultrabay device
- boot into BIOS and perform the "Load Setup Defaults" (located under the "Restart" menu)
- exit BIOS saving changes
- wait for the system to say you have no operating system/bootable device and then shut it off
- install just the hard drive, boot the system and see if there's any problems in Device Manager
- if Device Manager reports no problems (exclamation or question marks), shut down, install the Ultrabay device, re-start and check Device Manager again

Another question comes to mind... what type of Windows XP installation disk did you use? A retail copy or one designed for another system (other than a T41)?

csmthinkpad · #3 Post by **csmthinkpad** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:31 pm

Well, thats what I dont understand. My IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers are there, and, primary and secondary are just fine. There is alo another posting of other devices that list 2 "IDE Controller".

I loaded XP from a retail professional CD.

I am going to try your advice anyways and see what happens.

sojourner · #4 Post by **sojourner** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:45 pm

csmthinkpad wrote:My IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers are there, and, primary and secondary are just fine. There is alo another posting of other devices that list 2 "IDE Controller".

I am going to try your advice anyways and see what happens.

Being your IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers are fine and that the other IDE controllers you mention are under OTHER DEVICES, I would simply highlight each one under 'other' and press delete (it effectively uninstalls). Reboot. If there are other devices needing drivers Windows should detect these upon boot and install drivers.

After you reboot check the Device Manager and see if OTHER devices are listed again. If so, let us know and give us all the information on them (it) you can.

BTW, you mentioned COM1 had an exclamation mark too. You can delete that entry and Windows will redetect it and install drivers also.

Let us know how you make out!

csmthinkpad · #5 Post by **csmthinkpad** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:06 pm

nope, that advice didnt work. Thanks anyways...

csmthinkpad · #6 Post by **csmthinkpad** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:08 pm

Tried that like 3 times, all came back the same.

I dropped the ATA drivers back to windows generic drivers thinking the chipset drivers were making something conflict and making the lapto think there was something else that needed to be installed but no avail.

Temetka · #7 Post by **Temetka** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:29 pm

Do you have R&R media for the machine?

Why not reload the factory OS?

Otherwise try booting into safe mode then removing all the IDE controllers from device manager and then reboot into normal mode.

csmthinkpad · #8 Post by **csmthinkpad** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:37 pm

No, no R&R disks.

I tried un-installing all the drivers I loaded through add/remove. Safe mode is my next move. Maybe there is a chipset driver in there thats conflicting or not getting kicked out.

sojourner · #9 Post by **sojourner** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:17 pm

Temetka wrote:... try booting into safe mode then removing all the IDE controllers from device manager and then reboot into normal mode.

Temetka, I thought of that too, and tried it prior to posting it myself ... got a BSOD upon boot! The only way to recover was choosing to boot from last known good configuration!

Have you actually tried that and have it work in XP?

csmthinkpad · #10 Post by **csmthinkpad** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:45 pm

Hmm, okay, i thought i was triping when i saw sojourner's post as thats what i get too, and I KNOW I didnt respond yet, lol.

I just did a full check disk and now i am defragging, gonna see what that does when defragging ends, trying to get into safe mode that is.

side note: Hve not had to do "last known good configuration".......yet, to get back into XP.

I think the next steps after that would be the IBM's "Fix MBR" (I belive it is) disk but i would have thought that was taken care of when I tried to do a reinstall of the OS, as it would shift the MBR if it looked wrong, being done, again, in the actual IBM machine that I am running it on.

csmthinkpad · #11 Post by **csmthinkpad** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:17 am

tried to go into msconfig and do a selective startup. Trying to go to safe mode still blue screened. I have never seen safe mode blue screen before???

Temetka · #12 Post by **Temetka** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:54 am

sojourner wrote:
Temetka wrote:... try booting into safe mode then removing all the IDE controllers from device manager and then reboot into normal mode.
Temetka, I thought of that too, and tried it prior to posting it myself ... got a BSOD upon boot! The only way to recover was choosing to boot from last known good configuration!

Have you actually tried that and have it work in XP?

Yes, but with sound hardware and video cards. Now that you mention it I recall something about Win2K tying itself to the IDE controller. If that is true, then it would stand to reason that such behavior would follow through to XP. Although why XP cant load a generic driver for it upon detecting no other driver is beyond me. HAL should be telling the system "Hey there's no IDE driver here, so we're gonna fall back on this generic one for now". Heck to even get that far the system has to talk to the HD, so it's not like it doesn't know their is an IDE channel available to it.

sojourner · #13 Post by **sojourner** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:27 pm

Temetka wrote:I recall something about Win2K tying itself to the IDE controller. If that is true, then it would stand to reason that such behavior would follow through to XP. Although why XP cant load a generic driver for it upon detecting no other driver is beyond me. HAL should be telling the system "Hey there's no IDE driver here, so we're gonna fall back on this generic one for now". Heck to even get that far the system has to talk to the HD, so it's not like it doesn't know their is an IDE channel available to it.

Agreed! I thought it was very strange to have the blue screen and no recovery potential via a generic (plain Jane) driver.

Good thing "Boot to last known good configuration" is there. Of course 'repair installs' can also be done which has saved me time and again

and by now everyone knows? backups are a must!

csmthinkpad, hope you'll let us know how you made out uninstalling those 'other' devices and what you did to resolve the situation.

csmthinkpad · #14 Post by **csmthinkpad** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:34 pm

Yea, will do. When I get home, I think i will try installig the generic IDE drivers. If that does not work then I will delete every driver in there and try to get into safe mode.

What I dont understand is that from the factory, everything has drivers. Install all of the drivers from Lenovo web site and you get question/exclimation marks. What is missing? What is the missing common demoninator??????? I will find it!

sarbin · #15 Post by **sarbin** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:41 pm

i used to be someone who always installed every new driver release. but now, i pick and choose. i've become far more conservative and follow the "if it isn't broken..." rule. i also, do not use the automated driver download/install program (system update?) for the same reason that i don't let windows do automatic updates.

hope you get it sorted out...

csmthinkpad · #16 Post by **csmthinkpad** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:01 pm

same here with the drivers, as long as I can get to the individual driver and it is not packaged in a exe file.

Thanks.

T41 has IDE controller question mark and exclamation mark?

T41 has IDE controller question mark and exclamation mark?

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