T20 hard drive/device boot problem

[elvis15]

I'm working with a Thinkpad T20 for a friend and it will not boot. On startup, it passes the IBM boot screen and then shows (in red):

Hard drive not installed
If operating system not found
Reinstall hard drive

It then proceeds to the Boot Agent (v3.0.03) and gives the following errors:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM
Operating system not found

This sounded like the hard drive had failed or was not connected properly so I reseated it and still no go. I can access the BIOS and the Temp Boot Device from the splash screen, but neither help. The BIOS (Startup/Boot) doesn't show the hard drive (no + beside the hard drive listing) or the cd-rom/floppy UltraDrive bay (again, no + beside the ATAPI cd-rom) so any devices that should be connected to the bus are not recognized. The only one listed is the Removable Devices, listing the Legacy Floppy Drives

With the UltraDrive, I've tried booting from (all original disks) WinXP Pro, Fedora Core2, as well as a bootable version of Partition Magic 8.0 on floppy, and none work - same errors shown as above.

So, I'm thinking a problem with the bus/board? I emailed IBM support and they said "sounds like a hard drive problem" and to contact the help center by phone. Haven't phoned yet, but thought I'd get your perspective on this, since I don't think it's just the hard drive. Any ideas would be great.

Thanks guys,
Trevor

*EDIT - just phoned IBM help center and they referred me to a local service center. They weren't sure apart from saying it "might be a faulty hard drive" again. Possible, but why wouldn't the UltraDrive boot from CD? So, I phoned the local service center, and they weren't sure either, at least without taking a look at it in person. I may just have to buck up and pay an assesment fee to see what is wrong.

[egibbs]

Try pulling the drive and seeing if the ultrabay device is seen then. If the drive electronics failed it could be hanging the bus. Or, get another known good drive and try it.

You could also try removing the ultrabay device and see of it boots then - it could be hanging the bus too.

Also check the connectors on the machine and the drives for smashed or bent pins.

Ed Gibbs

[elvis15]

Thanks for the suggestion, Ed. I hadn't thought to try different combinations of drives in/out, only reseating them. None of the pins seem to be damaged on either drive with comp end fine as well but let me check the first suggestion...

Nope, nothing changed. I tried hd out with cd and floppy in, both cd and floppy out with hd in, to no avail. I should mention that (even before trying this) when a cd is in the drive, it will spin when the comp is powered on. Nothing else happens but it spins.

Makes me wish I had an external floppy/cd-rom/hd to test in the usb port...

[egibbs]

T20s won't boot from USB, so it wouldn't help. I think the T22 was the first USB bootable TP.

Sounds like the system board to me, but before you spring for a new one just make sure that you have no add-on devices present that might be causing problems - no PCMCIA cards, USB devices, etc. You might also want to pull the Mini-PCI card out (under the square cover on the bottom) and pull any memory sticks just to get it down as bare as possible.

Ed Gibbs

[elvis15]

Again. thanks for the help Ed, I have looked at and reseated the sodimms, but didn't want to get to far into the mini PCI as it's a bit cramped in there. Will try anything at this point though...

No go on removing the PCI or sodimms and booting but I did remove the backup battery and booted (only into BIOS) and it did show the hard drive! I was forced to the BIOS to reset the time and all that, but then, lo and behold, Windows boot screen! If it happens again, I'll consider replacing the backup battery, but since it isn't mine, we'll wait and see what happens.

Thanks again Ed, for your help. Much appreciated.

Trevor