Problems with new T40 board

[trent488]

Hi,

I got a new board w/base. It's a T40 2379-D5U. I got this to replace the board in my T41 (now a T40...), 2379-DJU.

I put in my hard-drive, cd-drive, and memory. It booted to Windows XP SP3. I ran the basic PC Doctor tests (first option), and they passed. (The network adapters were disable at that point, and I got notices about that. I had them that way before.)

I ran Excel and a couple other things and they worked fine.

Then I enabled the Ethernet and plugged in a cable, and nothing happened. (No yellow mark in the Device Manager). I unplugged it from a working computer.) I uninstalled the driver, and tried both the Intel Pro 1000 and Pro 100 Lan adapter drivers from http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-46258. The 2379-D5U is listed as having 1GB Ethernet. Windows won't let me manually choose the Pro 100 driver, it says it's not a better driver, and keeps the 1000. Windows automatically installs the driver when I boot up. If I manually change it to the 1000 it says it already has a better driver. Sometimes I see a "network unplugged" notice down by the clock, and sometimes there's no icon at all.

I tried plugging in my WiFi card into the Card-Bus slot. It didn't recognize the WiFi card. I reinstalled the drivers for the WiFi card, and I got he same thing, unknown network adapter, yellow mark in the Device Manager. I manually pointed it to the directory the drivers are in and it says it can't find a matching driver. That's the card I've been using.

I tried the built in WiFi. I enabled the device, and I got the icon by the clock. I enable Wireless Zero Configuration (didn't have to do that w/ my WiFi card...), and then viewed available networks. I selected connect, and the progress bar kept moving forever, it never got to the point where it said "acquiring network address." It never go that far. It just says connecting.

Next I plugged in a 2-port USB Card in the Card-Bus slot, and then when I plugged in a USB flash drive, it didn't work, and the system got very unresponsive. I use that 2-port card and the flash drive all the time.

Any ideas. Bad card?

Or maybe, (YUCK), do I have to do a clean reinstall of Windows? If that will work, great. At least I'll have my computer back. (It got the Southbridge problem and I lost USB 2.0, and then it started hanging.) But I want to if I need to reinstall Windows first, before I go through the hours of reinstalling and configuring everything. Hopefully there is a fix that is much simpler.

Thanks.

[poshgeordie]

Ok - back to basics. Can you remove all cards from the card bus slot.

You're using a USB card there, is that coz the USB connectors don't work on this board either?

Can you check that out, and see if they're working.

Try an Ubuntu Live CD to see if Ethernet and cardbus work off that.

Also the Ethernet, cardbus (as well as USB) are all controlled by the dreaded Southbridge.

Possible RMA of the board if it turns out to be SB?

[trent488]

I meant to mention that. The USB ports work perfectly - at 2.0.

I tried the 2-Port USB Cardbus card with a USB flash drive to test the PCMCIA, since the WiFi card doesn't work there. (It tries to install a network adapter, but fails, as described.) I did get the USB flash drive (2-Port card) to work once, but it was very slow. The next time it didn't work again, and the system was non-responsive until I pulled out the flash drive.

I haven't used linux. I should probably do some homework and try that.

You don't think an O/S reinstall is necessary?

[trent488]

This may be a stupid question. I'm trying to find an Ubuntu Live .iso.

I searched this board, Google, and ubuntu.com for [t40 ubuntu live] with no success. (Looking for a custom distribution. It does seem they try to cover everything, so maybe that isn't necessary.)

Google's cache says things like "If you are burning an Ubuntu Live CD" when searching for "ubuntu live" and points to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization, which is for Ubuntu Destop, and "live" is not found on the page. Many other website also point to that exact same directory on ubunto.com, or http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download - regarding "live" - and again, that text is not on the page. Does Ubuntu Desktop = Ubunto Live?

[RealBlackStuff]

Almost any Ubuntu download is a Live-CD. See this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD
So just get the Desktop version from your last link http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
It's an .ISO file which you need to burn onto a CD (burn from image, not just copy!).

[poshgeordie]

I honestly don't know what the answer is.

The relevant parts of the board Matrices:
Old T41 board 2379-DJU:
32MB ATI Radeon 9000, Intel 802.11b wireless, 1Gb Ether, Sec Chip,

New T40 board 2379-D5U:
32MB ATI Radeon 9000, 1Gb Ether, Sec Chip, Wi-Fi wireless 802.11a/b

Looking at the above the HDD should work without needing any extra drivers.

In Device manager is there anything marked with a ? or ! in yellow? - ie not installed properly?
I suspect the answer's no.

The only thing I can think of is to reinstall XP with the drivers from your link in case XP has become corrupted.

[trent488]

Booted with Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop. Unrecoverable error... starting Desktop. Desktop has a questions icon, and and install Ubuntu icon. The trackpoint mouse is nearly unusable - long delays and skips. I managed to get to the power button icon on the top right after several tries. It cleared the screen and ejected the cd, then put up part of a logo, but never turned off. The power button was disabled (in Windows you just hold it down for 3-4 seconds). I had to unplug it and take out the battery. (The mouse works fine in Windows.)

Removed the hard drive (I got worried...) Rebooted w/the CD.

Same error: "The installer encountered an unrecoverable error. A desktop session will now be run so that you may investigate the problem or try installing again."
I selected "ok."

The desktop has the question icon, the install icon, and the menus - Applications, Places, System. I tried to use the system log viewer, but the mouse is just too unusable to go through the long list of items that might be relevant, and as tapping is enabled, it is very dangerous to use the mouse. (I disable tapping in Windows because I hate it, I want to push a button when I want to do something. I often put my finger down and then decide not to actually move the mouse, and now I'm running something. It just doesn't work for me.) Well, maybe not so dangerous now that the hard-disk is out...

During shutdown I noticed a *** failed to start eth1 card *** message along with some other text. Again there was the "Please remove the disc and close the tray - press Enter" message, and again I had to take out the battery and unplug the power to turn it off.

[trent488]

@poshgeordie
>In Device manager is there anything marked with a ? or ! in yellow? - ie not installed properly?
>I suspect the answer's no.
>
>The only thing I can think of is to reinstall XP with the drivers from your link in case XP has become corrupted.

Nothing is yellow in the Device Manager.
XP was working two days ago with my T41 board. The problem was I had to flex it to boot it, and it would lock up after a random number of minutes. I was using my Wifi card in the CardBus, and I was using an external HDD with the 2-Port USB card (CardBus). The network cable also worked. So I don't think XP got corrupted.

Note the Ubuntu failure in my post above.

[poshgeordie]

Honestly I'm not sure.

Can we wait for some greater wisdom to come along....

[RealBlackStuff]

If not the latest version, update the BIOS using the non-diskette version: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-50273
Then also update the ECP if needed.
You'll find your current versions in the first BIOS screen (press F1 at boot).
You might have a corrupt HD interface, but more likely your Southbridge has gone South.

[trent488]

The BIOS and ECP are both current, 3.23 and 3.04.

Is the HD Interface soldered to the motherboard? The replacement board had the HD enclosure already on it, so I just put my drive in there.

[poshgeordie]

You might have a corrupt HD interface, but more likely your Southbridge has gone South.

Didn't want to suggest that but it was my thoughts also.

[trent488]

>Didn't want to suggest that but it was my thoughts also.

I just replied above. Just in case you only look at the end of the messages...

[RealBlackStuff]

You could swap the HD cage with the one from your old board, only a few screws, then pull it straight up.
Or check the one that's on there now for dirt/dust/debris.

[trent488]

I'm not sure what all the the HD interface does, but I just backed up my 20GB Windows XP partition onto an external HDD drive via USB, without any problems.
I will try the other enclosure later today unless you say that would be a waste of time.

Thanks.

[trent488]

It appears the cage is the only thing I'd be swapping. I took the cage off the old board, and it doesn't look like the part where the pins go in is meant to come off of the motherboard. And that's just pins - no controller/interface.

[poshgeordie]

It appears the cage is the only thing I'd be swapping. I took the cage off the old board, and it doesn't look like the part where the pins go in is meant to come off of the motherboard. And that's just pins - no controller/interface.

The black connector block which has two rows of pin holes is permanently soldered to the motherboard.
when you take the cage off this (obviously!) stays behind.

What you could do is with the cage off, plug the HDD (make sure it's updside down) into the connector block, and then run the laptop (we do it all the time here).

Regarding circuitry, I believe the HDD data connections go straight into the Southbridge, however there are no schematics to confirm this.

[trent488]

I am still unsure why we are looking at the HDD plug. Ubuntu fails to boot the T40 successfully with the hard disk removed. And I get the error starting eth1 message (and others) when I try to shut down from the Ubuntu desktop.

[RealBlackStuff]

Having established that the HD cage + black block are OK, the other option has not been resolved.
I'm still maintaining that you have a bad Southbridge.

[trent488]

Well, testing is now over. I disabled the touchpad in BIOS to try Ubuntu again, and then discovered there is no PS2 mouse port. So I used the trackpoint - it worked better than the touchpad, but it was still skippy. (I guess I could have done that before...) Ubuntu had an unrecoverable error again, and got to the desktop. I saved some Ubuntu system log files to a USB drive. When I shutdown with the Ubuntu Desktop power button the Ubuntu logo got somewhat fuzzly during shutdown, then there was colored pixel static on the whole display (never seen anything like that before), then it turned off. It won't turn back on. The power button does nothing. The motherboard is now dead. The static was from a dying GPU?

In case any of the logs are useful - When I had run the network tests in Ubuntu it found an Intel 82540 EP Gigabit Ethernet Rev 3, and a Intel Pro Wireless Lan 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter Rev 4. A network cable was plugged in, but the test reported no internet. I have the submission.xml.htm file that was from the internet test result. I saved it to USB. There was an option to e-mail it to https://launchpad.net/.../ - whoever that is. (I plugged the ethernet cable back in the desktop, and the internet was right back up.) Right clicking on the wifi radio symbol (it had a red ! on it) - it said networking and notifications were enabled - but there was no wifi, and the desktop sees three it could connect to. Neither the ethernet nor the wifi worked in Ubuntu, just like in Windows XP3. I saved the following Ubuntu log files - daemon, kern, messages, syslog, and udev. Again, upon shutdown the motherboard died.

I put my T41 base/motherboard back on, and it boots up fine, after the flexing I have to do. (The power button always works, BTW, it justs hangs most of the time w/o flexing). I tried putting a folded up sticky note on the Southbridge card to put some slight pressure on it (between it and the WiFi card, both under the touchpad), but it didn't help.

So now I'm looking for a new replacement board, and this one's going back.

[poshgeordie]

FRom what you're saying with the hanging, there's quite a lot of evidence towards it being a Southbridge issue.
As you say time to return the board and get a good one.