Thinkpads Forum

I have a 2251-VAU with a perplexing problem.

First off, I acquired it without a hard drive, so I'm installing from a generic XP disk. Shouldn't be a problem.

During the install, all goes well until the computer needs to restart.

Get the splash screen, then right before the anticipated white bars along the bottom, it freezes. drives spinning, fans running, it just seems to forget what it was doing. Monitor switches to "No Signal" mode.

I loaded and ran Ubuntu on it, no problem. Tried running W98 from another HDD I have, it froze again.

I thought at first that it was an overheating problem, but while running from a CD, it runs fine. Just not from the HDD. I even chilled a few IC's... no luck.

Updated BIOS to the most recent, no luck.
Downgraded to the previous rev, no luck.

Anyone got any idea what to try next?

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Possible solutions:

1. Format your HDD's and make sure proper (HDD) firmware updates have been applied to them from their manufacturer's website.

2. Use some another media of Windows installation disks.

3. You've IBM NetVista A40i, you can try to find it's recovery disks from somewhere, if I remember correctly Bill Morrow used to own NetVista, you can check with him or should post in the Marketplace of this forum, perhaps some generous member with a set will be able to help you.

4. I think the setup freezes or shuts down since the monitor stops responding, here is something I found online:

Windows setup freezes or restarts the computer at the point when it is “Installing Devices”.

This usually happens when there is a problem with one or more drivers already installed on the previous XP installation. The solution is to rename the drivers folder.

1. Use a boot disk to boot into DOS. If you don’t have one, you can get one from Bootdisk.com.

2. Rename the Drivers folder at %SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers

3. Restart the computer and continue installing Windows.

But if you format your drive then it won't be necessary.

5. Here is the system info. of your NetVista:

Product: NetVista personal computer 2251-VAU

Operating system: All

Original description: Intel Coppermine Pentium III 1GHz (256KB), 128MB, 30GB 7200RPM IDE HDD, PCI Microtower (4x4), nVidia M64 4X AGP, 12x DVD-ROM, 8x4x32x CD-RW, 56K modem, Intel Pro/100 Ethernet, Windows Me

So although it came with Windows Me but it also meets requirement for Windows XP which eliminates the possibility of hardware being not good enough for XP (no questions asked for Win 98 ).

My hunch is your media disks are bad since Ubuntu made it’s way through installation.

I thought that too, but I used the same install disk on another system (300PL) with no errors, and a smooth install.

This was on one of the brand new 82.3GB disks I advertised a while back, so there were no previous drivers.

The Ubuntu disk I have is a live version, and will run from RAM. I hadn't installed the OS. Maybe I'll try installing it and see what happens.

I will advertise on the market place and maybe shoot Bill a PM.

Thanks

Joe