T22 - Ultrabay conked out

[clayts]

Whichever drive I put into my Ultrabay slot (DVD-RW, two floppy drives) I get three beeps pause, three beeps pause, three beeps pause (continue to infinity) with the light two to the left of the battery light flashing.

I've had this problem for a while but it's now got to the point where I need it fixing if possible (I successfully trashed my Ubuntu yesterday so need to boot from the live CD - luckily this is a dual boot machine so I still have Windows hence the reason I'm able to post this !).

I'm running BIOS 1.12 (27 April 2004) and cannot recall whether the error started to occur when I updated that (only a few months ago).

Firstly - does anyone know if this is a critical system board error ?

Secondly - is it worth trying the old BIOS ?

Thirdly - would I be able to boot to Linux from the live CD in another PC on my home network ? (don't worry if you can't answer that one )

Thanks

[clayts]

with the light two to the left of the battery light flashing

That should of course read to the right....

[Robbyrobot]

This may have something to do with a defect in the switch that detects a drive in the Ultrabay... it's a little black plastic lever at the front (toward the screen) of the bay. I don't think it has anything to do with the BIOS, though.

Incidently, I have something like this (dead Ultrabay) but without the beeps on a T21 mainboard, but assume the board is defective in this case.

[carbon_unit]

I have a T22 that loses the cd drive sometimes. I have tried other cd/dvd drives but they all fade in and out. No beeps at all but sometimes the drive works and sometimes it doesn't. I guess it is the motherboard.

[MintyMadness]

My wife's T30 won't see the ultrabay device unless you take it out, and put it back in again. upon a shut-down or reboot, it "acts" like it see it (gives it power, drive makes some noises, lights up) but into windows, you have to eject it, and reinsert to see it. This also needs to be done anytime the machine goes into standby or sleep mode. The kicker in all of this?

It will act this way with all ultrabay devices I have tried except! an ultrabay battery.

:S

weird, no?

-Jeremy

[carbon_unit]

The ultrabay battery use different connectors on the motherboard.

[clayts]

Thanks for the replies, chaps - seems this system board is on its way out then - nightmare

Will keep checking eBay for a scrap T22 - really don't want to give this machine up

[clayts]

The good news is I managed to pick up a working motherboard for £23 off the UK AV Forums (some bloke had advertised it in July last year but not sold it, so sent him a PM and within 2 days the motherboard is here !).

So all I've got to do now is tear myself away from the internet and actually install the thing.

I'll keep you all posted on how it goes - hopefully my days of bending the chassis of the T22 to get past the blink of death will soon be over.

Incidentally, I also managed to fix my Ubuntu problem

A good week for my T22.