Thinkpads Forum

(Edited for brevity):

T61P (6458) with optical drive (UJDA755): I can only boot a live CD if I have another OS either on a hard drive or USB stick; though I <<can>> boot a Lenovo BIOS update CD without any aid.

I'm sure the CD drive works and the CD is fine.

When I try, symptoms are either reboots or sitting forever with a black screen and a blinking cursor.

#^%^%^???

I went to the Lenovo site to look for diagonostics for this machine, but I didn't find any. So, does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
/DA

--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
(Full Version)

Any help with this odd behavior would be much appreciated. I picked up a T61P (6458) which appears to work. In particular, I can boot ubuntu from USB; but when I try to boot a live CD, I'm getting odd results.

I know the optical drive (UJDA755) works: [I tried it in a T60p. I also tried a known good drive in the T61p and have the same issues as I'll describe below.]

I know the live CD is fine: [I have used it many times on other machines and I tested it just now.]

So I poked around and I found a few odd behaviors related to the optical drive when used on this machine:

(1) When I hit the thinkvantage button followed by F12 to pick the boot device, I find the optical drive listed along with the choice to go into setup. When I pick the optical drive and hit <CR>, instead of booting from it, I go into setup.

So, since the CD is primary in the BIOS, I didn't bother with thinkvantage/F12:

(2) When I boot Ubuntu Alternate, I get to the Ubuntu selection menu. Trying to test memory, I get "Installing mt86plus ... ready", followed by a blank screen and then ... a reboot. Similarly, when I instead try "Check Disk for Defects", "Rescue a broken system" or "Install Ubuntu", the disk spins, I get a blank screen with the cursor in the upper left corner, and then that just sits there forever. The latter behavior also happens with Ubuntu Desktop (which should boot into a live version of Ubuntu).

(3) Now here's a bit of strangeness - When I insert a bootable USB stick with Ubuntu on it, then powerup, hit "thinkvantage"/"f12" and select the optical drive, I <<can>> use memtest etc, and I can boot Ubuntu Desktop from the optical drive! Everything acts normally. (In all cases but memtest, which may just be loading up too fast, I do see the USB being accessed.)

(4) Finally, I took the risk of using the bootable ISO from Lenovo to upgrade my BIOS to the latest, thinking that might be an issue. In this case, the machine booted from the optical drive just fine (with nothing in the USB) and upgraded the BIOS!

-----------------------
-----------------------

Don't use the Thinkvantage button, at boot time immediately hit F12.
You should then get a selection of bootable items.
The TV button pre-selects BIOS, and is only active for other things if corresponding software is installed.

Thanks, but the thinkvantage button has nothing to do with it (and I did check).

The point is that I can only boot a live CD if I have another OS either on a hard drive or USB stick; though I <<can>> boot a Lenovo BIOS update CD without any aid.

I'm sure the CD drive works and the CD is fine.

When I try, symptoms are either reboots or sitting forever with a black screen and a blinking cursor.

I remember running into similar trouble. In my case, many live medium will not boot if I do not have a hard drive installed in my T61 or X60t.

twistero! Thanks for your input, but ... why was that, did you find out? What was the problem? Was it ever resolved? I am worried that it might be some mobo issue ... Or, could it be a drive firmware issue??

After Twistero's post I now remember to have had similar issues, trying to run a Mint Live-CD.
This was so long ago that I had forgotten about it.
A hard drive must be installed, which at least has to be formatted, otherwise no-go at booting the above CD...

It's a very odd behavior if you think of it!
Situation: someone with a crashed HD (which had either Windows or Linux on it) puts in a new HD and has no software other than a Linux Live-CD.
He/She will never be able to install the new OS!

OMG! How bizarre. Well ok, then, I guess that settles it. At least I don't have to worry that the mobo is bad. (I did get nailed on the battery, tho - it's causing the machine to crash ... grumble...)

Anyway, thanks for your input!

Try booting live USB flash drives. They work fine for me without a hd installed, but so do CDs.

What pray tell, is a "live CD"

It's the exact opposite of a "dead CD". You know, the ones which failed to burn correctly and are now "coasters" .

A live CD is one that is formatted with an operating system which requires no hard drive upon which to run off of. You boot the CD or DVD disk and the entire operating system is loaded directly into the computer's memory or is accessed from the optical media.

Always burn bootable CD/DVDs at the slowest burn speed available for best burn. I've been burning (many) since 1999 and it makes a difference in detection.