X41 Tablet: 0200 Failure Fixed Disk 1 error

[Oromei]

Hello everyone, I was just hoping to get a little help with an issue I've run into with my first old ThinkPad restoration. My x41 produces the error in the subject line, even though I attempt booting to a USB (which the system does recognize).

(Here are a couple of pictures: X41 error https://imgur.com/a/3DrhOBX)

The hard drive I have is actually a mini pcie sad hooked up to an IDE to mini pcie converter, but regardless as I said it produces the error just from trying to boot with my usb.

[RealBlackStuff]

Obviously whatever contraption you use as your HDD is faulty.
Remove it, and then you should be able to boot from a USB-HDD

[axur-delmeria]

I'm guessing it's an IDE to mSATA adapter.

The most likely cause is that the X41 Tablet uses a SATA-IDE bridge chip for the HDD port. That's because the ICH6M southbridge only has 1 IDE port, which the X41T uses for the CD/DVD drive on the Ultrabase.

The IDE to mSATA adapter also uses a SATA-IDE bridge chip (operating in reverse, these chips are usually bidirectional), and it's a known fact that having two of these bridge chips in one port will cause a number of issues, like failure to detect the disk, timeout errors, or reduced speed (usually 33 MB/sec max).

The optimal solution is to "cut out the middleman" by removing the SATA-IDE bridge chip, turning it into a SATA port. However, it requires a quite a bit of modding.

[Garlic Bread]

I recently upgraded a non-tablet X41 with an mSATA SSD through an IDE to mSATA adapter, and I got the same error.

My problem was that the pins on the adapter was misaligned with the IDE port inside the chassis, and when I finally got the adapter seated correctly everything worked. It just so happens that the insertion is extremely fidgety and requires steady hands and patience.

Also, I am using the ODD in my X4 Ultrabase, and my X41 no trouble recognizing its new mSATA SSD alongside the Ultrabase ODD. No invasive hardware mods are necessary to make this upgrade work.

[Enig]

Edit: I just realized we replied replied to a several year old thread. Now I feel silly

@Garlic bread: I too misaligned mine on first try. Drive wasn’t recognized at all. Unless you take the machine apart it’s very finicky to insert. Use a flashlight or similar at least. Plus patience.

@Axur-delmeria: I did the ide 2 msata on my x41 recently, only realizing just how much of a hastle any kind of troubleshooting would be after I had ordered parts. Got lucky tho. No issues so far and really good performance .. not native sata good but read/write around 85mb/s and great Random I/O compared to an hdd. And no wierdness so far.

@Oromei: just to be sure. You did get the 3.3v adapter right? .. and not the 5v one.