X41T Boot Problem Blinking Cursor

[wadswerth]

Ive pretty much figured out that the MBR is messed up on the thinkpad im trying to get running for a friend. He bought it cheap and it had no OS on it when he got it. I was hoping to use his external cd-rw drive from his acer tablet pc but alas it is a firewire drive not usb. So i decided to try and just install the thinkpad hdd into the acer and install the copy of xp pro he gave me. the install went fine and i put the hdd back in the thinkpad and got the dreaded blinking cursor.

• Flash drive questions: Could i use a flash drive and use the bootable ibm program that makes it a real ibm mbr? - or make it bootable disk and just reinstall the Xp pro fresh from that on the thinkpad?
• USB cd rom questions: He would rather not buy a external cd drive if possible since its mainly gonna be his young son who is going to use the computer. but if its the only way to make it work he will. Would getting one of the cheap usb cd-rw drives off ebay do the trick? I saw some brands named lite on, maddog, and memorexs for pretty cheap or are those just complete piles of poo?

Or if anyone can think of something better let me know.

[Ken Fox]

Ive pretty much figured out that the MBR is messed up on the thinkpad im trying to get running for a friend. He bought it cheap and it had no OS on it when he got it. I was hoping to use his external cd-rw drive from his acer tablet pc but alas it is a firewire drive not usb. So i decided to try and just install the thinkpad hdd into the acer and install the copy of xp pro he gave me. the install went fine and i put the hdd back in the thinkpad and got the dreaded blinking cursor.

• Flash drive questions: Could i use a flash drive and use the bootable ibm program that makes it a real ibm mbr? - or make it bootable disk and just reinstall the Xp pro fresh from that on the thinkpad?
• USB cd rom questions: He would rather not buy a external cd drive if possible since its mainly gonna be his young son who is going to use the computer. but if its the only way to make it work he will. Would getting one of the cheap usb cd-rw drives off ebay do the trick? I saw some brands named lite on, maddog, and memorexs for pretty cheap or are those just complete piles of poo?

Or if anyone can think of something better let me know.

I don't have any experience with the X41 but it SHOULD have a FW port; my X32, my prior X31, and my X60 all have one although it is the smaller 4 pin type port not the larger one. If you don't have this sort of FW cable, you can buy one for $5 or so.

If you have a FW external CD drive you could try again to load XP to the HD sitting in the X41; that would be best as the right hardware drivers will be loaded. You could also run the IBM MBR repair program off that same drive, hooked up to the X41 afterwards.

Even better would be loading the OS from Thinkpad recovery disks. You might be able to get a set free from Lenovo if the thinkpad is still under warranty and you say the right things when you call tech support. Otherwise, perhaps someone here can supply you with a set for a nominal charge.

[wadswerth]

No, i was suprised when i looked and didnt see the fw port on it, it comes with :

External ports

• Two USB (One on the right side, Powered one on the left side) version 2.0
  One Ethernet RJ-45 with 2 LEDs
  One RJ11 for modem enabled systems
  Secure Digital (SD) card slot
  One DB-15 external display
  Audio line out and microphone in ports

I think ill pick up a flash drive tommorow, and attempt to boot from that with bartpe, it seems most people said on this forum that the x41t is bootable from the flash drive. it would have been nice if the hdd hadnt been erased comletely and took out the system restore partition

[Ken Fox]

No, i was suprised when i looked and didnt see the fw port on it, it comes with :

External ports

• Two USB (One on the right side, Powered one on the left side) version 2.0
  One Ethernet RJ-45 with 2 LEDs
  One RJ11 for modem enabled systems
  Secure Digital (SD) card slot
  One DB-15 external display
  Audio line out and microphone in ports

I think ill pick up a flash drive tommorow, and attempt to boot from that with bartpe, it seems most people said on this forum that the x41t is bootable from the flash drive. it would have been nice if the hdd hadnt been erased comletely and took out the system restore partition

OK, then I'll have to say that I can't imagine owning any computer, even a laptop, that I couldn't use with an optical drive. In the case of a laptop that does not have a self contained optical drive or docking station with one, such as the various X-series models, then you have to have an external one. How else are you going to load software?

So for me this is a total no-brainer. If you don't have an optical drive that will work with this laptop, then you have to obtain one. End statement.

There are very cheap choices out there for USB2 optical drives. You can buy a self contained one. You can buy a USB2 box and put an internal drive into it. Or, you could buy an internal IDE drive and for $10 or $15 obtain an IDE-USB2 adapter cable plus power brick that will power the drive.

One plus of having such a drive is that you can use it on all your systems, not just the X41. I have several USB2 optical writers and use them constantly on my desktops and laptops.

Ain't no other good choices, unless all you want to do is surf the web and receive emails. I'd never own a laptop I couldn't load software onto, not an X41, not any other model either.

[wadswerth]

a external cd drive would be the ticket for sure, but its going to be mainly used by a 6year old for the time being, so theres not gonna be to many important things on it, he already has an acer tablet, and a desktop system he is mainly just wanting to get it up and running, any games on cd can be installed via the network, plus i think he is hoping to find a nicer external cd-rw/dvd drive like the one with his acer but usb instead of firewire on craigslist cheap like the laptop, he wasnt all that thrilled with the 3 external cd-rw drives i showed him earlier on ebay