Has anyone tried an SSD in the X41? *PICS*

[x412008]

Just wanna give credits and warm thanks to the contributors in this thread ! !
I got my adapter today (PA-CF18H CF), (have also ordered an Addonics Dual CF-IDE AD44MIDE2CF for more space later), and from about 45sek boot after tweaking before CF, I now boot to desktop in about 11sek , and it's so responsive it's a dream to work on !

Thanks..

PS! I know about the boot error wait, but is it possible to stop the annoying beeping?

Have a nice day!!

[guanghua19]

[quote="mikeh"][quote]Do you have any idea if this SSD would work without any adapters?
http://www.adata.com.cn/en/product_show ... =ASE0PASPL[/quote]

Looks right. Just check that it runs on 3.3V.[/quote]

The product sheet indicates it needs 5.0V

[weepy]

In my Transcend 300x datasheet 3.3V is needed for UDMA5, which made me think that for UDMA4, 5V would bne ok. Are ou sure that X41 can't deliver 5V for lower ATA modes?

[mikeh]

Are ou sure that X41 can't deliver 5V for lower ATA modes?

How good are you with a soldering iron?
And those cards don't need 5V for anything, they are fine with 3.3.
Hitachi 1.8" drives will accept either.
The X40 (and x41?) only provide 3.3V, which is why you cant use a mormal 2.5" drive.
Of course it would also look a bit ugly, sticking out of the case

[RVD]

Hi Everyone,

I did this project over the weekend on my X40 Thinkpad. A few notes/issues:

1) For hardware I am using the addonics dual slot. It fits great. I am also using a transcend 16GB 300x CF card.

2) I did a windows XP install from scratch using a usb cd rom drive.

3) I then installed all of my standard software that I use (MS Office, firefox, instant messenger, AVG anti-virus, etc.).

4) Today is my first full day using the laptop and I'm noticing a lot of random freezes and pauses. For example, I'll surf the internet and every now and then when I click on something, the entire computer will just hang for about 5 seconds and then it'll come back. During these freezes, if I try to change windows, it won't do it but usually will do it 5 seconds later when everything comes back to normal.

Any idea what's going on? I did the XP tweaks found in the wiki (disable pagefile, turn off indexing on hard drives, etc.).

I bought a 32GB 233X CF card to use in the slave slot but it hasn't arrived yet. I also have a 8GB SDHC in the SD slot as well as an external USB drive.

RVD.

[mikeh]

Have you check the log files? (event viewer in XP)
If that doesn't show anything, maybe install Linux to see if its a hardware problem.
Ubuntu will resize your existing partition so you don't loose anything, and is much quicker/easier to install than XP.
P.S. you are not running out of memory, are you? Does it happen without ms-office running? (try set it to not auto-load on log-in)

[RVD]

how are CF cards with multiple writes/reads going on at the same time? This seems to be much more prevalent when I am doing something disk heavy (e.g. copying a big folder from the USB drive to the local CF drive or copying lots of email within Outlook).

I will try a few tests without running some software. I do stress the machine fairly heavily (running Outlook, Firefox with 6-8 tabs, IE with 2 tabls, 3 windows explorer windows, digsby or trillian, skype, etc.

It worked ok with the old 1.8" disk drive but it did lag every now and then but not as much as this behavior with the CF card.

The mouse pointer moves but whatever you click doesn't respond (similar to when the system is hung up and you have to force exit or kill the process)...however, it does come back usually in 5-10 seconds.

RVD.

[DrOlaf]

I'm having real trouble getting this to work. I have the Addonics dual adapter, and a Transcend 8GB 300x UDMA CF card, and I simply cannot get my Thinkpad to find the card. I have made sure that the adapter is installed correctly, but my X40 thinks there is nothing connected. The Ubuntu 8.10 install CD hangs as I try to boot off it, and when I boot the X40 off a SystemRescue CD I can boot OK, but I get a lot of

ata1: SRST failed (errno=-16)

errors as it boots, and once I get to the prompt, running fdisk -l tells me that there are no IDE disks available.

I've flashed the X40 BIOS to the current edition - v2.08 - and that didn't help.

I thought I'd done my homework before making any purchases, and bought parts that had been mentioned in this thread as working well, but I'm getting no success with this at all. Can anyone suggest what might be going on here?

[loyukfai]

@DrOlaf: Just wonder, the CF card works fine in a card reader...?

[DrOlaf]

@loyukfai:

Yes, it works just fine in the card reader on my desktop PC.

[kamakazihampster]

I'm having real trouble getting this to work. I have the Addonics dual adapter, and a Transcend 8GB 300x UDMA CF card, and I simply cannot get my Thinkpad to find the card. I have made sure that the adapter is installed correctly, but my X40 thinks there is nothing connected. The Ubuntu 8.10 install CD hangs as I try to boot off it, and when I boot the X40 off a SystemRescue CD I can boot OK, but I get a lot of

ata1: SRST failed (errno=-16)

errors as it boots, and once I get to the prompt, running fdisk -l tells me that there are no IDE disks available.

I've flashed the X40 BIOS to the current edition - v2.08 - and that didn't help.

I thought I'd done my homework before making any purchases, and bought parts that had been mentioned in this thread as working well, but I'm getting no success with this at all. Can anyone suggest what might be going on here?

I have noticed on my X41 that if I wiggle the adapter/CF card it will sometimes not detect the device, I am not sure if its the IDE socket or CF socket, but I have just wedged mine in with some cardboard to keep it stable and it doesn't give me problems anymore. I have been successfully running Ubuntu for a few days now (BTW Ubuntu "Hardy Heron" supports the pen and finger print scanner with very minimal tweaking, and Video/NIC/WIFI/BlueTooth are all working out of the box, I would highly recommend it for the X41)

[mrobo]

is there any news about greater size 1.8 hdd for x40 or x41 tablets ?
i have 40gb now which would anybody recomend for upgrade x41 tablet ?
will apple 1.8hdd 160gb samsung with zif connector and adapter from pata to zif work with x41 tablet ? will it fit in ?
Thanks !

[kamakazihampster]

is there any news about greater size 1.8 hdd for x40 or x41 tablets ?
i have 40gb now which would anybody recomend for upgrade x41 tablet ?
will apple 1.8hdd 160gb samsung with zif connector and adapter from pata to zif work with x41 tablet ? will it fit in ?
Thanks !

From what ive read the 1.8" zif drives like those used in the apple ipods should fit (with zif to non-zif adapter and a mod to the adapter to remove voltage regulators), ive read 8mm drives are a squeeze so a thinner drive would probably be best.

The zif to non-zif 1.8" adapters require the removal of their voltage regulators otherwise the drive wont have enough voltage to opperate the regulators take 5volt and drop it down to 3.3 volt, however the X40/1's already output 3.3 volt. Theres some instructions out there on this site in another post, search and you should find it.

[DrOlaf]

I have noticed on my X41 that if I wiggle the adapter/CF card it will sometimes not detect the device, I am not sure if its the IDE socket or CF socket, but I have just wedged mine in with some cardboard to keep it stable and it doesn't give me problems anymore. I have been successfully running Ubuntu for a few days now (BTW Ubuntu "Hardy Heron" supports the pen and finger print scanner with very minimal tweaking, and Video/NIC/WIFI/BlueTooth are all working out of the box, I would highly recommend it for the X41)

My card and adapter both seem pretty well seated.

I've had time to play with this some more over the Holiday break, and I still can't get the Transcend to work, but I have had success with another CF card. I bought the dual-card Addonics adapter, with the idea of using a fast 8GB card as a boot drive, and a larger, slower card for my home directories. For that, I got a 32GB A-data Speedy card from Newegg. I had the Transcend card in the Master slot and the A-data in the Slave, and that would not work at all. If, however, I take the Transcend out, and move the A-data card to the Master slot, then I can boot off an old Ubuntu Dapper Drake CD (I didn't have a Hardy one lying around) and can install that just fine. It seems to be just the Transcend card that is giving me a problem. I did try to put the Transcend in the Slave slot, but it seems that the grooves on the side of the card are too narrow (intentionally?) for the card to fit.

The Transcend card I'm using is the TS8GCF300 from Newegg. Is this the one that people here have had success with?

[zborbas]

Hi,

This is a lovely topic and I learnt from it how to set up my x40 with CF cards. (Addonics dual cf-Pata + Transcend 300x 8 Gb + Transcend 133x 32 Gb) It worked fine untill only the master 8 Gb CF was connected. however after connecting the 32 Gb slower Transcend as slave the boot process hangs with error 0200 (Fxed disk IDE1 error or something similar). After going into BIOS and having a look at the boot order (no change, just having a look!!) F10 and X40 boots with no problem. Whenever I need to restart the laptop the same happens.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Is this because my slave CF is a Transcend , too -therefore fixed disk rather than removable? If this is the problem, is there any way to make it 'removable' instead of 'fixed'?

[mrobo]

i heard something about cf manufacturer utilities which could make from cf card fixed or removable drive try google it !

[loyukfai]

@DrOlaf: If only the Transcend at master or slave, does it work...?

[DrOlaf]

@DrOlaf: If only the Transcend at master or slave, does it work...?

The design of the Transcend card and the Addonics adapter is such that the Transcend cannot fit into the Slave slot. The grooves on the Transcend are too narrow to fit into the Addonics slot. Strangely, the A-data card fits happily in either slot.

When the Transcend is the only card in the adapter, I can now boot the X40 and install an OS, but if I add the A-data card to the slave slot, I am right back where I started. When I try to boot off the CF cards, I get the Intel Boot Agent errors:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent
Operating System not found

If I pull the A-data card from the slave slot, then the X40 boots OK again. I've tried going into the BIOS and disabling hdd1 from the boot list but it doesn't help.

EDIT: On googling around some more, it seems that my problem may be that both cards are identifying themselves as non-removable, and this will cause problems on bootup. I'm aware of the Sandisk utility that will convert a removable card to a fixed one, but does anyone know of something that will do the reverse?

[sjthinkpader]

...It seems to be just the Transcend card that is giving me a problem. I did try to put the Transcend in the Slave slot, but it seems that the grooves on the side of the card are too narrow (intentionally?) for the card to fit.

The Transcend card I'm using is the TS8GCF300 from Newegg. Is this the one that people here have had success with?

Since the CF Association charges $100 for the standards document, I checked the connector manufacturer drawings.

Looking at the FCI connector drawing, the thick keyway on the left side (looking into the connector) is 1.4mm think.

http://portal.fciconnect.com/Comergent/ ... 017963.pdf

What is the Transcend mating keyway width?

What is the total current draw of the two cards? Could the two cards exceed the slot current capability?

[sjthinkpader]

...On googling around some more, it seems that my problem may be that both cards are identifying themselves as non-removable, and this will cause problems on bootup. I'm aware of the Sandisk utility that will convert a removable card to a fixed one, but does anyone know of something that will do the reverse?

In that case, this may work:

Boot card formatted as NTFS
Slave card formatted as FAT

[DrOlaf]

...On googling around some more, it seems that my problem may be that both cards are identifying themselves as non-removable, and this will cause problems on bootup. I'm aware of the Sandisk utility that will convert a removable card to a fixed one, but does anyone know of something that will do the reverse?

In that case, this may work:

Boot card formatted as NTFS
Slave card formatted as FAT

First of all, thanks for offering these suggestions. I haven't tried a combination of NTFS & FAT, as I had installed linux on the 8GB Transcend and as a result t was formatted to ext3. I have reformatted the 32GB slave as FAT32, though, and a combination of ext3 and FAT doesn't get rid of the problem. I'll reformat the Transcend as NTFS and put WinXP on it and see what that does.

As far as my comments about the Transcend not fitting in the adapter are concerned, just by looking at the two cards they seem to have the same sized slots, but when I try to put the Tnanscend into the slave side of the adapter, it is a real struggle to get it to fit, and it bows out the guide on the adapter dramatically. Both cards fit equally well into the slot on my desktop PC, so it may be that the guide on the Addonics adapter is just slightly thicker than usual, and the slot on the Transcend is just slightly too narrow for it to fit.

[sjthinkpader]

I looked at my no name 2 slot adapter, the master slot is a Molex connector. The slave slot is a connector without any manufacturer markings. Looks cheaper. May be just quality of the connector is the issue.

[loyukfai]

EDIT: On googling around some more, it seems that my problem may be that both cards are identifying themselves as non-removable, and this will cause problems on bootup. I'm aware of the Sandisk utility that will convert a removable card to a fixed one, but does anyone know of something that will do the reverse?

The same utility can reverse the change if you supply the "/R" parameter according to the thread linked below:

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... fwchg-com/

[loyukfai]

Via Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/30/runc ... 256gb-edi/

- 1.8" ZIF / PATA SSD.
- $69.99 (16GB), $119.99 (32GB), $199.99 (64GB), and $389.99 (128GB)
- Except for the 128GB model, which is 8mm, the rest is 5mm
- 75MB/s read; 40MB/s write

Could be an option for X4x...? The photo on Engadget seems to be showing 2.5" models through.

Original press release: http://www.runcore.com/newsshow.asp?ID=194

[DrOlaf]

EDIT: On googling around some more, it seems that my problem may be that both cards are identifying themselves as non-removable, and this will cause problems on bootup. I'm aware of the Sandisk utility that will convert a removable card to a fixed one, but does anyone know of something that will do the reverse?

The same utility can reverse the change if you supply the "/R" parameter according to the thread linked below:

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... fwchg-com/

Ah, I hadn't realized that, so thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track that program down yet.

I have learned a lot about this process though. It appears that what I may need to do is to flip the Removable Media Bit (RMB) on this card so that it does not advertise itself as a fixed disk. There is some other software that is meant to do this, and is made available by Lexar (details here), but it does not appear to work on my A-data card. I have left a message with A-data's technical support and I'll see what they say. For now, I've installed Ubuntu 8.04 on my 8GB Transcend and it works great. I have an 8GB SDHC card that I'm using for data at the moment.

[x412008]

Hi! I have just installed a Mtron SSD in my Thinkpad X41 and it works great
I'll post what parts I used and the benchmark results here incase someone is interrested. (Had a Trancsend 300x 8GB Flash before so i'll compare it with that).

Adapter: http://cgi.ebay.com/1-8-TOSHIBA-Hard-Dr ... 0288203310 (2$)
SSD: http://www.mtron.net/English/Product/Pr ... D-PATA3018 (160$ in Norway)
Info: http://www.think4d.de/nbb/x41_ssd.htm
HMMX41 : http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-59181
(The price difference between a Trancsend 16GB 300x Flash & a Mtron 16GB SSD is not so much anymore, and the MTron is a great SSD compared to other).



Reg Tweaks:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation > 1
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate > 1
HKLM\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive > 1
HKLM\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache > 1
HKLM\\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher > 0
Turned off UserTracking: gpedit.msc > UserConfiguration > AdministrativeTemplates > UserTracking > Disabled

Last a Windows Update, then I boot to Dos with an USB-Flash disk and make a HD-Image with ghost.exe (Norton),
remove the old HD and install the MTron SSD, boot to Dos again, initializing MBR with gdisk.exe (Norton), and last restoring the HD-Image to the SSD with ghost.exe

I Will try Ubuntu later,, anyone have experience with the latest distro?

Happy New Year!!

[zborbas]

EDIT: On googling around some more, it seems that my problem may be that both cards are identifying themselves as non-removable, and this will cause problems on bootup. I'm aware of the Sandisk utility that will convert a removable card to a fixed one, but does anyone know of something that will do the reverse?

The same utility can reverse the change if you supply the "/R" parameter according to the thread linked below:

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... fwchg-com/

Hi,
I have similar problems to that of DrOlaf's ie have 2 non-removable CF Cards(master:8gb 300x Transcend, slave:32Gb 133x transcend in a dual slot Addonics) and I would like to change the slave one from fixed to removable. Do you think the ATCFWCHG.com would work on a transcend card?

[loyukfai]

Not sure. I would probably give it a try. Have you written to Transcend about it...?

[starfox]

Hi all,

I have been reading this thread several times and I want to thank all contributors to this knowledgeable topic

I am writing this post because I am facing some difficulties with my lappy. I have an X40 and I recently acquired two
transcend compact flash:

- 8GB 300x Transcend (max udma supported: udma5)
- 32GB 133x Transcend (max udma supported: udma4)
- addonics dual CF/IDE

The objective is to store the OS (win xp) on the first drive and the programs on the second one.
I successfully installed both xp and programs on both hard drives but I have a problem with the udma mods.

Indeed, in the hardware manager I have the first drive set @udma2 while the second one is set at its maximum speed (udma4).

I have uninstalled the primary controller (common solution that I found in google) but when the controller is reinstalled
it detects udma2 again. I turned the drive to PIO mode and then UDMA and same problem. I checked the bios and dma is enabled (i disabled and enabled it but same results). I am out of ideas and I need some help to find out how to fix this because having a 300x in this mode is pointless (read speed: 28MB/s....)

Thank you for your help

PS: I have the bios 1.42 but I checked what was changed in the updates and nothing is related to the disk controler.

[starfox]

Hi all,

I have been reading this thread several times and I want to thank all contributors to this knowledgeable topic

I am writing this post because I am facing some difficulties with my lappy. I have an X40 and I recently acquired two
transcend compact flash:

- 8GB 300x Transcend (max udma supported: udma5)
- 32GB 133x Transcend (max udma supported: udma4)
- addonics dual CF/IDE

The objective is to store the OS (win xp) on the first drive and the programs on the second one.
I successfully installed both xp and programs on both hard drives but I have a problem with the udma mods.

Indeed, in the hardware manager I have the first drive set @udma2 while the second one is set at its maximum speed (udma4).

I have uninstalled the primary controller (common solution that I found in google) but when the controller is reinstalled
it detects udma2 again. I turned the drive to PIO mode and then UDMA and same problem. I checked the bios and dma is enabled (i disabled and enabled it but same results). I am out of ideas and I need some help to find out how to fix this because having a 300x in this mode is pointless (read speed: 28MB/s....)

Thank you for your help

PS: I have the bios 1.42 but I checked what was changed in the updates and nothing is related to the disk controler.

I found the answer. Even if it is not stated in the changelogs something was fixed by the upgrade of the bios. I installed the 2.08 and the controller set the udma5 for the 300x CF.

Bye bye old hard drive welcome little CFs