XP Pro on X21 installation

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r2d2 · #1 Post by **r2d2** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:17 pm

A cousin of mine brought his X21 asking me to install XP on it. He has OEM XP Pro CD along complete with COA.

We updated BIOS of the X21 hoping all would turn out well but when we tried to install XP Pro, installation just seem to stop after 'Press any key to boot from CD'.... There was no screen following that... screen just went completely blank and black.

We tried booting with W2K CD and everything worked fine. Is there a special consideration or steps to take to install XP Pro on an X21?

Thanks in advance...

r2

Subliming · #2 Post by **Subliming** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:54 pm

This is an odd issue. I have only seen this once before, when one memory DIMM was faulty causing not only Windows XP installation to freeze but also Windows Vista installation to freeze.

Might be worth it to run Memtest86+ for 15 minutes or so to see if any errors pop up?

ajkula66 · #3 Post by **ajkula66** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:54 am

How much RAM do you have in that X21?

r2d2 · #4 Post by **r2d2** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:16 am

Thank you for the replies...

ajkula66.. RAM is 320MB. I believe it is maximum already for X21.

Sublime... it is worth a try. I will run Memtest86+ just to see. I hope it is just caused by a failing RAM.

... 'til then...

r2d2 · #5 Post by **r2d2** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:59 pm

update...

tested with Memtest86 for 30mins or so... no errors. from there i decided to open up the unit and reseated some cables, reseated the RAM module, etc. then tried to boot xp pro again. this time everything went on smoothly.

i do not know why it happened like that. i guess a loose cable

but i really have no idea.

by the way... i noticed this X21 has a covered RJ-45 port. does this means there were X21s before that were not equipped with ethernet connection?

thanks...

r2

pianowizard · #6 Post by **pianowizard** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:23 pm

r2d2 wrote:i noticed this X21 has a covered RJ-45 port.

That means it's a fake ethernet port that isn't hooked up. Several low-end X20 and X21 models are like that. You'll need a PCMCIA ethernet card to add ethernet functionality.

andyP · #7 Post by **andyP** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:26 pm

Some X2* machines were delivered with just a modem. The RJ-45 port will work if you remove the modem card and replace it with a combo card which has ethernet and modem.

r2d2 · #8 Post by **r2d2** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:04 pm

so that is why one cable under the keyboard has no connector to plug into. May be that was for the combo card.

OK then... thank you for all the advise...

Terrahawk · #9 Post by **Terrahawk** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:05 pm

I upgraded my X20 (when I had it) from a modem-only card to a combo card. It worked well, with no problems.

ajkula66 · #10 Post by **ajkula66** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:17 am

When you go into the BIOS page, if your MAC address says "Not Applicable", that means that you have no working network (LAN) card.
These are very cheap nowadays and the swap is easy to do...

r2d2 · #11 Post by **r2d2** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 2:02 pm

We got a 3comm combo card from eBay for less than $3. I will try to replace the existing modem card with this one. I just hope it will work.

Thank you for all the advise and suggestions.

Terrahawk · #12 Post by **Terrahawk** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 2:17 pm

The 3Com one should work fine. The one I bought was a 3Com combo and IBM even had drivers for it

XP Pro on X21 installation

XP Pro on X21 installation

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