Thinkpad X40 will not boot from DVD in docking station

[alaz]

My Thinkpad X40 will not boot from the DVD in the docking station -- any bottable DVD (e.g., Linux, Windows XP) are not recognized at the BIOS level. These disks are recognized and easily read after the Thinkpad boots from the hard disk. To boot from a DVD, I have to attache an external DVD via USB prot. Perhaps related, I cannot write a DVD on the docking station either -- I presume it is DVD read and CD read/write?

Any advice? Thanks! - Andy

[tim S]

Did you make sure that the CD/DVD is on the boot list in BIOS?
Pushing F12 on boot will bring up the list. Make sure the CD/DVD is #1 when there is no hard drive present, or if you are just looking to boot from it first.
Tim S

[alaz]

Yes I did. The DVD is not listed as a boot device when I press F12. The only devices available are the hard drive, the floppy disk (which does not exist) and a network boot (which also does not exist). In the BIOS, I have the ATAPI DVD listed first, the USB DVD listed second and the hard drive listed third. When booting, without F12, the ATAPI drive is never listed, the USB drive (if I have one plugged in) is found most but not all of the time, and the hard drive ia always found.

I presume that the docking station DVD is ATAPI? Also, do you know if the docking station DVD drive is supposed to be able to write DVDs?

Thanks! - Andy

[tim S]

The only thing that comes to mind now is to update your BIOS, assuming it isn't the latest version. If it is, then I'd try re-loading it again.

My BIOS is the latest for the X40 and shows the following.
1. USB FD, 2. CD/DVD, 3 USB CD, 4. HDD O, 5. PCI LAN, 6. USB CD
7, HDD 1, 8. is blank.

In F12 I have no #1, 2. CD/DVD, 3. HDD O, 4. PCI LAN.

The CD is the only recordable part of the combo, the DVD is just a player. There are ultraslim RW combos available on eBay.
Hope this helps.
Tim S

[alaz]

I believe that the BIOS is the latest version; I'm pretty sure that I updated it about six months ago -- but I will check.

Thanks for the confirmation that the DVD portion is read only -- that is consistent with what I see -- so that's not a hardware / software problem. I will check e-Bay.

Thanks again! - Andy

[cmarti]

Go to the boot menu in the BIOS and press F9 to set defaults and tey again, I had the same thing going on my X31 and after trying three external DVD drives that solved it.

[alaz]

My BIOS is at the latest release (2.08, checked at IBM / Lenovo), I reset all startup and boot parameters to default -- no help. The DVD remains absent from the list of boot devices. I'm wondering if it's not a hardware problem in the DVD drive?

I do appreciate all of your help! Thank you. - Andy

[tim S]

You might be correct in that the CD/DVD player is malfunctioning in some way, or perhaps there is a problem within the dock itself. The connector on the dock or in the laptop could also be the problem. I'd try another dock from eBay, it's probably the least expensive way to go.
Tim S

[vaeldious]

I know this is an old post, but it doesn't seem there is a straight-foreword answer about the issue.

First, I have an X40 with the X4 docking station and a combo drive (CDRW/DVD). Just got it yesterday for 3 6 packs of Bud Light. I also got 2 ultraslim batteries to swap out with the optical for more life.

Started out with win xp pro sp2 oem disk. Booted fine. Installed fine. Then I decided to charge up my batteries. After hot swapping between them a couple times there was some Microsoft ACPI error when I put the optical drive back in. I also noticed that windows hooks into the dock (as there is an undock button on the start menu).

Finally, I didn't want to keep windows on it. So, I go to throw my fav linux distro in, and boom. No boot. I tinkered with the BIOS (resetting it to defaults, taking the HDD out of the boot sequence). Still no boot. I have an extra combo drive I tried, still wouldn't boot. So why would it not boot when it just had, not that long ago?

I undocked it, power cycled it (on, then off), then redocked it. I noticed that the BIOS was detecting my combo drive with non-standard characters. One drive was "HL", after redocking, the name was significantly longer. The other had a "§" symbol in it. After redocking, it was all standard A-Z chars.

So, in my experience, it has to do with the connection between the thinkpad and dock.

Hope this helps!

[sjthinkpader]

Welcome to the forum.

I have two X4 Ultrabase. One will boot and one won't. So I also think some solder joint problem is the cause.