X60 and Ultrabase DVD DRIVE NOT RECOGNIZED

[Joe_Stem]

I am working on an IBM thinkpad x60 laptop with the Ultrabay x6 docking station

The customer said the computer locked up and the only way to fix it was to use the blue "ThinkVantage" button.... It worked and reset it to factory settings but now the DVD drive in the docking station is not recognized by windows XP/VISTA/ and 7 nor is it recognized in the bios..... also if the drive is left in the docking station and I try to boot to BIOS it hangs on black screen untill I disconect it from the dock. Drive is powered up and ejects properly. If you go to Lenovo's support page to find the drivers, under CD/DVD it says N/A how is that even possible no drivers? Under device manager there is no option for optical drives. There is however an UNKNOWN Device that windows cant find a driver for.....

I have tried the REG hack to remove upper and lower filters but that had no effect except BSOD..... since DVD drive not working re-installing windows was a pain but it is on here via USB. I am not a newbie as I have been doing this for a long time now 15+ years. and it has me and a 40 yr. IBM vet stumped except in the event that it is a drive failure which we both suspect that at this point.... My question is... is there any other fixes for this before i have to tell my customer he needs a new drive....

Thanx for the help,

Joe

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

From that description, I would suspect either the Ultrabase or the DVD drive. The easiest (?) solution would be to swap in a known working Ultrabay slim optical drive (of any kind; CD, DVD or combo) and see if BIOS can detect it. And also please clarify that you have to remove the laptop from the dock before you get past the black screen. Or is it the laptop can boot when connected to the Ultrabase, but the optical drive has been removed? That might be a critical detail to determine if there's a problem with the drive or the base.

As far as I know, there is no need for any kind of special driver for supporting the Ultrabay optical drives. Windows XP and newer should be able to handle them right out of the box. At least that's been my experience even when attaching non-IBM drives in Ultrabay 2000 systems or swapping CD, CDRW, DVD and DVDRW drives in the same system.

[Joe_Stem]

to clarify your ? The dock can stay connected to pc but drive removed from dock to get past black screen... thanks for the quick reply..... and I have no newer IBM parts for this machine.... on hand.. no real way to swap drives or docking stations.... I think it is the drive it self.... but it is weird for it to just go out without warning but that is the nature of the beast.... also when booted to windows the all ports on the docking station are functional

[rkawakami]

That suggests to me that the Ultrabase may not be the problem. However, the only way to be certain would be to try another drive. Any Ultrabay Slim optical drive can be mounted in the X6 Ultrabase. This means any drive from a T4x system. You can either look around locally for such a drive, post a wanted here in the Marketplace or scan eBay. There's several Ultrabay Slim drives currently on eBay for a little bit less than $20 shipped.

[Joe_Stem]

Hey man thanks for your help.... I'll Check EBay tomarrow when I speak to my customer..... Thats cheaper than my suggestion which was a USB DVDrw from wal-mart for like $60 thanks again....

[rkawakami]

Well, the $20 price I quoted is for a regular CD or DVD drive; not a writer. I only suggested that as a means to cheaply determine if the drive is defective or the base. DVD writer will be more $$$ but if you are lucky you can get one for less than the $60 USB unit. Good luck!

[Joe_Stem]

OK Heres an update.... I bought the Ultrabay drive from Ebay and it just showed up today.... I stuck it in the ultrabay and it is still not recognized.... it shows up in device manager as Unknown Device with no Drivers and Lenovo has no drivers for this thing... the model number for the drive is model:UJDA775 FRU P/N:39t2685 S/N 61bhb094418 any one have any Ideas.....

[morkli]

[mod edit: removed duplicate thread, including duplicate reply - just trying to keep the thread in one place]

It is possible that the Ultrabay drive you bought from eBay is faulty. However, since it's the second drive you tried, it's also likely that the fault is with the Ultrabase X6 docking station (even though the other ports on it work). You could get something like the following from eBay to test the drives via USB:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/USB-EXTERNAL-CAS ... 125wt_1137

Cheers,

[Joe_Stem]

Thanks Ill order one this evening... I need one any way.... Will let you know what happens

[Joe_Stem]

Well I finally got the USB case for the CD\DVD drives..... Put the original drive in and windows found the drive right away however it wont read any type of DVD.... Reads Cd's just fine.... The New drive Fails when windows detects it... in other words it see the drive and tries to install it but it fails every time..... is there any way to make the original drive read DVD's... even swapping parts from one drive to the other...