A22P start-up issues

[Cthuloops]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with great despair that I write to you regarding a start-up issue with my beloved A22P. Mostly sentimentally valued, it being the first piece of advanced technology I used for work, it has provided me years of service... until recently.

It will boot and run through Windows XP start-up up to the point that I enter my password. The moment I do and then hit enter, the machine pretends to work and then turns itself off. The result is the same when using the battery or straight a/c from the charging/power unit.

I have thought about running a system restore, but my problem there is twofold. One, there is some data on the machine that I would be loathe to lose... and two, I haven't the foggiest idea where the recovery cd is (and according to Lenovo, is no longer available).

I am willing to try just about anything reasonable. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

I thank you all very kindly in advance,

'Loops

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Sorry to hear that it's under unfortunate circumstances. As you say you have some important data on the drive, the first thing I would do would be to remove it from the A22p. No use subjecting it to any problems that might occur. The second thing to do is to run some diagnostics on the system and try to figure out if it's a software (probably not) or hardware issue. You could try booting another operating system (i.e., Linux), although I don't know what kind of support the latest releases have with such old hardware. My choice would be to use PC Doctor for DOS. It's something that was provided by IBM for their systems but you can't get it from them (or Lenovo) anymore. I've found the three diskettes I created several years ago and I'm going to see if I can get them formatted in a way where I can put them on my web site. I don't know if I still have the original .EXE files that created these diskettes. Unless somebody else can come up with them, hang on for a bit and I'll be back.

In the meantime, pull the hard drive and then turn on the system and see if it shuts down by itself. If it does, then there's something with the motherboard. Could be a heat problem (is the fan spinning?) or something else in the power controller.

edit: Found the original executables. I've put them up on my domain here:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_pcdoc/dgpcdrw.txt (Instructions)
http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_pcdoc/dgpcdrwa.exe (creates first diskette)
http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_pcdoc/dgpcdrwb.exe (creates second diskette)
http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_pcdoc/dgpcdrwc.exe (creates third diskette)

Note that this version of PC Doctor is for the following systems: A20m, A20p, A21m, A21p, A21e, A22m, A22p, A22e

[Neil]

Just to follow up on what Ray wrote...if you choose to try Linux just to see what happens with different software, Puppy Linux is the only distro that I can boot on the A22p because it includes what they call an Xorg Wizard. Without the wizard no other distro, that I've tried, will boot into a proper GUI.

That said, I'm going to venture a guess that what you're seeing is a GPU related fault. The first A22p I owned (now long dead) would not run at all with a graphics driver installed, but if I ran XP with only the standard graphics adapter driver (not ATI) it would boot and operate. In Linux, I could use VESA, but not Xorg. Someting like this may just be what is happening with your machine...work OK until Windows load all the drivers, including graphics, then stops.

[Cthuloops]

Update:

I pulled the HDD and powered on the machine. It went through the IBM BIOS load-screen and switched to a red box stating "No hard drive found. If no OS is installed, reinstall the hard drive. Press any key to exit." I didn't press anything and just waited for approximately five seconds and another screen came up reading...

Intel(R) Boot Agent Version 4.0.17
Copyright (C) 1997-2001, Intel Corporation
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM
Operating System not found

This is followed by a blinking command prompt. That process repeats after pressing any key and the machine does not power itself off. In fact, the prompt is still winking at me after ten minutes of just sitting there. Kind of creepy... I think I'll just turn it off.

I noticed that during start-up and through the BIOS sequence, the fan was on. As soon as the machine switched screens, the fan switched off. (The same thing happens with the fan when the HDD is installed. I don't know if it comes back on after logging in because the system still powers itself down.)

Could it be an issue with the HDD and not the system itself that is causing the shutdown?

I will DL, copy, and run the .exe's (thank you very kindly for posting them) and report back.

[rkawakami]

Everything sounds normal with respect to the system powering up and displaying those messages when no hard drive is found. Also the fan operation seems normal; turning on when powered up and shutting off a few seconds later. That the A22p remains on for several minutes is a good sign that the motherboard is mostly working.

What the three .EXE programs will do is create a set of bootable floppies containing the PC Doctor for DOS diagnostic. Run each one, follow the prompts to get past the legalese and insert a blank floppy and label it when finished (dgpcdrwa is disk #1, b is 2 and c is 3). Then boot the A22p using the first floppy and follow the prompts (use option #1 for the A22p). When the first diskette has finished loading you should get prompted to load disk #3. At least it does with my own A22p. You should now have PC Doctor up and running. Across the top of the screen is a menu bar that selects various tests to be performed. Using the trackpoint (mouse) and left button or arrow and ENTER keys, I would run the following tests:

- CPU/coprocessor (all selected tests)
- Systemboard (all selected tests)
- Video Adapter (all selected tests; be prepared to endure a bunch of flashing on the screen)
- Fixed Disks (Controller should be the only option available if you have removed the HD)
- Other Devices (IBM Thermal Sensors and IBM Fan)

To easily run all of the selected tests in each sub-menu, press CTRL-ENTER. Move the cursor to each item individually and click the mouse button or hit the ENTER key to run a test by itself. PC Doctor does a fairly good job but it is not infallible. Post your results and we'll take it from there.

[Cthuloops]

I will have to run to the store to get some more disks, didn't know I was out. In the mean time, I reinserted the HDD and ran the PC Doctor from there (F11 at start-up). The results are as follows.

* CPU/CoProcessor
CPU Registers: Passed
" Arithmetics: Passed
" Logical Operations: Passed
" String Operations: Passed
" Interrupts/Exceptions: Passed
" Buffers/Cache: Passed
CoProc Registers: Passed
" Commands: Passed
" Arithmetics: Passed
" Trancendental: Passed
MMX Test: Passed

* Systemboard (Prompts me to 'Insert USB-Parallel Wrap Plug into USB Slot and Parallel Port.' and 'Insert PC-Card Wrap Plug into the PC Card Slot.' I don't have either, so I pressed the spacebar to continue anyway.)
System Timer: Passed
BIOS Timer: Passed
IRQ Controller: Passed
DMA Channels: Passed
RAM Refresh: Passed
RTC Clock: Passed
CMOS RAM: Passed
Keyboard: Passed
External Cache: N/A
PCI: Passed
PCMCIA: Passed
PCMCIA External Loop: N/A
USB Port: Passed
USB Port External Loop: N/A

* Video Adapter (You were right... pretty trippy.)
Video Memory: Passed
Video Pagers: Passed
VGA Controller Registers: Passed
VGA Color-DAC Registers: Passed

* Fixed Disks
Controller: Passed
HI-Low Seek: Passed
Track To Track: Passed
Random Seek: Passed
Linear Verify: Failed
Random Verify: Passed

* Other Devices (Nothing listed for Thermal Sensors and/or Fan.)

So, Linear Verify failed. Out of curiosity, I popped into DOS Shell to run a chkdsk and scandisk. When running scandisk, the machine powered off after nearly completing the Directory Structure portion of the repair. Which is exactly what it does at the login screen when booting to Windows XP.

[rkawakami]

Hmm.. so the problem seems to be related somehow to the hard drive. I don't think I've ever had a HD fault which caused the system to power down. My best suggestion would be to try to copy off your important files onto another system (if possible). Also, keep the system as cool as possible as the shutdown may be due to the HD overheating. I would also try running PC Doctor from the floppies as I know it has the Thermal Sensor and Fan diagnostics. Unfortunately it only checks the sensor(s) on the motherboard and not the hard drive. There may be a diagnostic by the HD manufacturer that reads this information. For Seagate drives you can use SeaTools; Hitachi drives use DFT (Drive Fitness Test). I believe both will report the temperature of the drive when you boot the DOS-based diagnostics.

[Cthuloops]

The HDD has no identifying information on it to indicate a manufacturer. All my research on the subject has turned up that it is simply a generic drive. So, no luck there.

I will try to make it to the store to get some 3.5's tomorrow after work. Until then, I am going to stash the machine in a Voodoo altar with Jobu's rum and hope for the best.

[Cthuloops]

It seems that the problem is the result of a fault in the HDD making the disk and all of it's contents garbage. /sigh

Looks like I have to rebuild my work database on my new machine. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Anyone want to buy a much loved A22p 2629 in good condition without a HDD?