R31 Doesn't Boot To CD...

[jpaolini]

Hello thinkpads.com forums!

I joined here a while ago, but got busy and forgot how awesome this site was. I hope to be around more now...

I have a question, however, regarding an R31 Thinkpad. I aquired it from a friend a while ago, and it has just been sitting around ever since. Finally, I decided to fire it up and see if I could get it working.

Well, the machine fires right up. Fan comes on, hard drive light goes active for a second, and the DVD drive goes active for a second. But it just sits at a screen that has the following information on it:

BIOS 3.060 (1FETE6WW)
CPU = Intel Mobile Celeron processor
640KB System RAM Passed
256KB Cache SRAM Passed
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed
0253568 KB Extended RAM Passed

I cannot get this machine to boot to a disk. It has a TravelStar 20GB hard drive in it, that goes active for a second as soon as the machine fires up. I have tried a different hard drive, just in case. Also tried different RAM chips, but still get the same results. The UltraBay DVD drive spins up for a moment as soon as you turn it on, then just stops.

I'm trying to boot to a Win2k disk, but have also tried a WinXP disk with the same results.

Does anyone have any ideas for me to get this thing going?


Thanks in advance,
Joe

[danieldavid]

Hi Joe,

Would like to give you a few suggestions:

1. If you're concerned about the RAM, you can make a bootable CD with MEMTEST86+ memory diagnostics ( http://www.memtest.org ) - just check it on another PC to make sure that your copy works.

2. You may be able to test your CD/DVD drive in another machine with Ultrabay 2000.

3. As I needed to do some maintenance on my 3.5 year old R31, I recently bought an Ultrabay Diskette Drive on eBay for just a couple of dollars. Would strongly recomment getting one if you can.

Please keep us informed.

- Daniel

[jpaolini]

Daniel,

Thanks for the reply!

I have tried the RAM in another computer. It acually came out of my X31, before I upgraded it to 1.5GB. The chip works, because it registers as "Extended RAM" on the screen I get when I turn on the computer.

I have not tested the UltraBay drive with another, but I do have a spare and I will test that.

Also, I do have a USB (or PCMCIA, can't remember) external IBM floppy drive. Will this work?

I'm begining to think the BIOS needs to be flashed, or something to that extent. The computer doesn't even show the familiar IBM logo screen (like my X31 does). There is no options to tell it to boot to a CD.

Does anyone have any other thoughts for me?


Joe

[danieldavid]

Hi Joe,

Sounds like you're making some progress.

If I remember correctly, the R31 should boot from a USB diskette drive, however it cannot boot from a USB disk on key.

Good luck!
- Daniel

[storage_man]

Joe

First off you state:

I cannot get this machine to boot to a disk. It has a TravelStar 20GB hard drive in it, that goes active for a second as soon as the machine fires up. I have tried a different hard drive, just in case. Also tried different RAM chips, but still get the same results. The UltraBay DVD drive spins up for a moment as soon as you turn it on, then just stops.

I'm trying to boot to a Win2k disk, but have also tried a WinXP disk with the same results.



I assume that you tried another TravelStar disk with WinXP installed on it. That will never work. XP when installed, is configured to a specifice hardware configuration. Just plugging it in to a different drive, will never work.

Second, you say its a Win2k OS on the orginal disk. How do you know that ? That travelstar may be DOA. I could of had a HDI (Head Disk Interference).

Have you tried to boot from the IBM recovery disks or go into BIOS and perform a recovery ? You need to get into bios to set this. Also make sure that BIOS sees the disk. If it doesn't it probably is BROKE.

Just some things to try.

Storage_man