A31 newbie with a help question.....

[smw6230]

About 2 months ago I purchased a used A31 off ebay. Everything booted up and worked fine but before I started to actively use it, I decided that I wanted to completely fix/upgrade it (new mobo, 2gb memory, new base, upgrade to a 15" SXGA screen, new 160gb HDD).

My SXGA screen arrived this week and when I went to test it for comparability (screen/flex cable - both worked) it no longer booted to XP. At first I saw an error, which I wish I had written it down, but IIRC the error was 'couldn't find ini or sys driver'. It prompted me to use 'r' (repair) when booting to fix the error. That actually isn't an option for me as XP came pre-installed and 'r' during boot doesn't work. Now whenever turn the A31 on it boots straight to recovery mode and gives me two options a) is a reinstall and , LOL I just forgot what teh second one was.

I looked at some of the diagnostics and it seems like all of the drivers are missing (audio, graphics).

This doesn't sound like a catastrophic failure that is unrepairable but I just want to check with the experts to make sure.

At this point would my best course of action be to go ahead and switch the mobo (same FRU) and everything else, since I'm going to do it anyway, and then attempt to boot XP again. When/if it doesn't boot up, (probably won't) go ahead and find a A31 recovery disk somewhere and reinstall the drivers?

Does that sound about right?

Or is there another better way to fix this problem.

Finally, if I do a reinstall about how long should/would that take, just so I have a timeframe to know if everything is functioning correctly.

Thanks.

[jronald]

As you are already stuck, get the recovery disks and fix it.

Ron

[AMATX]

Try booting up a floppy disk with DOS or old Windows, just to see if the hardware works.

Separate possible hardware issues from software stuff.

[smw6230]

Separate possible hardware issues from software stuff.

Hardware works, as I had tested that previously.

Since I can't find a genuine thinkpad A31 recovery disk to buy do you think one from ebay like the one below would be ok?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

[ajkula66]

Those disks won't do anything for you.

PM me your address and I'll send you a copy of A31/p recovery disks for free.

[smw6230]

Those disks won't do anything for you.

PM me your address and I'll send you a copy of A31/p recovery disks for free.

Thanks, PM sent.