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IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

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TH2002
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Joined: Sun May 09, 2021 8:49 pm
Location: Devore, California

IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#1 Post by TH2002 » Sun May 09, 2021 8:59 pm

First post here.

Anways, I have two ThinkPads, a 560 and a 560E which is working. However I cannot get the 560 up and running until I get around this problem. The computer will not boot up at all with the hard drive installed, just hangs at the memory test screen.

Things I've ruled out as the problem.

-The hard drive, which is working as I was able to copy the Windows 95 installation files over to it. Toshiba MK1214GAP
-The floppy drive, which the computer boots up fine from if the hard drive is not installed.
-The CMOS battery, I just put in a fresh one today.
-The BIOS boot order, which is set to boot from the floppy drive.

Any advice is appreciated!
Does anyone have an IBM PS/2 Model P70 they are willing to sell? If so, please send me a PM!

BillMorrow
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Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#2 Post by BillMorrow » Mon May 10, 2021 1:03 am

hello and welcome to the forum..

how about trying a different hard drive..?
Bill Morrow, kept by parrots :parrot: & cockatoos
Sysop - forum.thinkpads.com

*
She was not what you would call refined,
She was not what you would call unrefined,
She was the type of person who kept a parrot.
~~~Mark Twain~~~

abeglw
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#3 Post by abeglw » Mon May 10, 2021 9:20 am

I'm experiencing a similar issue on 560x.
Did you check if the bios detects it? When you enter in the easy-setup (holding F1 and press power) in the tests section press CTRL + A to see a dialog where you can check if it has been detected.

TH2002
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun May 09, 2021 8:49 pm
Location: Devore, California

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#4 Post by TH2002 » Mon May 10, 2021 10:56 am

BillMorrow wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 1:03 am
hello and welcome to the forum..

how about trying a different hard drive..?
Hello Bill and thank you for your response! Unfortunately I tried a different hard drive with the same result.
Does anyone have an IBM PS/2 Model P70 they are willing to sell? If so, please send me a PM!

TH2002
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun May 09, 2021 8:49 pm
Location: Devore, California

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#5 Post by TH2002 » Mon May 10, 2021 10:57 am

abeglw wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 9:20 am
I'm experiencing a similar issue on 560x.
Did you check if the bios detects it? When you enter in the easy-setup (holding F1 and press power) in the tests section press CTRL + A to see a dialog where you can check if it has been detected.
Hello abeglw, The BIOS detects the hard drive and passes the test with an OK. So the BIOS not detecting the hard drive is not the issue in my case.
Does anyone have an IBM PS/2 Model P70 they are willing to sell? If so, please send me a PM!

abeglw
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 5:49 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#6 Post by abeglw » Mon May 10, 2021 11:15 am

TH2002 wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 10:57 am
abeglw wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 9:20 am
I'm experiencing a similar issue on 560x.
Did you check if the bios detects it? When you enter in the easy-setup (holding F1 and press power) in the tests section press CTRL + A to see a dialog where you can check if it has been detected.
Hello abeglw, The BIOS detects the hard drive and passes the test with an OK. So the BIOS not detecting the hard drive is not the issue in my case.
I'm so jealous! I guess you already experimented with smaller partitions, I'm a little out of ideas.

TH2002
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun May 09, 2021 8:49 pm
Location: Devore, California

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#7 Post by TH2002 » Mon May 10, 2021 1:17 pm

abeglw wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 11:15 am
TH2002 wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 10:57 am


Hello abeglw, The BIOS detects the hard drive and passes the test with an OK. So the BIOS not detecting the hard drive is not the issue in my case.
I'm so jealous! I guess you already experimented with smaller partitions, I'm a little out of ideas.
Lol don't be jealous because my ThinkPad isn't working either. We just have similar, but different problems.

Only thing I can suggest is to get an external floppy drive (if you don't already have one) and create a bootable MS-DOS disk and see if DOS sees the drive? Of course I can't even get that far because mine just hangs on the memory test screen :(
Does anyone have an IBM PS/2 Model P70 they are willing to sell? If so, please send me a PM!

BillMorrow
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Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#8 Post by BillMorrow » Mon May 10, 2021 3:03 pm

hello all y'all.. :)
re mem test, these things DO fail.. have you tried pulling the add in memory, if any..? and if no add in memory then it begins to look like a system board failure..
i sent most all my antique thinkpads off with hwattys (here on the forum) some years ago and he does have some experience dealing with troublesome thinkpads.. all my 701C's went to him ad a bunch of other antiques..

re. HDD issue, same thing applies.. more or less.. starting with the basics is always the starting point..

i rather imagine there will be some system boards on ebay or alibaba (unless the chinese communist govt. have throttled jack ma more that earlier reported) or maybe some newer place i am unaware of.. :)
Bill Morrow, kept by parrots :parrot: & cockatoos
Sysop - forum.thinkpads.com

*
She was not what you would call refined,
She was not what you would call unrefined,
She was the type of person who kept a parrot.
~~~Mark Twain~~~

TH2002
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun May 09, 2021 8:49 pm
Location: Devore, California

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#9 Post by TH2002 » Mon May 10, 2021 4:34 pm

BillMorrow wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 3:03 pm
hello all y'all.. :)
re mem test, these things DO fail.. have you tried pulling the add in memory, if any..? and if no add in memory then it begins to look like a system board failure..
i sent most all my antique thinkpads off with hwattys (here on the forum) some years ago and he does have some experience dealing with troublesome thinkpads.. all my 701C's went to him ad a bunch of other antiques..

re. HDD issue, same thing applies.. more or less.. starting with the basics is always the starting point..

i rather imagine there will be some system boards on ebay or alibaba (unless the chinese communist govt. have throttled jack ma more that earlier reported) or maybe some newer place i am unaware of.. :)
I ran the tests in the BIOS (HDD, memory and system board) and they all passed with no errors. However I will try removing the RAM stick anyway to see if that makes a difference.

However the thing will actually boot with an MS-DOS bootdisk in the external floppy drive... if there's no hard drive installed. If I install the HDD then the machine just hangs accessing both the floppy and hard drives on startup.
Does anyone have an IBM PS/2 Model P70 they are willing to sell? If so, please send me a PM!

thinkpadstuff
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:50 pm
Location: Brighton, Michigan, USA

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#10 Post by thinkpadstuff » Thu May 13, 2021 1:47 pm

Have you tried installing the drive that works (560e) into the 560?

TH2002
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun May 09, 2021 8:49 pm
Location: Devore, California

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#11 Post by TH2002 » Thu May 13, 2021 4:08 pm

thinkpadstuff wrote:
Thu May 13, 2021 1:47 pm
Have you tried installing the drive that works (560e) into the 560?
That's a good idea and I haven't tried so yet, I'll see if that works.

Tried removing the extra RAM from the 560, no change.
Does anyone have an IBM PS/2 Model P70 they are willing to sell? If so, please send me a PM!

TH2002
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun May 09, 2021 8:49 pm
Location: Devore, California

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#12 Post by TH2002 » Thu May 13, 2021 7:47 pm

I finally figured out the problem! The drive is simply too large (larger than 8GB) for the BIOS to support by default so I'll have to use drive overlay software.

Anyways I did remove the harddrive from the 560E and the 560 booted up fine with that drive installed, which confirms there's nothing functionally wrong with the 560.
Does anyone have an IBM PS/2 Model P70 they are willing to sell? If so, please send me a PM!

thinkpadstuff
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:50 pm
Location: Brighton, Michigan, USA

Re: IBM ThinkPad 560 will not boot up with hard drive installed.

#13 Post by thinkpadstuff » Thu May 13, 2021 8:25 pm

Glad you got it sorted out. That's why I recommended trying the 560e drive in the 560. If you're using a larger drive than originally designed for these units, there are partition and formatiing issues.
I have *many dozens* of 560 series units here that I'm working on... and I use bootable floppy and diskclon program via pcmcia cdrom drive to load software onto HD's. It really simplifies the process.
-Denis

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