Thinkpads Forum

I just got a 355c from a friend for shipping, and while she'll turn on, well it's got a lot of issues.
First the LCD screen can't actually be viewed head on, you have to look at an angle to make anything readable, which is fun. When I first powered it on it went to a screen asking me for the date, and I just hit enter (default was 1994), after that it shut down, and when I press the power button it'll make two short beeps. I've taken a picture of the only activity it'll give when it's in this state (the LEDs):
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/8180/2dv5.jpg

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Unplugging the unit and replugging it back in allows me to power it up again, where I can usually get to some sort of bootloader with an option for windows or DOS. what I select doesn't matter, as after a few seconds it'll repeat the process of shutting down (fan/hard drive noise stops) and sits there with those lights on, and the two short beeps when I hit the power switch.

Obviously the first step is to get it booting again, so without further ado: does anyone know what those two beeps mean, or a quick solution to my problem?

update: so I'm a dumb***. the problem with the display was that contrast (controlled by a slider on the right side of the display) was turned up to max.The random shutting off is still an issue. The times it does it are inconsistent, but it's never stayed on for more than 30 seconds. I'm also trying to find out what the LED on the right side that's on when it's in this state is, because it only comes on when it enters this state, and there appears to be a Fn key toggle for it as well (that doesn't work so far as I can tell).


update 2: whooo got it. seems like for some reason the (dead AF) battery was causing the problem. Removed it and she works
>glorious AOL login screen


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Right so now that it's functional, next up on the list is to upgrade. having taken her a bit apart it's apparent that I'm going to need:
a new battery
a new CMOS battery
a RAM upgrade (because 4MB is not going to work out for my goals)
possibly a larger HDD
processor?

So, starting with the RAM, I see that it uses some sort of proprietary memory thing by IBM, and there are multiple check boxes on it (4-32MB), so I assume that the machine can do up to 32MB. I've found this on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kingston-32MB-M ... 4ac623ac0d
but it doesn't list 355c as compatible. I swear it *looks* like it'll fit, but does anyone know if compatibility is going to work out?

That doesnt look anything like ram. More like a pcmcia memory card.

That were the RAMs of the old days! I have similar ones (albeit original IBM) for my 340CSE's, 755 and 360PE.

youwonder wrote:I swear it *looks* like it'll fit, but does anyone know if compatibility is going to work out?

I'd personally would keep looking for an original one, since the old machines tend to be picky IMO.

Try searching on ebay with the following FRUs

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/IC_DRAM_Card

DaKKS wrote:That doesnt look anything like ram. More like a pcmcia memory card.

I thought as much too, but it says 4MB and the machine does have 4MB RAM

Tasurinchi wrote:That were the RAMs of the old days! I have similar ones (albeit original IBM) for my 340CSE's, 755 and 360PE.

youwonder wrote:I swear it *looks* like it'll fit, but does anyone know if compatibility is going to work out?

I'd personally would keep looking for an original one, since the old machines tend to be picky IMO.

will continue to look. my distro of choice is going to be DSL (if I can find a way to get it installed). that claims it can run on a 486dx (which according to wikipedia is a more powerful version of my 486sx) and 16MB RAM, so hopefully I can find one of at least 16MB capacity.

ilakast wrote:Try searching on ebay with the following FRUs

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/IC_DRAM_Card

thanks, I'll do that, but I don't see my model number listed on that page, so as a secondary thing, which should I be looking for, or will any of them work?

oh ya, if anyone has an idea how I'm gonna be able to get this thing to work with a CD drive that'd be welcome. currently I'm just on google for "PCMCIA CD rom drive" or "parallel port cdrom drive"

youwonder wrote:thanks, I'll do that, but I don't see my model number listed on that page, so as a secondary thing, which should I be looking for, or will any of them work?

from page 11 of the relevant PSREF http://www.lenovo.com/psref/psrefs_withdrawn.html

ilakast wrote:

youwonder wrote:thanks, I'll do that, but I don't see my model number listed on that page, so as a secondary thing, which should I be looking for, or will any of them work?

from page 11 of the relevant PSREF http://www.lenovo.com/psref/psrefs_withdrawn.html

balls so I'm limited to 20MB. If I stick a 32MB will it just recognize 20 of it or will it...be angry.

will continue to look. my distro of choice is going to be DSL (if I can find a way to get it installed). that claims it can run on a 486dx (which according to wikipedia is a more powerful version of my 486sx) and 16MB RAM, so hopefully I can find one of at least 16MB capacity.

Sounds like a fun project.

I put DSL on a 365x years ago. It had only a floppy, and getting DSL onto it involved the painful process of using a program to divide up the large files into 1.4 MB chunks and transferring them over, and then merging all the chunks on the 365x. Then, to my disappointment, DSL was quite slow. If I had known then what I know now, I would have pulled the hard drive and installed from a newer machine. Afterward, I found Basic Linux (http://distro.ibiblio.org/baslinux/), which is a very small (and very old) Slackware-based distro. It's a two-floppy set, with X-windows, and it runs well on really old hardware. There's a great mailing list, and if you explore the site, a lot of suggestions to help you get set up. There are also numerous programs available, and you can install more from the repositories for Slackware 4.0

I highly recommend it. You'll be a linux Jedi by the time you're done.