Thinkpads Forum

Hey guys, i just got a new motherboard, as my last one went bad.
when i boot up, it dose the memory ok deal, then the IBM and Thinkpad logo's show up, and then "nothing" it freezes there. of course i put my P3 CPU in it. it's model number A5U. can anyone help?

Put the original CPU back, flash the BIOS to the latest release and then try it again with your PIII.

Regards,

James

Laptop_wizard wrote:Hey guys, i just got a new motherboard, as my last one went bad.
when i boot up, it dose the memory ok deal, then the IBM and Thinkpad logo's show up, and then "nothing" it freezes there. of course i put my P3 CPU in it. it's model number A5U. can anyone help?

This probably isn't the case, but I thought I'd ask. By any chance is there a lock icon in the upper left of the screen? If so, the new motherboard has a power-on password set.

I just realized you said you put a PIII CPU in. The 600E only supported up to a 400Mhz PII. I looked into this about 3-years ago when I was upgrading mine from a 300Mhz PII to a 400Mhz PII. I read at that time of some people that got a PIII to work, but there were always some issues.

It dose the exact same thing with the original CPU. I can't flash the bios, it just freezes, I was thinking that the hardrive wasen't in the boot-up options but i can't even get there, this is over my head.
thanks guys no one usally replies my post.

A bit of a remote chance, but perhaps you squished the reset button on the MB when you installed it?

Regards,

James

If you look in the Hardware Maintenance Manual, starting on page 57 are some beep and non-beep symptoms listed. You should look it over. You can get the pub. by starting at the following link. Once you get to the 600E driver matrix page, you'll see a link for available publications.

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... date=false

It dose make this really weird sound, like a door is creeping open.
but i don't see anything like that in my manuel.

but perhaps you squished the reset button on the MB when you installed it?

no, after it woulden't work, I hit the reset button, How could i squish it anyways, it's hard plastic. I would have other problems. it woulden't turn on.

I bet you have a bad hard drive. Try booting from a CD. If that works, it's probably your hard drive that's failed.

I have a 600x with a 2645-4eu board in it and I just upgtaded it from a 500mhz processor to an 850mhz speed step. It too froze up after the Thinkpad logo showed up. What ended up solving my problem was removing the battery. Once the battery was out the sytem started with no problems. Now this may be because I am using one of those high capacity aftermarket batteries. I'm running windows xp sp2 on my system.

I tried booting from a floppy and a CD . my hardrive is just Fine. it was just fine in my last sytem.

Laptop_wizard wrote:I tried booting from a floppy and a CD . my hardrive is just Fine. it was just fine in my last sytem.

What system was the HD in previously?

Regards,

James

marvelousmarvyd wrote:I have a 600x with a 2645-4eu board in it and I just upgtaded it from a 500mhz processor to an 850mhz speed step. It too froze up after the Thinkpad logo showed up. What ended up solving my problem was removing the battery. Once the battery was out the sytem started with no problems. Now this may be because I am using one of those high capacity aftermarket batteries. I'm running windows xp sp2 on my system.

I had a related experience when I bought my 600E. I got it from local 'used computer store'. There were (2) 600E's in the store, one had more RAM, and the other had a larger hard drive. I chose the one with the larger hard drive, which already had Windows installed, and which I saw working in the store. When I brought it home, it wouldn't boot up! I called the store as they were just closing (before the Thanksgiving weekend no less), and the owner had me try a couple of things, such as getting into the BIOS. After several attempts at booting, it finally booted up.

It so happens that this was my first laptop, so I knew nothing about the particulars of using it. I didn't do any real research ahead of time, I just knew I wanted an IBM. I knew the IBM keyboards were legendary, and I liked the form factor of the 600E.

Now, I had been noticing the orange LED flashing constantly and had no idea what it meant. After some searching I found this indicated the battery needed charging. I removed the battery and found the laptop would boot every time. With the battery in, only sometimes would it boot. I ran the system diagnostics from the BIOS and got an error message regarding the charging system. With the battery removed, system diagnostics showed no errors.

I brought the laptop back to the store, and they put in a different battery that was known to be OK. Right in the store this same laptop fried that battery too. As a result, I had to accept the other 600E that they had, and the store had to acquire another battery for me.

Moral: A bad battery can prevent a laptop from booting even with the AC power plugged in. Also, a bad battery can ruin a motherboard - and it doesn't have to 'leak' to do this.

Thankyou for your reply, that must have taken awhile. thankyou
The battery I had in it was fully charged. even with the battery removed.
It woulden't do a thing. Oh well I am getting a refund, i just got a heck of a steal at this link, check it out.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :EOAB:US:6

I had the same creeping sound when installed "illeagal" RAM (256 high density).

Maybe there is RAM that only works after bios update? Try to remove it and then try.

I had the same creeping sound when installed "illeagal" RAM (256 high density).

Maybe there is RAM that only works after bios update? Try to remove it and then try.


have 1 PC66 128MB and 1 PC100 128Mb in it ,no high density.

Hmmm I'll try that, i don't have any high density. but i'll give it a try.