Thinkpads Forum

I just got a 570 (my first 5xx machine). It had no hard drive.

I powered it up and checked it out. 192MB RAM and IMET45WW BIOS. The current version is IMET65WW, so I downloaded that and updated the BIOS, then installed a 12GB disk drive.

And now the machine acts strangely. If I put in the BIOS udpate floppy (using the external floppy from my 600X), the machine boots just fine and gives me the big IBM screen, and the menu with 1. Read this first and 2. Update BIOS or whatever it says.

But, if I put in another floppy, like the PC Doctor diskette, or the Slackware bare.i boot floppy, with or without the hard drive in place, it goes into the BIOS settings. It goes into the BIOS if I try to boot the hard disk (which has LILO, Slackware from another machine, and DOS on it).

I cannot save changes in the BIOS. It just hangs when I try.

And and all tips greatly appreciated.

Have you set the BOOT order to FDD, HD1 in the BIOS?

Initialized the system?

Regards,

James

I'm pretty sure the boot order is correct because it does boot from the BIOS update floppy.

As for Initialize, the 570 doesn't have EZSetup. It has a more traditional BIOS interface. When I set the "Reset config data" to [Yes], then try Save Changes and Exit, it hangs. I let it go overnight with no change.

Would you try an older BIOS?

I did manage to boot the machine. Once. Then it went back to its old behavior of locking up when I try to save BIOS changes.

Could this problem be caused by a dying CMOS/backup battery?

The CMOS battery was fine.

I don't have a caddy for this machine, so I just pushed the drive in the slot. I think that not having a caddy let me push the drive in just a little too far, and the master/slave pins were touching the metal enclosure... sometimes.

So I ever so slightly bent a pin, and now it works fine.

Lesson: Always use a caddy in a 570.