Thinkpads Forum

I have a Thinkpad 600 that will not get to the easy setup screen. It come up with 000161 and 000163 then goes to a screen with a lock and picture of a floppy. After that it still shows the two errors and will not boot to win 98. I have changed the cmos battery and the main battery. The 161 error show to be a dead battery and 163 error is the date and time is wrong. I'm at a loss as what to do and I have even pressed F1 and then turned on the Thinkpad hoping to get to the setup up screen. But it still goes to the two errors and doesn't go any further.

Any help will greatly be appreciated.

Jerry

Start with the machine COMPLETELY OFF


Press and HOLD and CONTINUE TO HOLD "F1"

WHILE STILL HOLDING "F1" turn on the machine and......

yes.... CONTINUE TO HOLD "F1"

jerryj wrote:I have a Thinkpad 600 that will not get to the easy setup screen. It come up with 000161 and 000163 then goes to a screen with a lock and picture of a floppy. After that it still shows the two errors and will not boot to win 98. I have changed the cmos battery and the main battery. The 161 error show to be a dead battery and 163 error is the date and time is wrong. I'm at a loss as what to do and I have even pressed F1 and then turned on the Thinkpad hoping to get to the setup up screen. But it still goes to the two errors and doesn't go any further.

Any help will greatly be appreciated.

Jerry

Pull the HD/Floppy and try to get it to boot into the BIOS.

TJ

I have held the f1 key down and turned on the thinkpad while holding F1 down for 10 minutes and still 161 and 163 error. I even took out the HDD and have it booth to the Bios with no luck. I even switch to another HDD also with no luck.

I removed the ram chip, HDD and tried it with no luck. I am really stumped.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A series of seemingly obvious questions, but possibly overlooked:

Have you actually set the time and date?

Did you remember to reconnect the CMOS battery correctly?

Was it a new CMOS battery, preassembled?

Did you replace the CMOS with a watch style battery yourself?

Pull the HD/Floppy and try to get it to boot into the BIOS

That simply will not happen. If you pull all the drives out of a 600 and turn it on, it should display the amount of memory, the Thinkpad logo, and then the "arrow into the floppy" screen., and indicating "F1" Pressing F1 results in an error message. On mine, it says I9990305, which simply means hard disk error, no boot device, etc.

Let me clarify, my wife got the Thinkpad 600 from a friend and told her I could have it. She told my wife that it was broke. When I first turned it on it had three errors - 161,163,192. I thought what better place to get help than from thinkpads.com.

After finding out what the error codes meant, the 192 was cooling fan which the fix was a brand new cmos battery from IBM. I installed the cmaos battery and the fan came alive. The 161 error states a dead battery which I couldn't figure out because I fully charged the main battery and checked the voltage, which read 12 volts. The 163 error code is the date and time which I still can't set until I can get to the setup screen to set it.

Well that's it in a nut shell do you think I could hav a bad motherboard????

It might be the motherboard then.

Normally, when you get the error to set the date and time in the 600 series, you are asked to press OK, then it takes you right into the screen to set the time and date.

By the way, the 161 error refers to a dead CMOS not a dead main battery.

Try unplugging the AC adapter, remove the main battery and then plug the AC adapter back in. Now, try to restart the system pressing the F1 button. If you still get the time and date error, see if there is an option to click OK, and then set the time and date. If the time and date need to be set, you won't be able to get into the BIOS via the F1 button in the initial boot.

Let us know what happens.

I have taken the main battery out, plug in the AC adapter and I still get 161 and 163. The cmos battery I ordered from IBM brand new, and it checks out at 3 volts. I have held the F1 key down and then turned on the thinkpad and even held the F1 key down for 10 minutes and the only screen I get is a picture of the two errors -161,163 and what looks a book. Which I guess is the owners manual.

Jerry

Are the errors on a black screen or on a light blue/green screen?

The errors are on a black screen.

Jerry

Forgive my question, as I do not intend to insult your intelligence, but did you reconnect the CMOS battery connector back to the motherboard in the right way?

It should only fit one way, BUT I bought a "dead" motherboard/base just for the casing once before and found that someone had managed to reconnect the connector upside down, which I didn't think was possible. (note: the board turned out to be ok for me)

Yes I did, before I pluged the new cmos battery in I got a magnifing glass to see which way the plug went. With the old cmos in I had no fan. After I installed the new cmos battery the fan started working. But I still have the 161,163 errors.

Jerry

OK, one last thing before moving to the dead motherboard conclusion....

Just beneath the power switch on the left side, there is a little hole which is the reset button. Try using a paperclip and pressing reset button with the power off.

Thanks I will try that when I get home from work and let you know. I want to thank you for your time, this has been a real head scratcher. Talk to you soon.

Jerry

Got home and tried the reset button with no luck. I still get 161,163 error codes. then two short beeps then what looks like a lock with a floppy on the left hand side. I press enter then a screen comes up with the two error codes. I press enter again and it shows the two error codes with an arrow pointing to what looks a book.

I guess back to square one, HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jerry

I think it's telling you to look up the error codes. If you go to the FAQ you can find out about looking upth codes.

jerryj wrote:...then two short beeps then what looks like a lock with a floppy on the left hand side...Jerry

OK, here is the important information that we/I needed. It sounds like the BIOS is a password protected. Unless the previous owner can give you the password, you are pretty much stuck at replacing the motherboard. Before anyone else starts, there are ways around the password, but I am not going to get into it in this forum, as it is against forum policies (even though others continue to post asking for help getting around the passwords...though you could search for "passwords" here in the forum and might be able to figure something out)