Thinkpads Forum

Hello laptop experts

First of all I am gald to find a place with experts like u guys .. been searching a while for this .. yeah I have read some threads here ...

I have got a used IBM ThinkPad 380XD - P2 , CD-ROM , Floppy , with the spacifications shown here..

http://www.baber.com/used/used_laptops/ ... d380xd.htm

I have two problems:

First: I get error 301 cause i disconnected my keyboard cause the internal has gone bad (90% of the keys were not fuctioning) ... so I need to to use an external keyboard (in DOS/BIOS mode to update the BIOS (even Enter bottom is not functioning) .. I have already used it under windows using the USB and it works fine)

Is it possible with that model? there is only 1 PS2 port that has a Mouse picture underneath it .. and the BIOS doesn't detect the keyboard if I connected it through the PS2 (only detects the mouse ... if connected) ... or using the serial port ? with is link shown here ?

http://l3sys.eskimo.net/kb232/

Or even the Infrared port ... I don't like this last solution though ... unless I am forced to ... I don't even know if its working or not ...

Second: I get error 8611 cause i disconnected my TrackPoint (Pointing device) ... and I read here

http://www.lemoncube.com/347.html

a way to disable that error ... but with the keyboard dead ... I am helpless ...

Help please ...

To sum up I wanna do 3 things ..

1-Use an external keyboard [don't wanna buy another].
2-Update the BIOS.
3-Boot normally without going to the 8611 error ... so that I can go to Windows ME to use the USB keyboard.

TIA
urs
Dave

I believe that you have to get a Y-Splitter for the PS2 port to be able to use the keyboard. I'm not quite sure why it will only work with the Y-Splitter, but there are many posts on here about this.

One would think that if you extend the cable and split it, it should work the same as if it were connected directly, but it doesn't.

tnx a lot for the fast reply tfflivemb2

will try to search for that

urs
Dave

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you tfflivemb2

IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I nearly had a heart attack when it didn't work at the beginning so I switched the mouse and keyboard ... and it worked

Now to the 2nd step .. disabling the 8611 error ....

urs
Dave

I also followed the instructions mentioned here:

http://www.lemoncube.com/347.html <<=== thanks man u rule

The sequence I went through was:

- Turn the laptop on. It gets the error 8611 and you get a popup to TEST or RESTART.
- Choose TEST.
- I just tested the Systemboard for something to do.
- Now I think I choose EXIT. It actually exits back to the main F1 config
screen (I could never get into the config screen by pressing F1).
- Choose 'Config'
- press CTRL D
- At offset 20h, change the value to 01 (it was 00 prior to this for me)
- Press F2 to save and then F3 to exit and restart.
- And now it should boot.

And it worked GREAT Now I can boot to windows with no 301 / 8611 errors

I wonder if there is a Bios hack for 301 error as well .... if someone knows anything gimme a yell



urs
Dave