TP770 - XP install nightmare :(

[goatboy]

Hi guys, I'm at my wit's end...

I have this thinkpad 770 with the interchangeable CDRom and 3.5" floppy drives. The Hard Drive is completely blank, i formatted 7 gig volume and I am trying to install XPPro from a CD. The minimum spec is met by my system, the only problem is getting to the data on the cd!

What I've been doing so far is sticking in a Win98 boot floppy (which came with the machine) and when it searches for a CDRom drive to apply drivers to it can't find one, obviously because the floppy drive is inserted in the machine instead. So no drivers install. I have tried copying the contents of the boot disc to c:\ and making c:\ a sys disc, then altering the autoexec.bat stuff to say C: where it usually says a: and rebooting with the CDRom drive in but once the drivers try to install it chucks me back to c: without specifying which drive letter has been allocated. None seem to work. I have also tried telling the BIOS (if that icon driven thing with the hummingbird pointer is the real BIOS!?) to boot from CDRom only (which tests OK in the test menu) but all to no avail.

Any ideas where I am going wrong with this? I just need to get at the files on the CD to start the setup for my OS. I also have a Win95 CD here I could use instead, if only I could get the [censored] thinkpad to look at the CD Drive.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated. Also, should this have gone in the appropriate OS forum instead, or both?

[tfflivemb2]

OK, a couple of quick questions for you, to help sort out some of this info:

1. Do you have the latest BIOS?
2. Is the WinXP Pro CD an original or a burnt copy? (Some drives will not read burnt discs)
3. Do you get the same response with an original disk?

[goatboy]

1. Do you have the latest BIOS?

I have version IDET38WW dated 09/17/99. There is one from 29/03/2000 which I shall try to install.

2. Is the WinXP Pro CD an original or a burnt copy? (Some drives will not read burnt discs)

Original, not certain it is a bootable version though, have just installed XP in place of ME on two other machines with it.

3. Do you get the same response with an original disk?

Same response with all disks so far. The drive does indeed read copied disks ok though.

Thanks for your help so far

[tfflivemb2]

I would go ahead and try to update the BIOS. The instructions that come with the BIOS are pretty straightforward.

I believe the latest BIOS for the TP770 and the TP600 were to include support for WinXP.

Try that and see if it helps.

[goatboy]

Oh crikey. Having download the firmware from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... SHY-3P2MCB

I copied it to a disk using my wife's computer (as my mainbox suddenly doesn't want to write to floppies beyond 95% anymore. It checks out ok, so I stick it in the 770 and fire her up. IBM logo comes up, fine so far... then I select the 'Update System Program' and I get an error message saying the file I selected was not found on the diskette. I am approaching despair. I'll try making another floppy update disc from another PC whenever I can. This is incredible though - everything that could possibly be wrong is wrong

[tfflivemb2]

Take two steps back and two deep breaths.

Try downloading the BIOS update again and make sure that you are running the program on the PC to create the diskette, versus "copying" it to the diskette. (I believe that you most likely did it right since you got the system update option in the first place)

As for everything going wrong....I would look at removing the Murphy's Law chip next to the processor.

[goatboy]

Ineed, I was running the program to create the diskette. I have also tried downloading the driver from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... JJR-3QJKQV

and extracting it in the same fashion. Again, the diskette writes fine, but this time when I try to install the driver it tells me there isan error writing to drive c, without even trying to write to the drive. I am going to try to copy the individual .sys file that is the driver and manually change all the entries in autoexec and that.

[goatboy]

That worked. I copied the driver over, had to then switch to the a: drive before it would let me edit config.sys and autoexec.bat but it worked, CD drive recognised, I'm now looking at a fresh clean Windows95 install (which is bugger all use to me as I need wifi connectivity and this and that but certainly I am at a point from which I can recover quite easily now. Thankyou for all the assistance, I've really been in the dark over this one.

The bad news is I've bookmarked the site for the next time things go wrong

[Tachyon]

I really can't imagine:

- Why you'd try to install XP after booting from a floppy.
- Why you'd do an upgrade install, ever.

The 770 can boot from the CD/DVD-ROM just fine, though this can be disabled from the BIOS, so do the F1 at boot and look around in the boot order menu.
The XP install CD is bootable and should be booted from to install. The drivers on the 98 floppy are not compatible with XP anyway.

If you set the BIOS correctly, and boot from the CD, you should be able to install XP with no problems.

However, I have found that XP runs like crap on the 770, it's too resource hungry, and it insists on screwing around with the hardware, changing IRQ's and such without asking, no matter how it's configured.

I much prefer Windows 2000 SP4 on these models. It's leaner and faster, and won't fool with your hardware. Also there are IBM drivers for most of the 770 hardware but not many for XP as it was never supported on this model.

Also upgrade installs are asking for problems. Especially from ME. I'd backup, wipe the drive and install fresh.

That's just my opinion though. XP will boot and install fine from the internal UltraBay CD/DVD-ROM.

Good luck.

BTW, SuSE Linux runs great on these.