Thinkpads Forum

First off thank you very much for reading this.

Recently I recieved for free a non functioning Thinkpad 600, the laptop had a faulty cmos battery ( the little camera cell) after replacing it and many phone calls to our IT people I was able to obtain the correct passwords. So far so good the laptop was able after some experimenting to boot up.However here are the problems I need to solve:
1,The EDI primary and secondary channels are in conflict with the EDI/ESDI hard disk controllers.After following the instructions provided on the machine I was not able to solve this issue.

2,The CD-ROM drive will not work apparently because of issue number 1.The laptop when prompted in Device manager says the CD-ROM will not work because it cannot get the driver from windows.

I have the external floppy drive but no discs or floppies for the machine (it was after all for free).

If anyone can give me a few pointers about how to resolve this I would be very thankful.I am not particularly PC smart so if any answers could be written in a language a non-pc person could understand I would appreciate this. Thank you in advance

The Laptop runs Windows 2000 Pro it is a Toshiba CD-ROM

Do you have the operating system discs for another computer? You really need to borrow or purchase a floppy drive. They are pretty cheap on e-bay, though I don't know where you are. Then you can install another version of Windows, or reinstall 2000. It sounds like you need to reinstall the operating system, and since you can't access the CD-ROM a floppy will be necessary.

On second thought, formatting the hard drive might cure the problem of accessing the CD-ROM if it's operating system related. See if the computer recognizes the CD-ROM in the BIOS setup. If it does, the problem is in Windows, not the hardware. In that case you should be able to format the hard drive (which will erase everything) then boot from a bootable Windows CD-ROM and reinstall.

Do you have the license sticker for Windows 2000 on the bottom of the laptop? If so someone might be willing to send you a copy of the CD. I don't have 2000 myself. Win98 runs on the 600E, but I had better luck with XP. SP takes a bit longer to boot up on a 256K 600E, but runs faster once booted than 98.

I have the external floppy drive here so it is just a question of the floppies themselves. I tried using that self diagnostic tool when you press F1 at start up and the outcome was that the CD-ROM according to what the diagnostic tool sees is working .It asked if I wanted to use a CD-ROM to test but not having one that I was sure off I opted to just let it test without it.
FWIW: The primary ide channel has a conflict with the first (as seen on the device manager list) hard disc controller and the secondary has a conflict with the second hard disc controller.Both hard disc controllers show a little yellow exclamation symbol.
I live in Germany.
What does this sticker look like for the Windows OS? I looked all it seems to have is a serial number and ID number for the laptop. My other laptop is a brand new Toshiba Satellite with XP in it but it did not come with any discs at all.
I was thinking I could use this older Thinkpad as a backup or as something to tinker with.

If you need to reinstall the OS and you don't have a floppy, you should be able to boot off the CD-ROM if you have a bootable OS cd. From the sounds of things, the IRQs are the reason your CD-ROM doesn't work which would mean only Windows can't use it. I'd try holding down F1 while you flip the power switch and keep it held until the computer starts, when you get to the Easy Setup screen, go to Config then Initialize and choose yes. That will clear your BIOS settings and clear conflics at the BIOS level which at minimum will allow the CD to work outside of Windows. After that, make sure the CD is enabled as a boot device by going to the Boot options in the main Easy Setup screen and have the CD drive set up to boot before the hard drive. After that, if you have a Windows 2000, XP or 98 CD, you should be able to boot off of it.

I attempted the following things already with the end result being that the yellow exclamation points always come back for the CD-ROM and the IDE/ESDI:
1,Initialized
2,Deleted both IDE/ESDI devices and reinitialized
3,Deleted both IDE channels and the hard disc (IDE/ESDI) controllers (both) reinitialized
4,All of the above and CD-ROM itself
All were done from the Device manager and whenever it initializes it seems to reinstall ( that seems to go ok) but then the exclamation marks are back and the CD-ROM does not work.
The CD-ROM according to the self test (no CD-ROM in the player) checks out ok according to the self test performed in the easy set up section(F1 and start), the button on the front of the CD-ROM device works and the player will spin the disc.
In the device manager the Toshiba CD-ROM is displayed as being there but with fault code number: code 31 however if I click on My Computer the CD-ROM is not displayed as being there.
Both EDI/ESDI devices show code 12 and if one clicks on resources on can see the conflict. I tried using the troubleshooter but the directions it provides to change the conflicts are not possible as the Use Automatic Settings check box is gray and cannot be unchecked.

FWIW this laptop suffered a 161 163 issue that I got solved with the new CMOS (?) battery. However to my best knowledge the issue with the CD-ROM as I recall was there prior to that event. My stepfather from whom I recieved this laptop never used the CD-ROM drive for anything as he really only used the machine e-mail.Will a CD-ROM player also play a CD (audio ) ???

Sorry to ask so many questions and present such a problem but I have been searching for a solution for this for some time and honestly I am not skilled with the fine art of talking to a computer.Again thank you all in advance.

Jens

I can't speak to your resource conflict directly. I don't understand this, because anything of that nature should "automatically" be taken care of by the fact that this IS a laptop, and therefore, already configured, so to speak, so.......

Any floppies you "don't have" can be downloaded from IBM support, now Lenovo. These include diagnostics, bios updates, drivers, and much more.

Get yourself over to the support website, and start downloading. One thing you REALLY need at this point is the manuals--the user manual, and the "hardware maintenance manual."

I usually don't go around recommending that people flash the bios, but here's what I'd try.

Get yourself a good clean "boot" floppy, such as from bootdisk.com, for something like Windhozed98.

Get, borrow a known good bootable CD. You can even burn one, if you have a CD writer, for some of the Linux installations.

These will allow some testing.

I assume you can get into the bios? Look for the "reset".

For testing, pull out ALL removeable items, such as any PCMCIA cards/ modems, pull out the hard drive, and even the CDROM, for now. After you've downdloaded the manuals, remove the bottom cover, and pull out any added RAM that may or may NOT be in there.

Now see if you can boot from the floppy. You may not know yet, you can either install the floppy drive into the CDROM (ultraslimbay) slot, or you can install it in the external bay. You CANNOT put the CDROM drive in the external bay.

With nothing else connected it should boot to a floppy.

Look especially for any error messages.

I'm thinking that either you've got a bad hard drive, one that is just plain incompatible, or possibly someone played wih jumpers on the drive.

If you get the same errors with all the removable hardware pulled, you may have big problems. Again, watch for error numbers so you can look them up.

If none of the above works, AND IF you can get it to boot from a floppy, I'd consider doing a bios update. You DO need to have a good battery AND power supply to do that.


I was going to post the URL for support, but I'm too stupid to make the page wrap correctly. I'ts about 3dam feet wide.

I don't remember this being a problem with W2k, but you might look a little further into this:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... SHY-3TZP3T

I disagree that 440roadrunner is too stupid to wrap the text, given the insight that I have seen him/her post. (Side note: if you want to use text instead of the entire URL, simply highlight the text that you want to use, then click the URL button. Then in the first "" box, change it to "[url="link"]" wher ... d Download page.

Here is the link to your Hardware Maintenance Manual.

I would try uninstalling the drivers for the ones that have the conflict and then reinstall them using the drivers found on the Support and Download page that is listed above. Sometimes, you have to install them in the correct order, or you will get conflicts. Be sure to read the .txt files that come with each driver.

Ok thank you all for the input, I am going to download the manuals and see if i can make some sense of what there is to be read there.The thinkpad as far as we know came with that particular cd-rom drive.
The company I work for(and also my stepfather) orders these laptops by the dozen so these were not personal devices subject to the whims of an owner but rather company propertyand not likely to be modified.I asked the IT people and they said as it sits on my desk is how it was ordered so at least somewhere along the line this thing did work.
I tried looking for jumpers on the CD-ROM drive but saw nothing to that effect so either they are inside the casing or it does not have any.
I have heard a few horror stories about flashing the BIOS so I would rather not go down that road especially knowing that the Laptop functioned normally for a better part of its life with the OS that is in there now.
Road Runner sorry to ask a dumb question but when you refer to "resetting the BIOS" I assume you are referring to intitializing the system in the Easy setup menu or is there somewhere else where I can access the BIOS?
Again thank you all very much for the input.

Jens

Actually, I may have misread your post. From the description, it sounds more like a Windows problem, rather than hardware, unless there is actually some hardware that failed.

That's why I posted the second time with the link for the NTFS driver. That may be out of date for W2K, but it may or may not get you headed in the right direction.

I WOULD advise saving the bios flash for a pretty much last ditch--I do have a couple or three dead desktop mb's around here the I or someone else has "killed" this way.

Reset the bios--

Yes, I was referring to the initialize button in easy setup. You also might try pulling the bios (cmos) battery out for a period.

Definately, however, download the manuals for that thing.

Ok the plot thickens some more,I spoke to my mother who distinctly remembers that this Thinkpad at one point in time had Windows 98 running on it so this means somewhere along the line it was upgraded to Windows 2000.Could this possibly be the culprit here with my resources??I attempted (succesfully no less) to download the latest driver from the IBM/Lenovo site and even managed to fumble together some floppies.However after doing this the PC told me no firmware was needed.However it also failed to detect a CD-ROM drive that my PC sees???Or is this normal for the program to not see things that do not require updates???
Anyway my guess is that somehow the update to Win 2000 somehow messed up the proramming in this Thikpad so I am open to suggestions.

Jens

What is a "simple boot flag function or option" According to the IBM service site it is mentioned that if plug and play devices are used it should be turned on to prevent the assignment of resources??? Since I am having this problem with the primary and secondary channels conflicting with the IDE/ESPI controllers do I need to do something with that to get this bird to fly??
I found the info in the area where it is shown how to update the BIOS which I am still very hesitant to try.

Ok never mind everyone I am not going to invest any more time in this and instead I will just junk the Think pad I have no idea what's wrong and calling IBM is not on the top ten list of things I want to do for 2006 (not at those prices anyway) thank you all for helping.

Jens

Well, if you wish. It really does sound like a software issue though.

However, if you still want to junk it, I'm sure it'd get taken quite fast if you put it on the For Sale forum, heck, if it turns on and has port covers I'm interested in it myself. Give me a PM if you dont want it.

If you can ever get an OS cd and reinstall Windows, that might help things some. I'd try reinstalling Windows before calling it done and junking the unit.

Depending on the price, I'd take without any disks or even the hard drive if you are worried about your personal information being on the drive.

Well it seems now the pc has decided to go another route yet again,now it displays some sort of blue screen with the error that it cannot find the boot device or something to that effect .I guess it could be software or whatever maybe it is the fact that it is a full moon out??
Anyway I guess if somebody is interested they can buy it,what is a half dead laptop worth anyway?? By the way I live in Germany,something to consider as the freight charges are not exactly cheap.

Thanks again , Jens

Maybe a bad drive or something else removable could be screwing things up.

Ouch, Germany is a little far away for me...unless you really are junking it.

What is the full model type number (ie. 2645-4AU)

IBM model 600-910
Windows 2000
IBM floppy drive
Toshiba 24x CD-ROM

I did the test on the Easy set up area the Laptop seems to think all is well with the hard drive.It has yellow exclamation signs next to the CD-ROM,both IDE/ESDI hard disk controllers another next to a Large yellow question mark that says it is some sort of audio device (I think).

The CD-ROM does not show up when one clicks on the My Computer icon but it does show up in the device manager.

It has a resource conflict with both hard disk controllers that seem to be having a fight with the primary and secondary channels.

The CD-ROM will spin a disc and will eject a disc if prompted to do so.

The BIOS is IBET54 ......... forgot the rest (Sorry)

the rubber coating is a bit flaky where your wrists rest and near the power button

Since I am only a light user of computers I am not versed in the dark art of formatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows nor do I have access to a OS disc and corresponding boot disks(and without the CD-rom working what would be the point?)

So unless somebody has some ideas I think I will either just store the machine for now or I guess sell it.

Jens

I assume that you meant 2645-910

This is how IBM says that this system originally came:

Product: ThinkPad 600 2645-910 [change]

Operating system: All [change]

Original description: PII 266MHz (512KB) 32MB RAM 4GB 13.3 XGA TFT 24X 56K(ACP) WinNT

Given that information, your system might be worth about $75-$125 (USD) depending on the overall condition of the laptop.

Jens wrote:So unless somebody has some ideas I think I will either just store the machine for now or I guess sell it.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4G3SC8

Follow the instructions precisely!

Regards,

James

A question for all of you about another thing I am not sure about.I went to the Microsoft website to look around and found a bunch of relevant information about Resource conflicts.However on of the solutions was to change the boot flag option.My thinkpad in the easy setup section is to enbale or disable the "quick boot" option.What exactly is that?? and what does it do to the laptop??

Micrsoft states that for a PC running plug and play this should be enbaled i think.I have not tried but I am wondering if the Thinkpad even has this function of BootFlag??

Thanks again as always.

HOLY SMOKES BATMAN I FIXED MY THINKPAD !!!!!!!!!!! Ok after spending two weeks digging I finally got the CD-ROM to work .The solution was (well hidden behind computerese english) in the elimination of so called upper and lower filters in the REGEDIT part of the machine under something called HKEY (whatever that might be), whatever the issue was eliminating that got the CD-ROM to live again.Since i got that working normally it appears the resource conflict still exists but the laptop does not seem to care too much about that.Now if someone can explain in real english what this all means I would be oh so happy.

So having gotten this to work I think I will keep the machine and see about getting a wireless thing so it can talk to my WLAN router that the other Laptop is using so both machines will be up and running around (literally)

Thank you all soooo much again.

Jens