Thinkpads Forum

Evening,

I'm new to these forums and new to the whole laptop scene, but recently someone threw me a Thinkpad 380ED (2635-6A0) saying "there's something wrong with this one, do something about it if you can".

So, I figured the hard drive (IBM DTCA-23240 3.2GB) is going bad, since it fails the test at BIOS and also fails to format properly (seems to take hours and mostly "tries to recover allocation units" or whatever).

I got myself a "new" drive, Fujitsu MHC2040AT 4.1GB and managed to get the Pad open and the new drive in. The problem is, the machine doesn't recognize the HDD at all. Also, when I put the Fujitsu in, it also loses the CD drive. I also tried to unplug the CD drive, but still no go. The old IBM drive is still recognized correctly every time.

I have flashed the latest BIOS and also tried an HDD firmware update program from IBM, which didn't help since it too didn't find the Fujitsu. I also made a bootable floppy and tried the IBM Utility Program to see if I could get to any BIOS settings regarding hard drives, but didn't find any such settings (WHY OH WHY is there no manual setting of hard drives in the BIOS??).

I don't have access to any OS on the laptop, since both of the drives are empty (or very messy).

So, to sum it up, here are the potential problems I can think of:

a) The ThinkPad just doesn't support Fujitsu MHC2040AT.

I find this very unlikely, since I found a mention of a "Fujitsu MTC2040AT on some IBM documentation. These could be very different drives I guess, but somehow I doubt it.

b) The Fujitsu drive is detected as a slave.

This came to my mind, since the ThinkPad loses the CD drive when I put the Fujitsu in. But according to Google and some Fujitsu documentation, the current jumper setting (no jumpers) means the drive should be master. Also, the settings (and the pins) are identical to the IBM drive.

c) The Fujitsu drive is b0rken.

Could be, but again I doubt it. The seller had used and tested it before shipping and also the drive spins up and warms up a bit. I find it very unlikely that the electronics of the drive had failed at shipping. I have no way to test the drive elsewhere though...

d) There's something b0rken in the motherboard.

Well, it recognizes the CD drive and the IBM drive properly...

SO, if there happens to be some friendly soul here with excellent knowledge about my problem, I'd be very glad to receive any assistance you might have for me.

- Ilja

first, thanks for entering your location..
so many do not and i just don't understand why..
(unless the law is after them..)

ok, on to the HDD problem..

FIRST, aside from the HDD's capacity being more than the chipset can handle, have you run FDISK from a floppy drive..?
so as to set the HDD active and then format it..??

or do you have a recovery CD set..?

BillMorrow wrote:first, thanks for entering your location..
so many do not and i just don't understand why..
(unless the law is after them..)

Heh, no problem. I hope I didn't miss other mandatory "do this before you post your stupid questions" stuff.

ok, on to the HDD problem..

FIRST, aside from the HDD's capacity being more than the chipset can handle, have you run FDISK from a floppy drive..?
so as to set the HDD active and then format it..??

Hmm, I guess you mean the IBM drive? No, haven't done that. I'll look into it.

Edit: And in case you meant the Fujitsu drive, FDISK can't find it either.

But wait a sec, 4.1GB is more than the chipset can handle?? I thought I saw documentation which mentioned at least 6GB disks for 380ED...

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... JJR-3RVK73

Well, this one mentions a 5.1GB drive.

or do you have a recovery CD set..?

No. I didn't get any software or manuals with the computer, so I'm limited to what the net has to offer.

Anyone..?

By the way, how are you supposed to change the jumper settings on these hard drives? The pins are there, but you can't put a regular jumper there, because those pins also go into the slot (socket?).

why shouldn't the 380ed cope with 4gb?

the 430tx chipset can manage up to 8,4 gb (1024 cyl) and with a little trick up to 32 gb (with one partition @ less than 8,4 gb and a second partition for the rest - see my 560x)


weird problem... don't you have some usb2ide-thingy or an external case to test the fujitsu?

i would blame it on that drive...

obviously you've allready tried out all other possibilities...

I would still appreciate any help on this...

By the way, I bought an adapter and tested the Fujitsu drive on my desktop and it was recognized properly.

last option: bad or broken ide-cable.



try to get a new / functioning on ebay...