Thinkpads Forum

I've been wrestling with this [censored] '192' problem too.

I bought my 770Z new, back in '99. No one else has had it. It has been rock solid!

So now I'm trying to update it to keep it functional for the very occasional travel I do, and for weekends in the RV.

Did the memory upgrade to 512, that worked fine, although I didn't ever pull out the base memory DIMM. More about that later.

Bought a 'used battery' on eBay - got stiffed. behaved the same way one of the failing batteries did before when I was using the 770Z on a regular basis: Charges to 100%, then during usage, gets to 50% charge (appx.) then drops immediately to 5% and shuts down.

Bought one of the Chinese batteries on eBay and it's working great.

Then I got a PIII - 500 MHz module from the Dell surplus shop on ebay.

So this weekend I settled into my basement workbench, printed off the Hardware maintenance manual and went to work.

Got all the layers of the onion that is the 770Z peeled away and replaced the CPU module. Dealt with the pad and new thermal grease (Zalman, from building my Core 2 Duo) for the heatsink. Reassembled and started it up.

Of course, 192, 127 errors. Took care of the 127 with the bios code change, but the 192 persisted. However, I was able to boot using 'Esc/F1' combos.

Everest and Sandra both report 512 Megs at 100 MHz FSB, and the CPU is reported as a PIII-500 with 256 L2 on-die cache. Everest actually reports it as a PIIIE-500, but I doubt if there is significance to that.

So the machine is much better, but still not at the limit (reasonably) yet. What's needed is something bigger (and faster) than the stock (and slow)14 Gig drive. So I ordered the Hitachi 100 Gig 7200 rpm drive. Which I got this morning.

Now we're back to the '192' problem I think. I should also mention that CPU temp runs about 80 - 82C without a functioning fan. Much too high for my comfort (or CPU longevity, I would think). This fan thingy has got to get fixed!

With the new drive mounted, I need to boot from the CD to load Windows XP. But it won't boot from the CD! Yes, I got a new CMOS battery (CR2025) and installed it, but no difference. And the '192' persists, and the fan NEVER turns.

Without the formatted HD, and needing to boot from the CD (yes, I went to the config and changed it to just see the CD and HDD as boot devices) I can't seem to break out of the '192' loop.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Editorial]
This '192' error message seems to be the most common error that results from upgrading these platforms. It doesn't seem rational that everyone experiencing this error would have fan failures that occured right at this precise moment. Logically, it would seem related to the CPU change. Is there nothing in the bios that controls this that could be addressed?

Thanks for listening to my frustrations. I'm now off to peel the onion one more time and remove the base memory, just in case that has something to do with it. I'll also look VERY closely at the fan connections, although I can't imagine what I'll be expecting to see that is out of the ordinary.

As you might imagine, I am VERY open to suggestions!

Tom

Tom Wade
The Gunny

Is there a way to test to see if you are getting any voltage at the plug for the fan from the MB? That would indicate if it is a MB problem or a fan problem. Or, perhaps just use a couple of jumper wires and see if the fan powers on with a battery. What voltage does the fan run on? If it spins with a AA or a D cell battery or two, then you know the fan is good. If not, they are pretty cheap on E-bay.

Good thought Wingnut!

I'll give that a shot - definitely just worth knowing.

I'll let you know what I find out.....

Tom

Tom Wade
The Gunny

OK, more data: (Some of you gifted diagnosticians could really help here - I was never that good "connecting the dots".... )

With the fan connected, .34 vDC on power pins.

With the fan disconnected, .92 vDC on power pins on the board.

This is with the unit disassembled down to the DC-DC card level, with a battery inserted just to see voltages when switch turned on.

Fan out of case, disconnected. A nominal 3 vDC (from 2 AA batteries) makes the fan spin - not blazingly fast, but it spins. Fan is OK, then, right?

So does this leave the DC - DC card as the culprit?

Are there any 5 vDC test pads on the DC - DC board someone could point me to?


Thanks!

Tom

Tom Wade
The Gunny

Unfortunately, based on the info you've supplied, I don't have much in the way of new suggestions. I'm no good with testing voltages or testing pins or stuff like that. From a diagnostic standpoint without such testing, my first recommendation would be to replace the CMOS battery (which you've done). My next suggestion would be to try replacing the fan (well - you've tested it, but not replaced it, still it sounds like it works). And the next suggestion would be to do what you are trying now: replace the whole DC-DC card.

One other possibility would be to put your old CPU back in the 770Z and boot it up to see if the 192 error occurs in your original configuration -- maybe something got bent/misaligned during reassembly and that is crapping out your fan/DC-DC card connection now. Comparing the two configs might reveal that the problem now exists under both configs. I know from experience, however, that it can start to get a bit tiring repeatedly dismantling your 770Z down to the motherboard and reassembling it just for a 5 minute test.

If you haven't done so already, you could try "initializing" your CMOS and then re-editing it to get rid of the 127 error. That can sometimes get rid of stray problems related to previous CMOS edits that are somehow incompatible with your new CPU.

In any case, the 192 error should not appear just because of the replacement of your CPU: a successful upgrade to a PIII will cause Error 127 on boot up but that should be all (and that one is fixable via CMOS editing).

Phil.

Reviving this old thread. I bought a couple of "parts" laptops on Ebay and thought I would play with them. They of course had the famous CMOS battery codes for date & time (163 & 173) and the 192 fan error. So I put a working CMOS battery in, set the time and it still showed the 192 error. I unplugged the A/C and the battery, tried to reboot and all 3 errors came up again. This is with a known working CMOS battery. So somehow, the voltage from the CMOS battery is not getting to the motherboard to keep the date & time.

So here is my question, do I need a new system board? Apart from taking the MB out and checking for broken solder joints, does anyone else have any ideas why the MB is not seeing the CMOS battery voltage?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

NEVERMIND

I found the problem. The new CMOS batteries I bought were fine voltage wise, but for some reason, they all came with reveresed polarity. I bought a lot of 5 batteries on E-bay and they all came with the leads in the wrong sockets of the plugs. Swapped them over and all is good.

Wingnut wrote:In case anyone is interested, the problem was not the fan. I replaced it with a used one and the problem was still there. It turns out the CMOS battery was the problem. It was strong enough to keep time, but not to start the fan on boot-up, thus causing the fan error 192.

FWIW for other people searching the net for help on getting their old Thinkpad 600 to work - I have just been through the exact same thing. The laptop had been kept in a closet for some years and when booting it up it gave the same message, 192.

I tried w/o bios battery and got the 161/192/163 combo. After booting a couple of times w/o the bios battery the fan started to fire up as well. After a couple more boots the laptop booted fine.

Not a full solution, but the problem was definitely the CMOS battery, regardless of the 192 fan error.