Thinkpads Forum

Hello all,

Having problems with my long standing workhorse, my trusty 770z. I recently fried the hard drive on this guy and decided to replace the hard driv and upgrade the memory at the same time. Did all the work and now I am running into a few problems.

1) When I boot the machine, I get a 163 and 161 error messgaes. I read through the owners manual and it says it has to do with date and time (163) and the cmos not being set (161). When I get to the screen where it says the error messgaes, it brings up a light blue screen like the BIOS screens and states the error messages once again and has the lttle birdie mouse icon. It gives me the OK or cancel button to press. If I press either it just sits there with the eror messages listed to the left and an arror pointing to what looks like a book on th right hand side.

2) I upgraded the backup battery (3v) under the memory door and it still gives me this same message. I can't seem to get to any kind of BIOS to set anything.

What gives??

Thanks in advance for any and all help,

BigWayne

After you click the OK with the duck, you should get to a screen that has the date and time in huge characters and arrow buttons to change the setting. If that's not happening, something else must be wrong.

1. Make sure you press the RESET button located near the power switch. You'll need a pen or an unbent paper clip to do this.

2. Make sure you didn't install the CMOS battery upside down (positive side should be UP as you put it in the socket). Or maybe something is causing the battery to not connect?

3. If you did everything else right, you may have a problem with the OTHER CMOS battery, which is buried inside the computer and needs some disassembly to find. If you are not handy with a screwdriver, or think there may be some warranty left on the computer, send it to a service center for this one. Also, you will need to buy this battery from IBM or someone who normally deals in IBM parts. It isn't a stock item.

Hope this helps.

I've got T23 and when I boot up on battery allways is date error.
When I boot up on power everythink is OK?
What to do ?

P(M) 1.00Ghz
256Mb
30 GB

Koko

Hey Bruce,

Thanks for the help first of all.

Secondly, yes I did try the reset button, I made sure to put the CMOS battery in exactly the same way I took it out. There are/were no lead wire on this battery. On the 770z it is a plastic holder shaped like a round watch battery and the leads on two little pronglike leads sticking up out of the bottom on the CMOS battery casing.

Thirdly, Any idea where this second backup battery is?

Fourth, Any ideas on when I click the "OK" button after it lists the error messages after POST, why I can't get into any CMOS to set the date and time? I mean it sounds silly that the error messages are related to CMOS setup and Date and Time and the machine won't let me fix the listed mistakes....

Very wierd.....

Thanks for all the help though,

Wayne

The second CMOS battery is located under the keyboard, and you need to remove the keyboard to get at it. It is a set of 3 cells with leads and a connector all shrink-wrapped together.

One other thing to try.

Remove ALL extra memory, the battery, the floppy/CD, the hard drive, any PC cards, etc. Everything that comes out of the computer. Press the reset button for about 5 seconds. Then plug in on AC adapter and try to go into Easy Setup with a "bare" computer. Remember to hold the F1 key while you turn on the computer to do this. If the computer now starts and goes to the Date/Time screen, try putting things back in one at a time to see if something is causing the failure.

Hope this helps.

Bruce,
Does the 600 (no E or X) have a second set of MCOS batteries? If so, what is their purpose and where are they located?

The 600 has only the battery that plugs in the memory compartment. I never found another CMOS battery in a 600 or E, and I've managed to disassemble completely one of each.

Hope this helps.

Hey all,

Still a no go Bruce. Thanks for the help so far, I really do appreciate it.

Any idea on where I can find the instruction to disassemble this beast?

You said the secondary CMOS batteries are under the keyboard? Any idea on how to get that off and where to get the secondary batteries?

Thanks a million again,

Wayne

bigwayne56 wrote:Any idea on where I can find the instruction to disassemble this beast?

Hardware Maintenance Manual:

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... FAN-3TSMGJ

>Any idea on where I can find the instruction to disassemble this beast?
>

Did you look at the FAQ at http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=1689 before you asked this question?

Item # 8) How do I get this thing apart?

Yeah my bad on item number 8.

Should have paid attention to what I was typing instead of what I was actually doing at the time.....

Thanks anyway though for the heads up.....



Wayne