Thinkpads Forum

i have an older thinkpad i series 1161 - 260 to be exact i used it up untill last summer when it gave out on me, didnt have the time then to really mess around too much so i just replaced it with something more modern, anyhow its been on the shelf for quite awhile now and i'd really like to find out whats wrong with it....fix it or throw it
i beleive its 550mhz
ram is 198mb? i maxxed it out anyway
celeron proscessor
hard drive was replaced 12 months b4 this happened with a 40gig fujitsu

symptoms....
would take many hours to boot up windows 98 and after it did finally boot wouldnt really do anything as it was so slow..it would try though...i tried doing a chkdsk it would take forever but the scan would come back good... i mean hours later....
i did a format using the factory cd tried to give it fresh software but it wouldnt take it... been sittin around ever since
any ideas where i could start looking or how i can find out what the problem is? i'd really like to get this going as a second machine if possible...great for out in the garage when i need to google a helping hand on something..

notme30 wrote:i did a format using the factory cd tried to give it fresh software but it wouldnt take it...

Are you saying you successfully reinstalled Win98 but couldn't install other software, or you couldn't reinstall Win98?

Do you hear any strange noise from the hard drive?

BTW, welcome to Thinkpads.com!

no i couldnt reinstall 98 recovery cd...it wouldnt happen....didnt notice any strange noises and as i said hte h/d did pass the test just took way too long...

notme30 wrote:no i couldnt reinstall 98 recovery cd...it wouldnt happen...

Would you please elaborate on this? Can the laptop read the CD-ROM? Can you format the hard drive from a Win98 floppy drive? Can the Windows setup program start?

It sounds like doing a clean installation of Windows would be the best solution to your problem. I have installed Win98 hundreds of times and should be able to help you, but you need to provide us with more info.

Oh, before clean installing Win98, have you tried defragging the hard drive? I recommend getting the CCleaner program to remove most junk files from your hard drive first, followed by using the Ad-Aware program to remove spyware, and then defrag. If this doesn't speed up your hard drive enough, then reinstall Windows.

laptop can read cd-rom, hd formatted from the cd, somewhere the computer just didnt want to put the recovery disk onto the computer. i will try it again as its been awhile and i dont remember exactly at what point it stopped
thanks

ok ive tried to reload it again first part of install goes well, when i get to the part of aligning data it slows right down. i left it runing well i went out for a bit
total time elapsed 1:23:54
and it came up with and (Error #50 read fault)

this thing has always ran hot and the fan has been noisey for years
wow my new dell is so nice and quiet

notme30 wrote:and it came up with and (Error #50 read fault)

Do you get this error when the laptop is restarting? I've also gotten error messages while installing Win98, when the machine was restarting. I've experienced this on many computers, so I think it's Win98's problem rather than the computers'. The way I solved the problem was to restart the machine with step-by-step confirmation by pressing "F8" and skip one of the steps. Unfortunately, I don't remember which step it was. You will need to fiddle around a bit with that.

i got that error when it finished reinstalling the 98 recovery programs..as far as rebooting its still working on it prbly an hour and a half now thats my issue i need to know whats wrong with the old girl or toss it

notme30 wrote:i got that error when it finished reinstalling the 98 recovery programs..

Oh, this is the recovery CD that came with the Thinkpad? Perhaps your CD is defective.

Do you still have the Win98SE sticker on the bottom of this Thinkpad? If you do, and if you're interested, I can send you a Win98SE CD to try. It won't have some of the software or drivers on your recovery CD, because it's not a recovery CD, but most of them can be downloaded from lenovo.com.

i am installing this recovery cd as the computer would not boot anymore..its a hardware issue somehow the cd is fine....i just loaded the cd as its the only way i could get it too boot at all...actually the recovery program is gooing onto to computer slowly windows just asked for keyboard language and location now my name..its going but it shouldnt take hours... anyhow ill keep loading as long it is able too and then maybe someone can suggest where i should check for hte hdware issues

i have lots of time on my hands today and was actually able to get it to boot up completly with the new windows running on it...then able to run pc dr that came with it. i did the complete test and it failed on h/d linnear seek and a few others...at the moment i am doing in in depth h/d test using pc doctor again...i will keep you posted as it is a slow go...

cpu test-passed
h/d linnear seek-failed
h/d surface scan-failed

now this is wierd? but i'd never use it anyhow

parallel port internal test-past
parallell port loopback test: exteranal read and write-Failed

so i guess my one year old h/d is screwed allready..any ideas where i can look at some h/d for this unit? think it cost me 120 last about a year ago for this 40gig....i was fine with the original 6gig size but couldnt find any

You should be able to find a replacement hard drive for less than $1/GB, starting at the 40GB size. For some reason drives less than 40GB are still over priced. There have been several drives available here in the forum for about this price. You can also check eBay, but they are hit and miss with the different sellers, as far as reliability goes.

sounds good ata that price...dont wanna put much money into this old heap...maybe a h/d and possilbly wire less hookup if it aint out of this world

Try taking the system bios batterey out for a few minutes then sticking it back in, it's a long shot, but sometimes when you cant install windows or when things take forever it's a corrupted setting on your bios that causes the computer to read much slower from drives than its supposed to.

so what do i have to look for to replace this? any 2.5" ide hard drive?..can someone give me more details on what i need to be looking for? cuz im thinkin im gonna try ebay...i dont wanna pour a fortune into this
this h/d is only a year old