Thinkpads Forum

Folks,

I've been trying to upgrade my BIOS on my 2645-4BU 600E..... but I'm running into a goofy problem:

I have created the diskette that has the latest version of the 600E BIOS. Just need to load it up.

Per IBM's instructions, I took my laptop out of the docking station. Put my floppy drive into the laptop, fired it up, and it went into XP. No problem, I thought, I'll just change the boot devices to force the system to look to the floppy drive on boot up.

No matter what I do in Config, however, I cannot get the system to recognize the floppy on boot up. I notice that I can "reset" the boot array, but the hard drives will retain a "1", "2", 3", etc. Can't put the floppy as the Number 1 boot device.

I know that the system used to at least "touch" the floppy on a boot with the laptop in the docking station, because I'd see the floppy light go on. I haven't had any problems with this floppy drive at all.

Can't figure this one out - even if I remove the hard drive from the eligible device display, it'll just sit there, come up with a graphics representation of a floppy drive and arrows pointing to the opening, then after you hit F1 or enter, I receive a "I9990305" error code (probably means no eligible boot device or something).

I'm sitting here with the owner's manual and the IBM 600 Hardware Maintenance Manual.... still can't quite figure this out.

Anyone got any ideas?


jes2


UPDATE: for giggles, I put another diskette (Windows 98 boot diskette) into the drive, and rebooted. Same problem - won't recognize the drive. BUT: when I put the laptop back into the docking station, Win 98 diskette in the floppy drive, and turned the laptop on..... guess what it booted up on?

Seems like I have a hardware config/conflict problem with the floppy outside of the docking station, but in the meantime; can I do a BIOS update from the docking station? Is IBM being a little overcautious by requiring that the laptop be removed from the docking station prior to a BIOS update, or is there a good reason for doing this?


jes2

Check out your hardware profiles - they may have got messed up. You say you have XP loaded on your machine but I thought XP ONLY worked properly on the 600E with the latest BIOS already installed??? Does the internal floppy show up in the BIOS? Does it show up in Windoze? (out of the docking station)

So far, I can't see any problem with the hardware config. I didn't start having any problems with peripherals (floppy, CD-ROM, modem) until I started using my Ethernet or Wireless cards a while back. Started running into some situations where a device here and there stopped being recognized in some situations... probable resource problem, I thought.

To answer your question: the floppy shows up in the BIOS as a valid device, but the system ignores it during an undocked bootup. The floppy drive show up in Explorer or My Computer with the laptop undocked. Now, if you out the laptop in the docking station? No problemo - it'll flag on a cold or warm boot, hence, my question as to whether I can actually do a BIOS update in the docking station (IBM prefers that I don't). Weird.

And, you nailed it, Keith: XP apparently only works properly with the latest BIOS installed. I've had an problem that may be related to the hibernation file in XP (even though I disabled all of the stuff). Upon bootup, the system will occasionally take a quick blue screen error, then recycle the boot over and over. Quick fix: power off, try it again, and that usually gets me through.

I made a post in the Thinkpads conference a while back about this problem, and was informed that, despite the insistence from IBM Support that the '99 BIOS I was running was the latest & greatest version, there was a newer version for XP. Had to wait till the end of a long. nasty project to try to load in the '01 BIOS, and here we are!

I'm trying to keep this puppy functional until I start another project (translation: $$$), then I'll upgrade to a T-30 or T-40. I have a feeling that if I upgrade the BIOS, it'll run just fine until then.

Jes2,

Go into EZSetup, fly the birdie to Startup, click on Power-On, then left click on Reset. There should be nothing listed in the upper, numbered blocks at this point. Now FIRST left click on FDD-1, then left click CDROM, then left click HDD1.

Left click OK, then OK your way back to the main menu and click on Restart, making sure you have the floppy you're trying to BOOT from in the floppy drive.

There's no need to reset the BOOT order again, unless you want to install a second HD, which is when you'd select HDD2 in the BOOT order. FWIW, I always have my Thinkpads set to CD, FDD, HDD-1 and HDD-2 as the default BOOT order.

Regards,

James

James,

I've done what you've suggested before, but, since one can always make a mistake, I followed your instructions to the letter. No go.

Gave this some more thought - went in and rechecked Windows Explorer w/laptop undocked. Unlike what I had stated earlier, there was no floppy drive present in the system. Hmmmm... the system recognizes the floppy if it's installed in the laptop OR in the external holder (can't think of the name right now) IF it's in the docking station, but not if the laptop is undocked.

I doublechecked this: put the laptop in the docking station with the floppy drive in the laptop's internal bay, put in the BIOS update disk, turned on the PC. System found the drive, read the diskette, and I could have updated the BIOS if I wanted.

Shut down and undocked the laptop, pulled out the floppy drive & put my CD-ROM in the undocked laptop's bay, put in an XP system disk & rebooted the system. Yep - it found it, wanted to reinstall XP.

Weird, weird problem! Looks like the only workaround is to find someone with a CD burner and copy over the floppy to it. Hopefully, there's nothing weird with IBM's BIOS update software that will prevent me from using a CD vs. a floppy drive.

Not sure if this will help,but....I had a 770ED that the floppy drive controller was bad in.....I didn't have a dock to try it that way.....either putting it directly in the machine,or in its external caddy would just give me an error when attempting to read a disk(It would attempt to read it...would spin,the light came on...But Nothing...It had the yellow exclamation on it in device manager,and said that it couldn't start the service....

Later...

Greg St.L

I have a 600E that refused to recognize a floppy, but I inserted an LS-120 drive in the Ultrabay and it worked perfectly. I was able to install Windows NT4, do a BIOS update, everything. Still doesn't recognize the floppy except when it's attached to a Selectabase or Dock.

If you can't find an LS-120 drive (I got mine from Ebay), perhaps you can borrow one.

Hope this helps.

[quote="Bruce Guttman"]I have a 600E that refused to recognize a floppy, but I inserted an LS-120 drive in the Ultrabay and it worked perfectly. I was able to install Windows NT4, do a BIOS update, everything. Still doesn't recognize the floppy except when it's attached to a Selectabase or Dock.

If you can't find an LS-120 drive (I got mine from Ebay), perhaps you can borrow one.

Hope this helps.[/quote]

=====================

Bruce,

Ya know, that's a good idea!

I am going to try one more thing before I go to another drive, and that is using contact cleaner on the floppy drive and laptop connection. If you look at all of the symptoms in this problem, this wouldn't seem to have any value, but I have nothing to lose.

I just wish that I could update the %)(*^W@$#^!!!! BIOS with the laptop IN the docking station - this would be a moot issue!

Thanks for the suggestion,

Kevan

Bruce, your comment got me reading the 600E manual again.

And made me remember that the CD-ROM / floppy caddy can be disconnected from the docking station, and connected to the external diskette-drive connector on the right side of the laptop.

And so I did. The system recognized the floppy drive, and came up on the IBM diskette that I'd just created with the new (2001) BIOS for XP.

Great! Problem resolved, I have a workaround! I went through all of the steps for the BIOS update as stated by IBM.

Three times. Step by step. Exactly what the instructions say, no more, no less.

And my BIOS STILL says 11/20/99. The POS will NOT update. You go back into EZ-Update, and there it still sits with the OLD version of the BIOS.

Lemmee guess:

Is this another goofball idiosyncrasy of IBM laptops, where it won't let me actually update the BIOS unless the floppy drive is actually IN PLACE in the bay?

Absolutely unbelieveable.

Any thoughts, folks????

For those who are at least reading these messages (not necessarily responding) over here in Self Diagnose&Service World....

I resolved the floppy drive issue (not being recognized during bootup for BIOS updates).

Found a document on the IBM website that referred to "Simple Boot Flag Function". To cut to the chase, if this option is enabled on a Plug-n-Pray system, the BIOS does not configure hardware resources such as system interrupts, I/O port ranges, and so on.

I turned it off, put the floppy drive into the laptop, inserted the BIOS update disk into the drive, and fired it up. Recognized the disk and executed the program as advertised.

The only thing that I see that's peculiar is that I show an "A" and a "B" floppy drive in Windows Explorer, probably because the BIOS and the OS are having a difference of opinion, so, I'll turn the Boot Flag function back on.

So much for a bad floppy drive.

Thread closed.