Thinkpads Forum

I've been given a beat up old iSeries pIII 500 and although it powers up fine, goes to bios etc it randomly freezes up during any attempt to install an OS. I tried swapping in the HD with an TinyXP install from my 390E and it made it to the desktop then froze - any ideas anyone?

A couple of questions:
Do you have the latest BIOS version?
What ram are you using?

I tried to update the bios but got a screen full of errors, I see your point about the ram though, I'll try sticking more in and making sure it's pc100 not pc66, any idea how much win98se requires? I'm assuming the fsb on this machine is 100mhz, as the cpu identifies itself as PIII 500.

I really know very little about the iSeries, but it has an awesome screen, decent speakers and I was hoping to use it for DVD playback/old school gaming.

sorry for double posting, but in case it's important the iSeries in question is a model type. 2621-482 (Acer manufactured?) with a 14-15" screen and the CD controls on the HDD cover.

mechagouki wrote:I tried to update the bios but got a screen full of errors, I see your point about the ram though, I'll try sticking more in and making sure it's pc100 not pc66, any idea how much win98se requires? I'm assuming the fsb on this machine is 100mhz, as the cpu identifies itself as PIII 500.

You are correct, it is PC100...see here.

I would make sure that it is Low Density ram though...meaning that a 128mb stick will have 4 chips on each side.

OK; so I stuck two 64MB PC100 sticks in it and the old 6 gig HDD that came in my 390, turned it on and it made this crazy loud beeping and the asked for a password!!! I never used a password on my 390E so what gives?! I put the 30gb drive that was in the iSeries when I got it back in (no OS on it) and attempted to install TinyXP rev.06, the computer hung before it could complete copying the setup files. I dont seem to hear a fan running, could this be simple overheating or is the M-board fried? What CPU format is in the iSeries? Is it MMC-2?

Any advice gratefully received!

Sounds erractic enough to possibly be the CMOS battery is needing to be replaced.