Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone, I have a 600x with the latest available bios, 512mb of ram and 30gb hd. I'm trying to install windows xp from cd, but both sp1 and sp2 based cd installation fail ad the very beginning, with a blue screen and a problem on acpi.sys file. I tried to disable quick boot from bios, also to select manually "pc with acpi", "normal pc", but nothing changed.

Any hint?

Thanks a lot in advance!

I can't help with your issues. I've installed XP on a few 600X's and I've never had a problem.

If it were my machine, I'd initialize the BIOS and use a Linux LiveCD to boot from and remove all partitions from the hard disk.

Change the boot order in the BIOS to CD then hard drive and go from there.

Is there anything special about your 600X? Anything connected to it?

whizkid wrote:I can't help with your issues. I've installed XP on a few 600X's and I've never had a problem.

If it were my machine, I'd initialize the BIOS and use a Linux LiveCD to boot from and remove all partitions from the hard disk.

Change the boot order in the BIOS to CD then hard drive and go from there.

Is there anything special about your 600X? Anything connected to it?

Thanks for the replay. No, anything special. I tried everything, also without the additional memory modules, with and without the hd, wiped the hd, but nothing changed: it gets stuck when saying "now running windows" or something like that, and always a blue screen in acpi.sys... it's too bad, hope to find a solution

Is the blue screen a BSOD or is it just hung? Going on a hunch here: When it hangs, press Fn+F2. On one of my machines, upgraded from a 450MHz CPU to 650, doing that unlocks the computer.

I also had to change the CPU driver once installed, or I'd have to press Fn+F2 every two seconds to unlock the machine.

whizkid wrote:Is the blue screen a BSOD or is it just hung? Going on a hunch here: When it hangs, press Fn+F2. On one of my machines, upgraded from a 450MHz CPU to 650, doing that unlocks the computer.

I also had to change the CPU driver once installed, or I'd have to press Fn+F2 every two seconds to unlock the machine.

It's a BSOD with SP1 cd, it just reset itself with SP2 cd I already have a 650Mhz CPU, it was out of the box with my 600X model.

What is your 600x machine type? (2645-XXX)

ms5133 wrote:What is your 600x machine type? (2645-XXX)

2645-5FG

Just a hunch...is your main battery dead? If so, try removing it and see if you still have problems installing.

whizkid wrote:I'd initialize the BIOS

Just checking. Did you reset/initialize the BIOS like whizkid suggested?

Phil.

pkiff wrote:

whizkid wrote:I'd initialize the BIOS

Just checking. Did you reset/initialize the BIOS like whizkid suggested?

Phil.

Yep, I did it already. I disconnected the battery as well.
I tried with Ubuntu 7.1, it installs but it says there could be a problem with ACPI becouse the bios is dated before 2000 (should be 11/20/99 or something like that, version 1.11, the latest). When it reboots I have the same warning, then there is kernel panic and get stuck...

I can't understand what's going on

with ubuntu on 600x if I wanted to have working acpi (and in fact to have ubuntu work at all, I think) I had to add some bits to the bootloader menu.

if you have already installed ubuntu: when you see the grub menu and it starts to countdown, press Escape (or some other key) to halt the countdown. then, making sure the proper entry is selected (usually the topmost one) press 'e'. it will show you a listing of the boot commands for that entry. arrow down to the one that starts with 'kernel' and again press 'e'. at the end of that line, append a space and then append: then press Enter. then press 'b'.
to make these changes permanent, you'll have to do something like and again add acpi=force irqpoll to the appropriate kernel line.

why xp doesn't work I dnno. one of the usual culprits is bad RAM.

tarvoke wrote:with ubuntu on 600x if I wanted to have working acpi (and in fact to have ubuntu work at all, I think) I had to add some bits to the bootloader menu.

if you have already installed ubuntu: when you see the grub menu and it starts to countdown, press Escape (or some other key) to halt the countdown. then, making sure the proper entry is selected (usually the topmost one) press 'e'. it will show you a listing of the boot commands for that entry. arrow down to the one that starts with 'kernel' and again press 'e'. at the end of that line, append a space and then append:

Code: Select all

acpi=force irqpoll

then press Enter. then press 'b'.
to make these changes permanent, you'll have to do something like

Code: Select all

sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

and again add acpi=force irqpoll to the appropriate kernel line.

why xp doesn't work I dnno. one of the usual culprits is bad RAM.

Uhm... checked the ram with memtest... the 600X internal 64mb seem being failing I guess I can't fo anything about that, I mean, there is no way I can avoid to use the internal ram right?

I think there is a cmos hack that allows you to disable the internal RAM... http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/topic8965.html ?

some other users from this forum could probably tell you more about it.

tarvoke wrote:I think there is a cmos hack that allows you to disable the internal RAM... http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/topic8965.html ?

some other users from this forum could probably tell you more about it.

THANK YOU! Changed byte 2B to 81 and.. ta daaa, I'm now installing Windows XP!

tarvoke wrote:why xp doesn't work I dnno. one of the usual culprits is bad RAM.

Good call, tarvoke! And good followup with the info on the CMOS hack.

Azoro wrote:Changed byte 2B to 81 and.. ta daaa, I'm now installing Windows XP!

Glad you got it working, Azoro.

Phil.

gots me beat ,I installed xp pro sp1+sp2 + vista ultimate on a fair few 600xs ,never missed a glitch + in vistas installation was allready on the net on wifi under 38 minutes from clean install,fully driver loaded n all + activated too.

600x with issues?
ok either a virus ,do a full low level format + or resett bios,corrupted media + or cd drive,or incompatable + or faulty ram fitted .

unrortit wrote:600x with issues?
ok either a virus ,do a full low level format + or resett bios,corrupted media + or cd drive,or incompatable + or faulty ram fitted .

It's never necessary or even useful to perform a low level format on modern hard drives.