Quirks of a 240x

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istel · #1 Post by **istel** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:11 am

Hi all,

I'm thinking of purchasing a 240x off someone.
The specs is P3 500, 128 ram & 5 GB hdd. The OS currently installed is win98.

I met up with him and it appears that the 240x has problems booting up. Sometimes it appears to freeze even before the bios appears(blank screen) although the power led light is on, sometimes it boots up to win98 desktop and then hangs.

I love the form factor of 240x but this issue is putting me off.
Anyone has any idea what is the problem here and if it's worth it to spend say USD $70 on it?

Cheers

phool@round · #2 Post by **phool@round** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:55 am

The factory supplied hard disk was 12GB in both PIII 500 models (61U/62U). Both of the Celeron 450's (51U/52U) where 6GB. The 5GB disk is not factory. It sounds as if the 5GB disk doesn't contain any cache or very little (which is normal) and the Windows load sounds like it is hosed. I'd negotiate over the disk issue and then install a better hard disk (5400+ with an 8+meg cache).

They are worth every penny if you can find one in running condition, even $70USD is still a bargain.

Good Luck!

istel · #3 Post by **istel** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:47 am

Hi Phool,

Thanks for the advice. So I do not have to worry about the Bios screen not showing up?

Initially I thought it's the hdd too, where the Bios screen(press f1 to go into bios mode wordings) showing up first and then freezes while loading the OS. However in this case, there are times when the bios screen doesn't shows up at all and the screen/system appears dead and at times shows up and boots up windows 98 without any problem.

There's some cosmetic issue with the thinkpad as well as it appears the pcmcia card button is gone, kinda looked like it was ripped out or something:/

If you truly believe it's just a hdd issue, I might just get it to replace it with another hdd

Cheers

pianowizard · #4 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:00 am

Remove the hard drive and see if the machine starts faster.

phool@round · #5 Post by **phool@round** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:16 am

I think it's just the hard disk or the connection to it that's causing the lag in post. Try pianowizard's suggestion if you can, prior to putting any money down.

I didn't know about the cosmectic issues, sounds as though the laptop has been mistreated. That adds a little mystery as to why it's not booting properly.

I'd negotiate down and if the seller doesn't agree then honestly, in my opinion, your better off without it.

istel · #6 Post by **istel** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:30 pm

Thanks a lot pianowizard and phool, will do that and be back with the results.

Cheers

phool@round · #7 Post by **phool@round** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:02 pm

Well? Did you get a good deal on it? I saw your post about installing on OS on it.......lol.

istel · #8 Post by **istel** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:04 am

phool@round wrote:Well? Did you get a good deal on it? I saw your post about installing on OS on it.......lol.

Hee yeah, I managed to get a better deal elsewhere... no where near the $30 for x31 with warranty of course, but still decent I guess

However, there's some funny things that I've observed on this system. I've powered on the system and since it doesn't come with any external drives, I tried to plug in one of my old molex connector compaq floppy drive. Once I did that, the system just shuts off, no lights no nothing and refused to power on no matter what. It's only after I removed the floppy drive from the thinkpad, did it power itself on again.

Other than that... Well, no hdd is a problem too. Currently trying to install freedos on one of my spare hdd and plug it into the 240x. No dice so far...

Am trying to do the 256mb hack so am wondering if those OEM PC133 CL3 Ram using the Radex and USI chipset will work? Any opinions on this?

Will take pictures once I've get it up and running

phool@round · #9 Post by **phool@round** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:40 am

At least it powered back up after removing the floppy drive.

You'll have to format the drive in the 240 first then install your OS on it from another computer. There are many ways around that problem.

Have no idea about the memory mod, I've never looked into it. Someone else may know.

istel · #10 Post by **istel** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:57 pm

Hmm... I was thinking if this (i.e. laptop shuts down when connected to a non ibm floppy) is normal?
Anyone else experienced it before?

phool@round · #11 Post by **phool@round** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:14 pm

It's not normal but I'm assuming that the pinouts aren't the same as the IBM connection. Many of the companies back then where proprietary with ancilliary equipment.

Do you have an IBM floppy/cable with the proper connector? If it shuts down then I'd say you have a problem.

istel · #12 Post by **istel** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:58 am

I managed to purchase a ext floppy for my 240x for $5 off some flea market and it worked

managed to stick in a 128mb ram too heh

Now I have XP on my 240x and it's working fine albeit a little slow but that's okay. My only question now is... Is there any battery management software from IBM for the 240x? Also, the suspend and hibernate fn keys aren't working... How do I get them to work in XP?

Cheers for all the help rendered. Hope to post pictures soon.

Oh and a late merry xmas to everyone here

Cheers!

phool@round · #13 Post by **phool@round** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:16 pm

Here's a link to Lenovo's 240X application and driver download page; Here.

I use a 1G CF card for Virtual Memory. It helps to offload the memory strain in XP.

Happy Holidays to you too istel!

istel · #14 Post by **istel** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:07 am

Hi phool,

Thanks a lot for the reply, actually the IBM drivers page was the first thing I went to for the hotkeys utility. However, I did not find anything resembling that in the 240x drivers since I guess XP isn't really officially supported on the 240x... I did a search in this forum as well but it appears no one else has this problem?

As for the 1GB CF card, I don't suppose the 240x has a inbuilt CF card reader? how do you use it in this case with the 240x?

Cheers.

phool@round · #15 Post by **phool@round** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:03 am

I use a PCMCIA CF card adapter. A USB 2.0 PCMCIA with a 1G stick formated as a disk (MBR-not hot swapable.) will do the trick. Probably the biggest gain is simply having 192MB of RAM, using a 5400RPM hard drive and cutting out some of the XP eye candy. It's a snappy machine in XP when tuned. The biggest drawback has been the lack of 3D.

As far as the Hotkey driver, there isn't an "Access" button or seperate volume buttons, etc. so that is probably the reason there isn't a Hotkey driver. XP is supported officially, some of drivers are already included with XP so they aren't available as downloads. All of my Function keys work in XP.

istel · #16 Post by **istel** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:05 pm

Finally got around to snapping some pictures
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 737#379737

Cheers to phool for all the advice

pianowizard · #17 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:29 pm

istel wrote:Now I have XP on my 240x and it's working fine albeit a little slow but that's okay.

You can speed things up by following this list of tweaks compiled by jdhurst.

phool@round · #18 Post by **phool@round** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:53 pm

Thank you istel! It was a pleasure and it's great to see your persistance pay great dividends. Nice pix! I'm thinking maybe an X40 is in my future..........lol.

.....and to follow on with slow XP speed.

I use an 8G microdrive for virtual memory. The Seagate 8G microdrives are rated at ATA33, have a 2M cache and spin at 3600rpm. With MS VM it's important for VM to reside on a seperate disk otherwise it's thrashing one drive all the time......... just a tried and true suggestion. The down side with the 240 is that there is only one pcmcia slot....... so you'll loose it. A Mini-PCI is the trick to transfer and network, no tears shed over the loss of the pcmcia slot. See if you can snag one and give it a try, besides shedding the pounds off XP.......which always is an inexpensive solution.

istel · #19 Post by **istel** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:12 pm

pianowizard wrote:
istel wrote:Now I have XP on my 240x and it's working fine albeit a little slow but that's okay.
You can speed things up by following this list of tweaks compiled by jdhurst.

Thanks a lot for the link pw. Impressive post by JD indeed, btw... sorry about the x40 battery, wanted to help a friend get it but he decided otherwise last minute. I saw you had sold it already though so I'm glad I didn't mess up your sales.

Phool: the 4.2k hdd is quite a drag but I'm waiting to try out the CF-IDE solution. Hope you'll enjoy the x40 though

Cheers

Quirks of a 240x

Quirks of a 240x

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