CD-RW/DVD Drive Install on TP600X

[CDobyns]

I've got an older Thinkpad 600X which is running Windows XP Home Edition. The original CD-RW drive (M a t s u s h i t a - UJDA310V) recently failed, so I decided to upgrade to a CD-RW/DVD drive. I opted to purchase a Hitachi HLDS GCC-4240N CDRW/DVD.

I've been having some trouble getting the 600X to see the installed CD-RW/DVD hardware to allow the plug and play to install the new hardware. Even more stangely, when I seat the new drive in its slot and turn on the laptop, after the memory check runs, the screen then displays a line drawing of a computer keyboard, with a flashing arrow pointing at the F1 key.

After I press the F1 key, the graphic disappears, but then I get an error code message in the upper left hand screen that says I9990305 (I think). So, I tried seating the drive after the laptop booted up. In that situation, after running the New Hardware install, when I look at the Device Manager listing, nothing is listed to indicate the drive is being recognized.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a different approach or am I doing something wrong in the way I'm trying to accomplish the install? In response to a likely first question, yes, I'm certain the new drive is fully functional. Any other questions or suggestions.

[rkawakami]

I've had some experience with adapting bare GCC-4240N drives for use in Ultrabay 2000 systems but not too much with the 600X Ultraslimbay. I'd first verify that your 600X BIOS has been properly set up to boot in the order you want. Located behind the "Start up"/"Power-on" menu, you can select floppy, hard drive, CDROM, network (and others) support.

The F1 prompt usually means that the system has not found a bootable volume. If the CDROM has been set to boot before the hard drive and you are getting the I999xxx message, then that means the boot process is not getting past the CDROM. Also, if Windows can't identify your drive when you insert it after it's running, then I'd say that you have a problem with the drive.

All you should need to have the drive run inside the 600X is a working Ultrabay caddy. As long as you can prove that the connector on the back end of the caddy is functional with another drive AND you know that the GCC-4240N drive is operational in another system, then it should work as Plug-and-Play. About the only thing that could go wrong would be if the drive is set up as a "slave" instead of a "master". My understanding is that for at least Ultraslimbay and Ultrabay 2000 systems, the device in the Ultrabay must be "master". All of the GCC-4240N drives I've adapted for the T23 have installed by simply inserting the drive before booting the system. Windows has done the rest.

[Robin Mutoid]

Yes.. I think I've been through this one and found that the ONLY way I could get a Matshita UJDA 720 DVD/CDRW to function in a 600X was to ditch XP altogether and run Win 2000 SP4!!!

There seems to be 'something' in the 'copy protection' BS in XP that just WON'T accept these drives I reckon?

Perhaps M'$oft had not gotten quite as devious at the Win 2000 stage of things!

I like 2000 in the 600's anyway.. I have an 850 P111 and an Atheros AR5005GS mini PCI Wireless card in my 600X and it runs it all as sweet as!