Thinkpad 560 booting problems

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zmjjmz · #1 Post by **zmjjmz** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 6:03 pm

So recently my Thinkpad 560's hard disk died, and I had an iBook G3 that was fried so I transplanted the hard drive into a T20, installed Linux, then took it out and replaced the 2GB borked HDD with the iBook's (20GB. Both are IBM hard disks, and the connectors match up perfectly).
What happens is that when I try to turn it on the IBM logo shows up, a mem check (all 40MB are OK) shows up, and then a Thinkpad logo shows up. Then it beeps, and proceeds to do absolutely nothing (everything is still displayed).
I went over the manual, and this doesn't match up with any of the symptoms described in the manual.

Anyone know how to go about fixing this?

zmjjmz · #2 Post by **zmjjmz** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 8:36 pm

Additional info: I connected the floppy drive to see if it wanted to boot from it, and the floppy drive turned on but that's it.

#3 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:21 pm

Does the HD perhaps need a jumper?
Did you push it in all the way?
No bent pins?
Can you do a test with PC Doctor?
Can you get into the 560 BIOS to see if the HD is recognized?
Can Linux run with only 40MB RAM?

zmjjmz · #4 Post by **zmjjmz** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:36 pm

1: I don't think so
2: Yes (and that's what she said)
3: There are bent pins actually.
4: Whazzat
5: I don't know the key to enter the BIOS, but it apparently works (it asked me to reset the date/time after I had put the reserve battery back in)
6: Yes

I don't know if the problem is necessarily an HDD one, seeing as it wouldn't boot to the floppy (although it may not be set to boot from that automatically).

zmjjmz · #5 Post by **zmjjmz** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:56 pm

Ok, I got into the BIOS (it's F1) and am doing a bunch of checks.
So far the System Board and the HDD are fine, and I'm currently running a memcheck.

zmjjmz · #6 Post by **zmjjmz** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:10 pm

Well everything checked out, but I went into boot sequence and realized it had absolutely no entries.
Oh wow. So I set it to HDD-FD1-NET-FD2, and then had it restart. Now it shows up with a memcheck and then I kinda hear the HDD running, but then it beeps and displays a blinking cursor, and hangs.
EDIT: This happens when i try to boot it from floppy too

#7 Post by **Harryc** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 4:47 am

Put the floppy first in boot order in BIOS. Go to the hard drive manufacturers website and download and create a bootable diskette of their diagnostic utility dujour. Run it. If it passes, you most likely have a MBR problem, which is no surprise since the drive came from a Mac. At that point I'd run active killsidk to write all zeros to the drive then reinstall Linux or windows from scratch.
http://www.killdisk.com/

zmjjmz · #8 Post by **zmjjmz** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 4:27 pm

Unfortunately this computer will not boot floppies at all. I tried booting BasicLinux 3.5 and it had the same problem as I had when I tried to boot from HDD. Yes, floppy was first on the list.
Oh, and killdisk would be unnecessary.

Code: Select all

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

would accomplish the same thing.

OldManClayton · #9 Post by **OldManClayton** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 5:03 pm

Sadly, the 560 does not support drives over 8GB. I have experienced this first hand and could only go to the local laptop store to buy a couple 6GB's for mine. Trust me, I tried EVERYTHING. Even Hitachi's tool that limits drive size.

zmjjmz · #10 Post by **zmjjmz** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 5:05 pm

Well I could easily create a separate, 800MB /boot partition so that the BIOS thinks I have an 800MB HDD in there and it boots the kernel, which takes on the rest of the drive.

OldManClayton · #11 Post by **OldManClayton** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 5:12 pm

Well, it would be great if that worked, but as I said, I tried EVERYTHING. I tried multiple partition setups on three different drives over 8GB.

zmjjmz · #12 Post by **zmjjmz** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:05 pm

Well then, does it give a similar error? Maybe I could try taking the HDD out of the boot process or taking it out, altogether.
Update: Taking it out of the boot process doesn't help. I'm going to see if taking it out of the computer will over the weekend.

virge · #13 Post by **virge** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:07 pm

OldManClayton wrote:Sadly, the 560 does not support drives over 8GB. I have experienced this first hand and could only go to the local laptop store to buy a couple 6GB's for mine. Trust me, I tried EVERYTHING. Even Hitachi's tool that limits drive size.

Do you know if this is true for the 560E and 560X machines? I've never owned a regular 560 model, but have had a couple 560E/X machines. I still have a 560E to play with.

OldManClayton · #14 Post by **OldManClayton** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:14 pm

I've never used a 560E or X, so I can't be certain. Taking the drive out of the computer doesn't work, and I don't see how it would. O_o Maybe I misunderstood.

The only way I was ever able to partition it was by connecting it to another computer and using XP's computer administration tools, because fdisk wouldn't recognize it.

zmjjmz · #15 Post by **zmjjmz** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:31 pm

I meant physically taking it out and putting in a smaller HDD or maybe even a CF card.
I was just trying to confirm that this isn't a system board issue that can't be fixed.

OldManClayton · #16 Post by **OldManClayton** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:23 am

Oh, ok.

I thought you meant that removing the hard drive and putting the same one back in would help.

From what you've told me, replacing it with a smaller drive should work. That doesn't mean that some other mobo error isn't hiding underneath, though.

zmjjmz · #17 Post by **zmjjmz** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:20 pm

OldManClayton wrote:Oh, ok. I thought you meant that removing the hard drive and putting the same one back in would help. From what you've told me, replacing it with a smaller drive should work. That doesn't mean that some other mobo error isn't hiding underneath, though.

Unfortunately I'll probably end up buying a small HDD (or a CF card) before I can test that.
I don't have any other notebooks with <8GB HDDs that I could use.

OldManClayton · #18 Post by **OldManClayton** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:41 pm

I know the feeling

I put off buying a couple drives for months. Managed to haggle the local laptop store down to two 6GBers for $10.

I had been able to get 7 of various sizes there before for $20, going all the way up to 30GB! Most were bad, but I was able to get what I needed to save my 600e! Unfortunately, this time I got stuck with the stingy guy. Anyway, life story aside... If you have a local refurbished laptop computer place, ask them if they'll sell you bulk untested HDD's for cheap amounts. That's how I got that first batch with a good 30GB, 12GB, and 3GB.

Raceboy · #19 Post by **Raceboy** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:04 pm

560 and 560E share the same chipset and if 560 doesn't recognize hard drives with more than 8GB capacity, so doesn't 560E.

560X has 430TX chipset that has no problem with drives over 8GB, but it has limit of 32GB.

560Z has 440BX chipset and you can pretty much put any hard drive in it (though it may be limited to 127 GB).

I've used 20GB and 40GB drives on my old 430FX (Triton) equipped Asus P55-TP4XE and they worked fine although in BIOS it said 2GB drive. This board is weird though, because I have 233MHz Pentium MMX running on it but officially it doesn't support more than 200 MHz non-MMX CPU's.

zmjjmz · #20 Post by **zmjjmz** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:12 pm

Well it works, I have a 4GB CF card in there now with DSL, but I'm having problems with X

EDIT: Anyone want a 20GB HDD with DSL preloaded?

Xenomorph · #21 Post by **Xenomorph** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 2:10 am

zmjjmz wrote:Well it works, I have a 4GB CF card in there now with DSL, but I'm having problems with X
EDIT: Anyone want a 20GB HDD with DSL preloaded?

I'll take the drive!

The drive in my wife's T23 just died (30 Gig). I pulled a 10 year old drive out of another system (12 Gigs). So now she has less than half the space, the drive is quite a bit slower, and it has already started making loud noises like it is about to fail.

Thinkpad 560 booting problems

Thinkpad 560 booting problems

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