A22m with A20m motherboard - no 1400x1050 in Win98

[PJBrs]

Hello, this is my first post here, but I have a long history of owning and using thinkpads, starting with my A22m in 2001. Last week, as a sort of trip down memory lane, I decided to reinstall Windows 98 on that machine. My problem is that I cannot get the 1400x1050 resolution working under Windows 98.

Some background--a couple of years ago, I had to replace the motherboard of my laptop. I couldn't easily find the original 26p8104 part, but an Ebay seller convinced me that other motherboards would function just as well, and as a Linux user, I had no problems whatsoever with my new motherboard. I don't know exactly what part number my new motherboard is. When I boot Linux, I see "A20m" appearing somewhere in the boot messages, so I suspect either 08K3315 (replaces 10L1412) or 08K3316 (replaces 08K3152). Also, the bios version is 1.13, IWET59WW, which belongs to A20m. I am aware of only two differences with the original motherboard--I used to have the Rage Mobility 128, but now I have a Rage Mobility M1 GPU. And the new motherboard does not have a video out connection.

The problem in detail--after installing Windows 98 and installing the driver for the ATI Mobility M1, I get a blank screen. I found out that if I turn off HV screen expansion (or some such) in the bios, I get a normal screen and I can also change the resolution. However, I always get a large black border around the image at 1024x768. I can choose to get 1280x1024, but the border stays just as large and the additional screen area pans when I move the mouse cursor to the edge of the border. In other words, the visible area still is 1024x768. 1400x1050 is not available.

When I check the ATI options tab in the advanced settings for the screen, I can select between panel and external monitor. Interestingly, the GPU driver reports 1024x768 as the maximum resolution for the panel in this menu. Furthermore, from this menu I can also select the option to expand the image to fit the entire screen (apparently the same option as available in the bios), and if I do so I, again, get a blank screen. By the way, the laptop does not seem to hang, and it will power down gracefully if I hit the power button, despite the blank screen.

I have a suspicion that the problem is with the combination of the new motherboard and the 1400x1050 lcd panel. It is as if, somewhere, the maximum resolution for the panel is set to 1024x768 on the motherboard. Does anybody know how to solve this?

I see three different options myself.

1. Install the ATI Mobility 128 GPU drivers and see whether they can be used to the drive the Mobility M1, including the 1400x1050 resolution. I don't think that this will be the solution
2. Flash the bios of the new motherboard with a version specific for the A22m-Sxx that I have (i.e., from 1.13, 13ET59WW, to 1.05, 1ET20WW), with the opportunity that it will change the max panel resolution. But what would the associated risks be?
3. I read somewhere on this forum that I can change the machine type in the bios, and that this might solve the problem. Is this correct?

I hope you can help my finish my little project here!

PJBrs

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

A2x series motherboards are very specific in the respect of what resolution they will drive...

You need a proper motherboard for your machine.

Good luck.

[PJBrs]

Well, I find it strange that Linux apparently drives the display at 1400x1050 (and any other resolution) without problem. One difference with Windows that I can see is that I expect that the Linux driver ignores the bios setting for HV expansion. Indeed, the Linux driver does not offer any option in this regard. However, I even managed to get 3d accelleration going with Linux (mind you, compiling deprecated drivers by hand and getting hard lock-ups when logging out, but still...). This is why I expect the problem is not so much in the hardware components but in the bios.

Anybody have experience flashing an A20m motherboard with an A22m bios?

[RealBlackStuff]

If you need a doorstopper, then by all means try an A22 BIOS in an A20.
But you might try the A20p BIOS, which was the only A20 model with SXGA+.
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/researc ... D=HT072399
No guarantees implied and do at your own risk!

[PJBrs]

Hmm, why are you so sure that an A22m bios will brick the machine? As far as I can see, the motherboard is A20m and the rest is all A22m, and I would be hesitant of installing a bios of yet another system type...

Incidentally, dmidecode still reports the machine as a 2628 SSG, for what it's worth.

And yes, I understand the risk. However, I found this also:

i managed to force upgrade my t20 to a t22 bios using a strange method.

i snagged a "bios bootdisk" from bootdisk.com (it's a drdos/caldera dos boot disk), wrote the image to a floppy disk, then copied to it the PHLASH.EXE flasher, $0179000.fl1 (renamed to BIOS.BIN) and $0179000.fl3 (renamed to PLATFORM.IMG) from the T22 1.06 update from ibm/lenovo's site. i think any lower version would work, but it tried it with that. anyways.

i inserted the disk into the thinkpad t20, booted off of it, then ran PHLASH. it reflashed the t20 with the t22 1.06 image no problem. now the machine's in a frankenstein state...t22 bios, t20 ec, etc. i took the floppy out (or made another floppy, whatever), wrote to it the latest available update from ibm/lenovo (at the time of writing, although i doubt it will ever be updated again, is 1.12), booted the thinkpad t20 off of it, and the bios reflash disk was satisfied that the machine was a t22. more waiting, and the thinkpad t20 is now a thinkpad t22! for me, it means no more waiting for the machine to count memory every single boot (it remembers the value and quick boots now), and it perfectly supports my 1400x1050 display from a damaged thinkpad t22!

end result: reflashed a thinkpad t20 with the latest thinkpad t22 bios, and now the machine presents itself as a thinkpad t22. the hardware's similar enough that it can pass itself off as such just fine.

See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:BIOS_Upgrade . Would it be much different for A series?

[PJBrs]

I've done some further digging. I have downloaded all disk and diskless bios packages for A20m, A20p and A22m. I've extracted and compared the contents of each of the diskless packages. All packages contain the following files:

Code: Select all

BIOSUPTP.EXE
DOSBOOT.SYS
DOBOOT.EXE
DOSBOOT.VXD
DOSBOOT.COM

and an image file, which turns out to be a floppy disk image. Furthermore, the A20p package contains a couple of additional files:

Code: Select all

ECTLUPTP.EXE
EFLASHAS.SYS
HDFWUPTP.EXE

Could it be that the A20p has an Embedded Controller, and A20m and A22m don't?

I then compared the contents of each disk image by computing md5sums. Every disk image contains a very similar set of files, almost all exactly the same. Furthermore, each contains several FL-files, which I suppose are the actual bios images. For A20m:

Code: Select all

$0157000.FL1
$0157000.FL3

A20p:

Code: Select all

$014D000.FL1
$014D000.FL2
$014D000.FL3

A22m:

Code: Select all

$0173000.FL1
$0173000.FL3

md5sums showed that, despite the different filenames, the files with extension .FL3 are the same for every package. Finally, the bios for A20m is the oldest, the A20p bios is the newest.

Now, this does not tell exactly how these three images compare, but it does give some indication that A22m bios is more similar to A20m than A20p.

[RealBlackStuff]

Have you tried W2K or XP?

[PJBrs]

I only have Win 98 here, and I like the idea of having native ms-dos 7.10 as well.

Realblackstuff, are you still convinced that the risk of trying an a22m BIOS would be higher than an a20p one?

[RealBlackStuff]

I am not convinced, I'm only suggesting, as the A20p is closer to an A20m mobo than the A22m.
And it's your machine, your call, your doorstopper (or not)!

[PJBrs]

Realblackstuff, you can congratulate me with my new doorstopper.

I was getting tired of my old doorstopper anyway.

Seriously, I decided to take a chance with the a22m bios and now I only get a few error beeps that the HMM says might be indicative of DIMM or LCD problems, but most probably the system board. And we know which it is, don't we. A20p may have been better (it can never be worse), but I was held back by the three image files instead of two in the a20p bios package. So, this motherboard is most certainly done for, as well as my little hobby project. Fun while it lasted, though

Anyway, thanks for thinking with me! It might have turned out better if I had followed your advice, but taking a gamble was worth it in a twisted way as well.

So, any buyers for a broken A20m system board?

[RealBlackStuff]

But you may be able to replace the BIOS chip...

[PJBrs]

Do you have any idea whether the A20m bios is soldered to the board or just sitting in some socket?

...because that would be a nice alternative little project

[RealBlackStuff]

It's soldered.

[PJBrs]

Well, RealBlackStuff, I've given your suggestion some thought. I have taken my A22m apart and searched the motherboard for a bios chip, but I couldn't find it. I tried the internet, but it is full of people looking to remove the supervisor password, not to replace the actual bios chip. Also, I'm not good enough at soldering myself so I would have to resort to a local technician anyway. In sum, I think the best course of action (apart from finally letting this machine go) is to buy a new motherboard. So, which parts would offer a 1400x1050 resolution on my A22m, using Win98?

I've done some searching. I believe that the original motherboard was 26P8104. As far as I can tell 12P3982, 26P8015 and 26P8787 are full replacements for this part. Other motherboards from the A-series should fit as well, but the only other model that sported the 1400x1050 resolution appears to be the A20p. Associated motherboard parts include 08k3317 and 10L1413. I expect that higher resolutions (1600x1200 specifically) could work too, but then I think that the GPU will expand the panel beyond the limits of the screen.

I think that my best chances of getting panel HV expansion working under windows 98 would be to buy a 26P8104. Second-best would seem the 12P3982, 26P8015 and 26P8787. The other parts, 08k3317 and 10L1413, might also work.

I have three questions:
1. What other Thinkpad A-series motherboard would support the 1400x1050 resolution?
2. Which motherboard would you recommend?
3. Who can recommend a seller that ships internationally?

I've searched ebay, but sellers over there aren't quite clear about whether the bios is password protected or not, or whether the ram seats are still fully working (common problem in A series).