Help with faulty TransNotes

[thephoenix]

Hi all. I'm a new poster here and .. I seem to have an odd mix of luck with TransNotes.

I have, over the past year, acquired 4 TransNotes in various states of completeness (1 pen between them; only 2 have hard disks). However - three of them fail to get past POST .. or even into POST - and I was hoping you may have ideas as to what may be up with them.

TransNote #1: (Has no hard disk) Powers light comes on; display remains inactive; beeps four times (can't find this code in the manual). I've completely disassembled, and re-assembled it to reseat all components and connectors.

TransNote #2: (Has no hard disk) Powers light comes on; IBM logo appears with "Press F1 for setup"; dies with a code "0175 Bad CRC1, stop BIOS tasks". From what I've read, this is a corrupt EEPROM (the BIOS EEPROM?). Can is be reprogrammed? Replaced? Harvested from one of the other TransNotes (if the donor is considered "beyond saving")? Ideally, I'd like to save this one the most, as it's the lefty version.

TransNote #3: This one works - was just missing it's pen. (Now has the pen from the #4, as it no longer needs it)

TransNote #4: Was complete and bootable, but had a botched Linux install on it, so only got as far as GRUB boot loader. Refuses to boot from third party USB CD, will boot from USB Floppy, but IBM recovery floppy doesn't recognise CD drive so can't attempt recovery from official recovery disks. Used a different computer to clone #3's hard drive over #4's - but now #4 won't even start up. Pressing the power button causes the hard disk light to flash once (and the charging light to go out for 1/2 a second if it was on). Does this regardless of whether the HD is inserted or not.

On all four, I imagine the yellow CMOS battery is dead (#3 and #4 - when it booted - reported loss of CMOS settings). Not sure about the green battery - as my understanding is that the ThinkScribe won't switch on if the green battery is dead, and there's life in all four ThinkScribes (although #1, #2, and #4s all seem to be stuck waiting for the computer side to respond).

Has anybody any thoughts or suggestions on diagnosing the issues, or potential fixes to try for #1, #2, or #4? I'm not even sure how I broke #4. Removing the HD and re-inserting it should not have done that (certainly didn't upset #3).

Thanks in advance,

-phx

[ilakast]

Hello and welcome to the forum fellow neighbour

If it were me, I would forget about #2 and keep it (or sell it) only for parts (other than the motherboard, which is hopeless).

Regarding #1 and #4, as you've mentioned already, I would try replacing the CMOS batteries and then boot with just the soldered RAM (removing any additional RAM). Also, you could try plugging in an external monitor to the VGA port and see if it lights up.

If #4 wasn't as bad as now and you were still in the phase of trying to install an OS without an external CDrom, then I would suggest plop boot manager with which you could make the USB port bootable and boot any OS from there. But now it first needs to show some signs of life first... Good luck