TP 600 and 600x...Loading an OS

[BillD]

I have a 600 and 600x...Why can't I get an OS to load on either one.. Even when I make a boot disk(CD I have no floppy for the machines) for Win200 it starts to run then stops.. Win98 says boot from CD,when I do it starts to run then also stops..

This happens on both machines and both machines have to newest BIOS loaded..Any ideas?


The really weird thing is on the 600 about a month ago I loaded XP on it with no problems..Now when I put in a blank HD in,and try to load XP on that I get an 'can not boot from CD error"///Again on both machines..

Thx

[tfflivemb2]

My guess would be that since you had the drives previously formatted for XP, they are in NFTS format. You need to use a bootable CD to re-format the drives with Fat32.

For the Win98 CD, are you choosing Boot with CD ability, or are you trying to install from the CD?

[440roadrunner]

You really didn't tell use much---what for example, is the error?

A few general points.

You must have the CDROM set in bios in the boot order, do you know how to check that?

You must have a bootable CD. 's far as I know, the only '98 CD's that will boot are the so called "OEM" cd's which say something like "to be supplied only with a new PC" or similar, on the front.

Are you using burned, copied CD's? Maybe the drive in the 600 doesn't like them for some reason---check your CD(s) in another computer to be sure they boot from cold.


You say

Even when I make a boot disk(CD I have no floppy for the machines

I don't know what you mean by that. If you have a legitimate bootable Microsoft CD, it should boot from cold start.

[BillD]

For the Win98 CD, are you choosing Boot with CD ability, or are you trying to install from the CD?

Yes,it gives me the choice 'boot from Hard Drive' or boot from CD...I choose CD then nothing,it just hangs......It's an orginal MS CD...When I put it in my wife's Dell it boots up fine,and starts to load just like it suppose to..


Sorry my explanation is fuzzy,i's such a weird problem it's hard to explain..I have the boot order right in the BIOS...CD first...

When I said 'when I make a boot CD I mean a DOS boot CD using Nero.. I tried that too,then burnt the Win2000 boot disks(suppose to be floppys) to CD and tried loading them...Nada...

Whats really confusing me is when I first got the 600 I loaded XP with no problem..Now XP won't even load,it comes up with the error 'can't boot from CD error'....Thx for any ideas.....

[440roadrunner]

I have had desktops that "hung" for seemingly no reason, and sometimes was caused by some hardware glitch, something that should NOT be happening on your laptop, HOWEVER.....


Some thing's I'd try:

Suspect the CDROM drive.

Pull out the hard drive, and any added RAM, and make sure there is no PC cards in the slots. Get into bios/setup and reset the boot option, then try a couple of known good bootable CD's Be suspicious of any scratches.

My 600X, now that I've stuck a 700mhz CPU in there, often requires a "nudge" with 'Fn + F2' to go onward.

After that, suspect the CDROM drive.

[BillD]

Yeah I'm starting to suspect the CDROM also...it does act weird at times even with regular non boot CD's in it,like games etc...Another thing I'm starting to wonder about that if it isn't the CMROM the only other thing thats different is the new blank hard drive...

I have it formatted and all and it seems fine but last night I noticed even when I had the blank HD in the slim adapter(swapped out the CDROM) the 600 wouldn't boot up..Again it just hangs,when I slide the adapter out and re-start the machine boots right up...

But wow that makes no sense ..why would a bad HD 1) stop the machines from booting from a CD??? and 2) why when it's the 2nd HD it stops the machine from booting at all??

I ordered another CDROM last night,I needed it for the 2nd machine anyway...when it comes that might solve the mystery...Thx guys

[2ndHalfCor]

BillD, did you ever solve this problem? I'm having exactly the same problem with a TP600 2645 and a Win98SE OEM CD.

Thanks.

[tfflivemb2]

@2ndHalfCor

Have you loaded the latest BIOS as well?

[BillD]

BillD, did you ever solve this problem? I'm having exactly the same problem with a TP600 2645 and a Win98SE OEM CD.

Thanks.

Yes and no...Yes because I broke down and got a floppy drive and loaded Win2000 on the TP600..

No I never got either to load Win98 SE from a CD...The 600x would just hang and the 600 would load up until it checked the hard drive..Then it said it needed to format it,after format it would say the HDD had errors on it and wouldn't load the OS..And it(the HDD) did to,I tried 3 different HDD's and the 98SE format screwed up all 3..To straighten them out I had to use a 3rd party format(Qtparted or Disk Manager 2000) to fix them...

[finder]

bill i had the same problem when i installed a new hd on my 2645-aau
it took about eight attempts before it would work and it would only load 98 ,ythen i had to load 2000 three times before i could load xp
so frustrating then a friend told me of the same problem except he created a boot cd unsing barts pe program for windows nt ,now it is very easy to load
hope this helps
finder

[BillD]

Thx,I will try what you said with the TP 600..

Last night I did find out why the 600x wouldn't load any OS..I did have an OS on the 600x,I loaded XP on a HDD on the 600(the only OS I could get to load on that machine) then put that HDD in the 600x.. That was the only way I could get any OS loaded onto the 600x..

Last night I was playing with the 600x and I finally removed the RAM before trying to load Win2000.. And it worked.. So I looked at the RAM. I had put a PC133 stick in the 600x..It ran fine for weeks with the stick in it,nice and stable,the BIOS saw it and counted it and all.. But that stick of 128mb PC133 was causing my problems... Thx again

[2ndHalfCor]

@2ndHalfCor

Have you loaded the latest BIOS as well?

Ha! That was it. I bought a floppy drive off eBay, loaded the newest BIOS, and the disk booted right up.

Thanks much.