600 Help and advise badly needed

[Aux105]

Hi. Hopefully someone can give me some assistance.

My daughter has 600 ThinkPad (P II 300MHz, 160 SDRAM, Windows 98SE, 6.4 GB IDE interface HD) that has stopped working correctly after someone helped her try to resolve a "control conflict" (an IDE HHD?).

Now when she turns it on she gets the drawing of the floppy disc and the F1 key combo. I don't have the original disc for this laptop - but I do have a Microsoft Win 98SE boot disc, and a Microsoft Win 98SE new PC CD (both orig-not copies). I have the floppy set up on the side outlet, and the CD/DVD unit in the laptop. It will boot to the floppy, toss some drivers (?) in and a control for the CDROM. I changed the drive to "D:" (the CD drive letter shown on the screen), and typed in "setup.exe". When the 98 SE CD starts up it will do a scan of the system, and then show the message "...cannot create a temporary directory. If you have HPFS or NIFS installed on your harddrive, you will need to create a MS-DOS boot partition to set up windows"

I have a little basic PC knowledge, but not very good at this sort of thing. Someone gave me a Ultimate boot CD - Ver 3.1 to use (I changed the Easy-Setup startup to read the CD when starting). This boot CD did start up and showed a menu- but I have no idea what or how to use all the items and programs on the CD. I did use the TEST setup on the laptop: all I could check looked OK - except the HDD is "Greyed" out...which is why, I guess, she is unable to use her laptop. When I tried to go into the Safe Mode at startup (Ctrl key, F5, F8 etc.) I got a key error message.

The 600 was running fine before the conflict was "Fixed".

Any and all help and advise you could provide her dad would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...

[pkiff]

except the HDD is "Greyed" out...

You are in a bit of a pickle. This seems to me to be the key problem that needs to be worked out before getting the laptop back into an operational state. But I don't know why the HDD would be greyed out in the BIOS. If you can somehow get the laptop to boot through the floppy and then "see" the hard drive, then you could try to copy old versions of your Windows system files onto the current ones. But you won't be able to do that unless you can use an A: floppy DOS prompt and "CD C:" successfully.

My suspicion is that the IDE controller was accidentally removed/deleted or configured in a way that conflicted (IRQ or memory address) with another piece of hardware. And that's it. That could screw up the machine the way you describe...except for the greyed out hard drive in the BIOS test. Windows 98SE creates a conflict with an IDE controller during a standard installation on a ThinkPad and this is normally removed by applying a specific patch that applies to all 600/770 series machines I think, but if someone tried to fix this without the patch, then they might have accidentally messed up the controller altogether.

Have you tried to pull out the hard drive and re-insert it to make sure that it is snug and the pins are properly engaged? (Only do this when the computer is off and the AC adapter plug is pulled out).

No solutions, just some pointers to potential culprits.

Phil.

[tfflivemb2]

Not sure if this would help, but if you boot the system into the BIOS (by pressing and holding the F1 key while turning on the power) and click on the Config icon and then Initialize. This should hopefully reset your BIOS, and maybe that will help.

[Aux105]

I talked by phone with the person who helped my daughter with her laptop. In the Device Manager they had noticed a conflict with the IDE controllers; three items were listed, the first (Intel?) had a yellow error notice and a conflict message was shown under the controller...from this point on it is a little fuzzie as to what action was taken.

(As an aside, a D-Link DFE-690TXD was recently installed - sucessfully they said - so SBC DSL could be used on the ThinkPad. Windows 98SE was then updated from the Windows Update Site. They were trying to deal with the conflict before attempting to download the security center from the SBC site., etc.)

I looked on the IBM site to try and get some info on "Easy-Setup". All it indicates for the "Initialize" button is that "...sets all device settings to the default values." Does this means all drivers would be reset and restored?
If the IDE controller was deleted, moved, etc, would this put it back in line?

Thnaks again for your time.

[tfflivemb2]

Resetting the BIOS will help clear any changes made to the BIOS, but nothing for the drivers.

I am a little unclear as to whether the system just suddenly stopped working, or if it stopped working after installing something. I would have the person that is helping you, try to download the Win98 Supplement files from IBM's website. You can use the Detect My Systemfunction to list the appropriate drivers.

[Aux105]

Hi, There's majic happening on this end. After looking at a few other things I booted into the config, checked MeM,, sysm bd, and then initialized the settings. Booted back into the Easy-Setup, went to the test button, and the HDD was UnGreyed!!! (thanks all!) I reset the start-up to: HDD, Floppy, CDROM (I think that's how it is suppose to be?). Went for a reboot, and Windows 98SE came slowly to life.... It is a little ruff around the edges, but I managed to get the D-Link card installed, and updated windows 98 from the MS site.

OK, I went into the device manager, and the error is still showing up. There are three controllers listed:

*The 2nd and 3rd controllers are Standard Buss Mastering IDE Hard Disk Controllers, and both are listed as "working properly".

*The first controller (Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller) shows the error. Properties shows the device is causing a resource conflict (Code 15), Under the resources tab it is showing the following: "Input/output Range 01F0 - 01F used by the Standard Bus Mastering IDE Hard Disk Controller (1st line) and Input/output Range 03F6 - 03F6 used by the Standard Bus Mastering IDE Hard Disk Controller (2nd line)"

I have not a clue about this type of controller error. I do think someone mentioned a "Patch" specific for the 600 to repair a IDE controller error. Can anyone point me to when this site can be found. I tried to look at the IBM site today but I coun't find anything that looked to be this patch.

Thanks again for any assistance; my daughter was so happy to see her "baby" running again. I really want to get this error thing cleaned up, and try the delete some unused programs for her before attempting to finish downloading the SBP security Center. (I think she really needs a running Virus protection on her machine before she hits the DSL trail...)

[pkiff]

Hi, There's majic happening on this end.

Hooray! Majic is far too rare on computers and this should be celebrated.

You will find several previous threads that discuss the Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller conflict:
Intel 82371ab/eb pci bus master IDE controller conflict
TP 770X, 98SE, IRQ conflict ???

The error comes about because when Windows 98/98SE was installed the appropriate patches from the Supplementary Files disk were not applied. In particular, you need to apply the APM2APM.reg file from the Windows 98 "supplemental files disk":
Windows 98 installation supplement files - ThinkPad 770, 600E/X

Apparently Windows misidentifies the USB controller as an additional IDE controller. After applying the patch, the device conflict should disappear and a new device will appear in the USB section as an Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller where it belongs.

I reset the start-up to: HDD, Floppy, CDROM (I think that's how it is suppose to be?)

The standard start-up sequence is probably: Floppy, CD-ROM, HDD. This allows you to bypass your hard drive without changing any settings by simply inserting a bootable floppy or CD. But you can leave it the way it is and then just change it when you need to boot up with something other than your hard drive.

Lastly, since you ran into some hard drive/IDE-related difficulties, I would recommend backing up all data files as soon as possible, and then running a full disk check to make sure your hard drive is not in the process of failing.

Phil.

[Laptop_wizard]

AUX.

I ran into an instance like this (HDD greyed) and was a result when I mistakenly shipped a Bad motherboard back to the seller with my 6.4GB hdd still in it. I received the HDD back in the mail, and that's when I ran into problems, i simply smached it down wards on my hand several times, and my brother is useing it in his 600E, and works fine. my Analys of this issue, is that your HDD is damaged. if you goto ebay, you can easyly find a 10gb hdd for around $50.00 so go for a new hdd. if you have data on the original HDD that you need, then freeze the HDD overnight, recover the HDD, and your good to go, you can also have a Comp tech ghost it for you.

Hope that helps.

[Aux105]

Well I was finally able to find time and put the APM2APM change in, and the error went away! I also had to hunt down the "shut down " update that went away when I reset everything back to the original setting. I'm going to work on increasing the system resources by getting rid of some unneeded programs from the startup process. If I get the available resources up a little SBC thinks the DSL install should go along OK.

Two questions have come up; If someone could provide a little guidance it would be greatly appreciated:

1) SBC said to make sure the video driver/display, etc was up-to-date. Where do I go into on the TP to check this info, and where to check about finding any updates for this item.

2) Since I went and restated everything to the original settings I am getting a small system/password sign-on box when the desktop begins being dislayed. There is no system password set...so just hitting enter gets the pasword box to go away. Is there any way to set it so the sign-in box does not show up any more?

Thanks for your time again. Gary

[pkiff]

1) SBC said to make sure the video driver/display, etc was up-to-date. Where do I go into on the TP to check this info, and where to check about finding any updates for this item.

You should check out Software and Device Drivers - ThinkPad 600. Look under Video.

2) Since I went and restated everything to the original settings I am getting a small system/password sign-on box when the desktop begins being dislayed. There is no system password set...so just hitting enter gets the pasword box to go away. Is there any way to set it so the sign-in box does not show up any more?

Windows 95/98/98SE are somewhat unreliable and unpredictable in this area I think, but check out the solutions offered over at Annoyances.org: Get Rid of the Logon Screen.

I personally use the TweakUI solution on all my Windows 98SE machines.

Finally, if you are sticking with Windows 98SE, then you may be interested in the UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 2.1a (Freeware)

and ERPMan's Windows 98 & Windows ME System Updates Page.

Phil.

[Aux105]

Thanks again for the help and advise. Do you have any experience with the 98SE service pack 2.1a? It seems like it has a lot of good suff in it...

I have up dated the Windows 98 shut down suplement at least twice on her laptop.... Can you think of any reason why it doesn't stick?

[pkiff]

I think the last Windows 98SE installation I did I used the 98SE Service Pack 2.1 and I had no problems. Version 2.1a apparently fixes or cleans up a couple of items that were flawed in 2.1. I have always had positive results using the 98SE Service Packs from Exuberant software in the past and have no qualms recommending them to other users. Windows 98SE is somewhat unstable at the best of times no matter what you do to it, and I think that the Unofficial Service Packs improve the stability as well as moving you quickly from an unpatched fresh 98SE install to an almost completely up-to-date install.

Regarding the Windows 98 Shutdown Supplement, no I can't think of any particular reason why it wouldn't stick, but I know that there have been several, perhaps even many, different versions of the Windows 98 Shutdown Supplement released. Maybe you are installing an old one? or one that is being overwritten by something else that you've got installed? At one point I had the impression that ALL the Windows 98 Shutdown Supplement did was simply put a pause into the shutdown sequence so that if a fast processor finished the close sequence it would not prematurely turn off the computer before the final closing data could be written to the disk. Now, however, I am not sure if that is true. I'm also pretty sure that the Shutdown Supplement does not really work as advertised in all cases as shutdown problems are rampant with Windows 98 and are very, very difficult to diagnose. All the Microsoft update does is fix a few of the myriad causes.

To get the latest Shutdown Supplement, I would use the one that is pointed to by the ERPMan's update page:
Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement [Microsoft]

More information about it is available here:
Article 239887: Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement

Phil.