No Floppy Drive... Combo drive firmware update

[DeAnna]

As I posted last weekend, I bought a new cd-rw/dvd combo drive for my T23 so I could do backups.

I have spent days researching and trying to get it to work - I can't browse the drive, nor will it autostart.

When I put the new drive in the bay the first time, windows recognized it and installed its own drivers. It shows correctly in device manager and explorer as drive D, just like the original cd/dvd drive did. Dr PC ran tests on it fine, scanning the cd or dvd, and playing the music.

My first thought is to update the drivers, but there are none. IBM's site only has a firmware update, which it provides in a "utility diskette" download. IBM Page

But I can't figure out how to do that without a floppy drive.


Surely there's a way, considering all the thinkpads without floppy drives... isn't there?

I'm desperate to figure this out before it's too late to return the thing if I must.

[MadeInJapan]

Floppy drives on eBay are cheap! Also, you could buy a USB flash drive. These work great! But I'm confused about your Drive. Why is it not working like you want? Do you have DMA/UDMA enabled? To check, go into Device manager, look under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers for Primary and Secondary IDE devices. Your Drive should be the secondary one. Look in its properties and if it's only PIO, make it UDMA if possible. Also, in IBM CMOS (hold F1 as you boot) make sure these settings are enabled. Good luck!

If the above is not the problem and you are trying to use home made CD's or DVD's then it could be the way you're burning them. I've noticed that these IBM drives are very finnicky about media that is not finalized. Try a regular CD in your drive to see if that works. Also, there's a setting somewhere to "auto start," but I looked and have forgotten where it is. Might be that "auto start" is turned off.

[DeAnna]

Hi MadeInJapan : )

Thank you for your reply, I am just now seeing it, sorry it took so long.

Yes, all my dma settings are correct, autoplay is set to on, and it doesn't matter what media I put in - it will neither autoplay nor be browsable from explorer. In fact, when I typed run D:\setup.exe after putting in a cd I know has a file named "setup.exe", it told me there was no cd in the drive.

But what is so strange is that when I run PCDoctor, it tests the cd and drive as working great, and even plays for me the music cd I put in for the music test.

I finally called IBM, and they said the only thing to try was to upgrade the firmware.

I told him I had no floppy drive and he said to just use my other PC with a burner to download the firmware and burn it onto a "bootable" CD, then when I boot my laptop with it, it should run as though it were a floppy.

Sounds great if it will work! lol And I'm prepared to do it as soon as I hear back from the seller that it wont void my warranty.

I'm skeptical that upgrading the firmware will work anyway, since it seems to be a bigger problem.

[MadeInJapan]

PC Dr. won't detect a bad lense on a CD or DVD-rom. I suspect that something is wrong with that. Could try a CD-lens cleaning disc, then if firmware upgrade doesn't work, and still under warranty, I'd demand a new CD Drive.

Oops...just read that PC Doctor played the music on the disc....very strange, very strange...something is wrong....bad driver in Windows? Try going to properties for the CD-rom in Device manager, click on the driver tab, write down the drivers being used for the CD-rom, then uninstall the drive, and then go to the drivers are and Rename them (don't delete them in case you can't do the next step and have to restore them), then find the files you just renamed on the XP Install disc through Windows "Search" and reinstall them in their proper place (or the files may be in another Windows folder under "C," (most often In Windows/System, Windows/System32, or Windows/System/Drivers). The reason I say all of this is because PC DR. works outside of Windows without Windows drivers and it makes me think the windows driver(s) are corrupt.

Anyway, Good luck!

[awolfe63]

I use a USB floppy. $25 at any computer store.