can the 560X even boot from a CD?

[Xenomorph]

i have a USB CD rom that wont even work with the system. of course, the fact that it doesnt work isnt the problem - the 560X wont let you even choose the USB port as a boot device!

i *just* got a PCMCIA cd-rom. the light on it flashes while the system POSTs, but then it just skips past it and loads Windows. while in Windows, the cd drive works fine.

the drive is dated, a 6X from 1996. i'm hoping that is the issue. i may get something like a 20X or faster if i know the 560X can even boot from a CD.

many Linux distributions and now even Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs requires the CD to be booted from.

[rkawakami]

Don't have a 560x, but maybe some of this mindless rambling may help....

My 600X systems have a PCMCIA entry in the BIOS which seems to indicate to me that it's possible to boot from that type of device. Make sure your startup sequence in BIOS "looks" at that device. I also have an old PCMCIA external CD drive (FRU 1969-010) but I don't think I have tried booting from it (because of the next issue...).

Some older CD drives have problems reading "burned" CD-Rs. Factory pressed CDs should be readable, but they may not recognize writable CDs. My external PCMCIA drive falls under this description. Verify that you can open up an Explorer window on the drive and read the files off of a commercially pressed CD AND a CD-R. Try a CD-RW disk as well, since those are even more prone to being unreadable on older drives.

[pianowizard]

My 600X systems have a PCMCIA entry in the BIOS which seems to indicate to me that it's possible to boot from that type of device.

The 560X is much older than the 600X. I do know that the 240, which is closer to the 560X in age, can boot from a PCMCIA CD drive. Xenomorph, what startup options do you see in the BIOS? Anything besides "hard drive" and "floppy"? Is it the latest BIOS?

[Xenomorph]

its the latest BIOS, from 1999.

PCMCIA is one of the boot options.

even when i have PCMCIA set as the ONLY boot device, it still wont boot from the CD.

the CD is a pressed Ubuntu CD. besides being able to install Linux from the disc (which i will most likely not do), it also has the MemTest86 program. i didn't need anything from the disc, i was just using it as a test.

[rkawakami]

Then I would say that there's a problem with the CDROM drive or the Ubuntu CD is not really a commercially "pressed" disk. It may actually be a CD-R. Most "blank" disks (i.e., no logos or a inkjet-writable surface) will have information in the hub area that tells you the type of disk you are looking at.

Is there any other commerical CD disk you can try booting off of? Like a Windows install disk? Is the PCMCIA CD drive the 1969-010 model?

[Xenomorph]

the disc is a real pressed disc.

even if it wasnt, i would at least see the cd rom spin up to try and see it. the disc reads fine once Windows loads up.

again, i'm thinking its just the old CD rom i'm using. its from 1996, and i didnt even become familiar with CD booting until 1998. many CD roms in 1994-1996 were weird proprietary.

again, i'd just like someone to CONFIRM that in fact the ThinkPad 560X can boot from a CD rom.

i may purchase a different CD rom, but NOT if i never find out if the 560X could boot from it!!

[richpearl]

i, too, have a 560x. i believe it needs a boot disk, one that loads the Card and Socket Services and, of course, the drivers for the CD.

don't know what plans you have for the machine, but it seems to me that the 96 mb ram limitation has effectively rendered the 560x to near relic mode. most of the distros, software, hardware, etc, expect to find more. i've had some success, however, keeping the 560x semi-current -- Firefox/Opera, Abiword, etc. -- with two smaller Linux distro's, DSL ([censored]) and PuppyLinux.

http://www.[censored].org

http://www.puppyos.com/download/downpage.htm

sans cd, using windows, i downloaded and then busted the .iso files of both, then did what's called a frugal install -- copied the perrtinent files to the hard drive and used the linux loader Loadlin in a batchfile to load the OS.

my preference is to PuppyLinux. i have found it quite impressive, and, if you have 64mb or more, i highly recommend you give it a look. btw, the support forums for both OS's are excellent.


best to ya,

rich