Restoring Win98 on Thinkpad I series 1124

[phillyt]

Hi all, I am new to this community because I just became the owner of a Thinkpad I series 1124 (Japanese version). I got it free, along with all the original peripherals, documentation, software, Canon laptop printer, etc., so I took it. Here's the problem:

The TP is a Japanese version only sold in Japan. So when I first got it, it had the Japanese version of Win98. I couldn't read or understand any of it so I decided to re-install Win98 SE English version (I have a copy and license from an old computer). It has an external floppy drive and external PCMCIA CD-Rom drive. I couldn't get it to boot with my Win98 rescue floppy, but eventually I was able to get it to boot to Dos. It would not run the install for Win98. With the install floppy in, it kept giving the "can't read disk" error with the options R (retry), A (abort), and F (fail). I kept hitting F for "fail" and it kept coming back to the same message. At some point, it went to Format, I clicked "Y", and it re-formatted the hard drive. I thought great, now I can do a fresh install.

Now when the TP boots, after running the Bios, it reads the floppy drive and returns a "non system disk" errror every time and will not continue past this point. I even tried the original system disk (because I have all the original peripherals, manuals, discs, and software), and even this returns a "non system disk" error. I know that the original system disc has all the drivers for the PCMCIA CD-Rom, USB, etc., but I can not even get a DOS prompt to copy all the drivers to the hard drive in order to activate and access the CD-Rom. I even tried an external USB CD-Rom and it won't access that either, I just always get the "non system disk" error no matter what disk I put in the floppy drive, and it won't go past that point. I checked the Bios and there isn't any option to set the boot device order, it always goes to hard drive first, then floppy. The floppy drive seems to be working okay (both floppy and CD-Rom worked fine before formatting the HD) and it is trying to read the floppy disks, but every floppy disk returns a "non system disk" error.

Help! Does anyone know how I can get past this and get Win98 or anything installed. I can't even get it to install the original Japanese version using the original install discs.

Thanks for your help.

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to our forums.

Can you give us the type and model number of that TP?
On a sticker on the bottom, looks probably like 2609-53J.
With that you could do a generic search on e.g. the 2609 group.
Any info here will be in the Thinkpad Legacy Hardware forum: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewforum.php?f=7

The only reference (in English) that I could find is here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... KTQAN.html
Perhaps your TP is compatible with the 240X or 240Z?

[phillyt]

Ooops! The specs are:
Thinkpad i series (Japanese) Win98
450mhz Celeron
64mb RAM
12Gb Hard drive
External Floppy
External CD-ROM
Type 2609-53J

Thanks!

[RealBlackStuff]

The closest I could find is indeed a TP240X with 2609-51J
See here for downloads and description: http://tinyurl.com/2oxeoy
You got nothing to lose on an empty HD, so try that.
Best of luck

[phillyt]

Thanks for the info and the link. I tried several of the utilities in there, but I get the same non system disc error no matter what floppy I put in the drive or what is on the floppy. I even bought an unopened standalone copy of Windows NT 4.0, and it returns the same error for that startup disk too.

I put in another used HD I got from work with Windows XP preloaded on it and it tries to start up XP but then "bluescreens" due to the fact there isn't enough memory in it.

I'm guessing now that perhaps the floppy drive itself is actually bad, and worked only one time ...... the one time it formatted the drive. I can tell it has been opened before, as two of the screws were missing from its case and there are pry marks on it.

So the way I see it I have three choices:
1. Buy enough memory to get Win XP to start up and then find a way to reinstall Win NT.
2. Find a way to load Win NT on the laptop's HD using it in an external USB enclosure and another computer.
3. Find another external floppy drive.

Unless someone else has any ideas?????

[RealBlackStuff]

If your TP is indeed similar to the 240 or 240X, it has 64MB memory built-in and 1 slot for extra memory. In there will ONLY fit this memory type: PC133, 128MB. See this Crucial page:
http://crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx ... %202609%29

This maximum of 192MB is not enough for XP. Rather than NT (which does NOT support any USB), you should try for either W98SE or (better) Windows 2000.

You can get a replacement floppy very cheap ($5.99 + shipping) on eBay:
http://tinyurl.com/38xv9e if that is the same as what you have.

You could also take the HD out and put it in a USB enclosure.
Hook that up to a PC, and partition it in (first partition) 10GB and 2GB or whatever is left for the second partition.
Then format drive: /s the first partition in FAT32, and format drive: the second partition also in FAT32.
Copy the complete contents of either the W98SE or the W2K CD onto the SECOND small partition.

While still on that PC:
Download the necessary drivers for an external PCMCIA LAN and/or WiFi card (if there is a built-in LAN they are included in Windows), and copy those also onto that second partition.

You could also D/L all the other drivers from IBM (see previous link) and burn them onto a CD or get them once the TP is up and running.

Now put the HD back in the TP, which now should boot onto it's C-drive. Go to the small (D-drive) partition and look for the Windows Setup file.

Have fun.

[phillyt]

Thanks so much. I just went down to the electronics store and bought a 2.5" USB drive enclosure so I could do that very same thing. Although I wasn't exactly sure what files to copy or how to set it up. Now I know how I need to do it. I will probably get the external floppy anyway for later use, just in case.

I can't wait to get this TP going because I really like it. It's in virtually brand new condition and to me it is the perfect size.

Thanks so much again for the help. I'm glad I found this forum. You guys Rock!!!

[RealBlackStuff]

Please let us know how you get on, and if that Japanese 1124 TP is similar to/same as a 240 or 240X.

[leoblob]

Try putting the diskette into another computer. If it reads OK, then it's the floppy in your Thinkpad. If it does not, the diskette is no good.

When you say "rescue floppy" and "install floppy," are you referring to two different diskettes?

[phillyt]

Well, sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I am still struggling with this laptop from hell. Although I am not a computer wizz, I have built a few, upgraded a few, restored a few, installed and worked with most operating systems and peripherals, and even worked on some laptops. But this one is the most stubborn I've ever run across.
I bought another external floppy drive from Ebay which was cheap and works great. The one I had did apparently go kaput. However, now I can no longer read the original (Japanese) install disk, even from known good floppy drives, which has all the startup drivers on it ..... apparently it has gone bad. It seems as though this model TP is the same (or as close as possible specs-wise) as the 240X. I downloaded all the drivers, got a USB external enclosure for the hard drive, started it up on my desktop using a win98 install disk, and copied Win98 to the hd following RealBlackStuff's advise and directions (thanks again for all the help), but I guess the Win98 install I have must run from the CD as it kept giving me a "Win98 setup needs a DOS boot partition drive to install" error and would not install in that manner. I tried every possible combination of partitions and formats, including using another 2.5" 40Gb hd I had from another laptop, and the only thing I was able to acomplish was accidentally formatting the hd in my desktop computer (I'm still not sure how I did that), and I hadn't made a backup of my desktop hd in about 4 months, so I lost some files I needed, but oh well, life goes on.

So, after getting XP reinstalled on my desktop computer and getting everything back up, I decided to try to get the TP to load the external CD-Rom on startup so I could try installing from that. With much fiddling, swearing, cursing, and thinking, I was able to create a Win98 install disk that wolud load the DOS drivers for the external CD-Rom so that I could install from that. I have the original driver disk for the CD-Rom, so I had to copy the DOS drivers off of that, modify the Autoexec.bat to copy and call the drivers to the Ramdrive, and modify the Config.sys to load it and read it on startup. So if anyone needs this startup disk, I can post it as it really works great.

So, I am now able to install off of the CD-Rom. My Win98 install CD must be an old one as it did not have any compatible drivers for any of the peripherals, and the TP did not want to recognize\install any of the 240X drivers. I had no PCMCIA support, no USB support, no network support, etc., etc. I messed with it all I could but no matter what drivers I tried, it didn't like them. It just kept giving me the message that the driver files did not contain any information realtive to my device. Oddly enough, it even gave me that message when I tried using the original drivers off the OEM restore CD. Which is what I tried next.

I restarted, reformatted, and tried restoring back to the original Japanese version of Win98 in an attempt to get something working that I could maybe upgrade from there. The OEM recover CD didn't like the 40Gb hd, so I had to put the original 12Gb hd back in, and again with much fiddling and modifying the startup (it kept wanting to run some Phdisk program at Win98 startup that was supposed to modify the Bios for some reason but each time it re-started after completing that, it just kept running that program at that spot in the startup and re-booting itself). I finally removed that from the startup and was able to get the Japanese Win98 to boot up. But STILL, none of the peripherals worked ..... no PCMCIA support, no USB support, etc. When it wanted to install drivers for a plug-and-play device, even though these are the devices that came with the computer, and the drivers that came with the computer, it still would not accept any of the drivers.

So, as you all can see, I am thoroughly frustrated, I think this TP is possessed , and I will prevail .... somehow. Thanks for all the help and advise so far and I will keep you all posted as the sagga continues.

[RealBlackStuff]

Sorry, was moving house.
When you formatted the C-partition, did you also set it to 'Active'?
If not, that might explain W98 complaining.
OTOH, if the TP booted to the C-drive it would seem to have been done.
Have you tried W2K? That should work when installing it along my W98 guidelines.

[phillyt]

I did just try Win2k Pro, but after I figured out how to make the boot floppies, (4 of them), and rebooted with them in, it ran through the boot sequence, but then errored out with a "can't find mass storage device (CD-ROM)" error. So the boot routine for Win2k Pro is looking for an internal CD-ROM and not finding it. I watched it load PCMCIA support drivers, but it didn't power or search the external CD-ROM after it rebooted. I haven't had time to mess with it as I am out of town for another week, but I figure I will have to modify something in one of the start-up files to search the PCMCIA slot for the CD-ROM.

[RealBlackStuff]

You should be able to install W2Kwithout floppies direct from CD or from the 'copied' D-partition.

[phillyt]

You should be able to install W2Kwithout floppies direct from CD or from the 'copied' D-partition.

I thought that also. But I can't get the TP to boot from the external CD-ROM. I am essentially booting to DOS with external CD-ROM support. So none of the startup files on the Win2K CD will run from a DOS prompt (my Win NT wouldn't do this either). That's how I was able to create the boot floppies; by snooping around on the Win2K cd looking for an executable that would run from the DOS prompt. I'll try the copied D-partition route again and see if I can get it to go that way. It could be that setting the C partition active was the problem.
Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

I have slipstreamed my W2K with SP4, and that CD is bootable.
It does not need the use of the infamous 4 floppies.

You can also boot from a floppy with CD-support, and then run SETUP.EXE from the root of that CD.

[phillyt]

Okay, here's the update:
The setup.exe file for my W2K Pro won't run from a DOS prompt. By doing a lot of reading of the readme files on the disk, W2K Pro can be installed from a DOS prompt from the file WINNT.exe in the I386 folder. So, I got WIN2K Pro installed. By running a program that identifies all the hardware devices in the TP, and scrounging drivers for them from the net, I was able to get all devices working except the video and the PCMCIA CD-ROM.

The only videao driver that will install is a generic VGA adapter that gives me a wopping 16 colors! Crap!. No matter what I do, it will not accept any other video drivers and always reverts back to the VGA driver. The hardware identifier showed the video adapter as a Silicon Motion Lynx something, which I found W2K drivers for. However, it won't even take those. It just keeps telling me that it can not find drivers to match my hardware. I have uninstalled that stupid VGA driver and tried so many different drivers so many times, and nothing wants to stick. I even tried the good old S3 Virge drivers, which seemed to work for most any of the older video adapters, and it won't take that either. I tried the drivers for the 240X from Lenovo and those won't work. Do I maybe need to turn of PnP and force the Silicon Motion drivers on it because the PnP generic driver keeps stealing the IRQ, etc. that the correct driver needs? How do I turn off PnP?

The other problem is the PCMCIA CD-ROM. Again, even though I downloaded Panasonic's own drivers for this device, it powers up and accesses during W2K boot-up, and it shows it plugged in and active in the task bar, but it won't access the drive, and W2K identifies it as a KLX-somethingotherthanwhatitis, when it is a KLX-830AN. It appears as though the same driver is used for both models as both models are listed in the supported devices section for the drivers, but it will only install the KLX-somethingotherthanwhatitis driver and because of that, it shows up as having a problem in the device manager and won't access. Again, no amount of unistalling and re-installing will make it take the right drivers or rather, accept the right model number. Again, I tried the drivers from Lenovo, plus a few others, and none wil make it work right.

I can live without the PCMCIA CD-ROM, but the 16 color video display SUCKS! If I could just get that worked out, I'd be happy. I was even able to get my wireless card working with no trouble.

Help?

[RealBlackStuff]

Good stuff! I'd forgotten about the DOS install for W2K, it's been quite a few years since I last installed/used W2K.

These are probably Japanese-text drivers, but try the video from here:
http://nothing.sh/thinkpad/i_series_1124.html
or English ones from e.g. here:
http://members.driverguide.com/driver/d ... rid=123900
http://www.video-drivers.com/companies/1691.htm
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... PYQVB.html

[phillyt]

Victory is Mine!!!!!!

I downloaded every video driver I could find from the links RealBlackStuff gave above, and then some, and I finally found the one that works! 24bit True Color Baby!

I guess this problem is finally over and done. Now I just gotta add more RAM.

Soon I will include some pictures of it because it really is kind of interesting with the Japanese characters on the keyboard keys and such.

Thanks to all for all the help!

[RealBlackStuff]

Congrats are in order, Hurray!

Remember, max. 192MB memory!
Your best bet should include a faster (5400/7200RPM) and larger Hard Disk.