Thinkpad T40 - Unable to detect *any* IDE devices

[dreamer289]

Hey all,

I have a T40 here with a very annoying and untraceable problem, the complete inability to detect any IDE devices (hard disks and CD drives included) as well as a very long boot time (approx 1 minute).

In attempt to fix this the BIOS and EC firmware has been updated to the newest available from Lenovo/IBM's site (done via network boot, so it CAN boot up) so thats out of the question. I've also tried a Linux distro booted from USB, which also fails to pick up any ATA devices.

All BIOS settings look present and correct... I'm running out of ideas! Any clues?

Info:
Thinkpad T40 Type 2373
Hitachi Travelstar IC25N040ATMR04 HD
IBM Supplied DVD-Multi drive
512MB RAM

[sojourner]

You asked for ideas:

Have you tried detecting a HDD in Ultrabay? You said the CD is not detected so the HDD will likely not be detected either (they use the same port); none-the-less, if you have a caddy I'd try it.

Other than that, you booted linux from a USB drive and did not see IDE0 or IDE1; so the question is, is this just a boot failure or has your MOBO controller gone south and under no circumstance is any IDE port going to work? (likely the latter)

As a last ditch attempt I'd set all BIOS settings to default, make SURE the HDD and/or CD you are attempting to see is GOOD (that it is not defective) and try booting again. That's all the ideas I have

[BeeJayEmm]

Welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear about your trouble. Do you have another computer handy with which to test the hard/CD drives to see if they are recognized (I mean recognised, since you're from the UK!:D)? When you booted from USB, did you use a hard or CD drive? If it was a CD or DVD drive, do you have a way to download and burn an ISO image to CD? Here is a link to a bootable CD image of PC Doctor, which may be able to diagnose the T40's problem. There is also a diskette version available if you have a USB floppy drive. If you don't have a way to do any of these things, I'm out of ideas. If the T40's IDE controller is bad, the only fix is a new planar (motherboard), I'm sorry to say.

[dreamer289]

Thanks for the helpful replies and the warm welcome .

Sadly no Ultrabay was supplied with the machine and I have no caddy with which to test the HD, and I'm not really willing to spend money on something that was practically a freebie!

But I very much doubt that both the DVD drive and HDD died at exactly the same time, and resetting the BIOS settings has no effect, so I'm tempted to just put it down to the mainboard's IDE controllers snuffing it. Odd that it doesn't throw up any errors though.

The Linux distro was installed onto a USB pen drive using a network PXE installation (which, by the way, seemed to work quite nicely) . But I shall throw an image of PC Doctor onto the PXEserver and give it a try.

Even if my worst suspicions are confirmed, I'm sure I can still find some use for the machine .