A22P - Should this work with an 800MHz CPU?

[zittybird]

Cutting a long story short, I have here a T22P that has a few issues, the main one being the original CPU is dead. That in itself was more likely than not caused by one of the screws missing in the heatsink bracket. I've tried an 800MHz CPU in and I get as far as the IBM splash screen but after about 20 seconds the screen just clears and I'm left with a blank screen. I can't seem to get any keyboard response either.

Before I dig further into the problem, I'd like to rule out something simple like the BIOS not being compatible with the CPU and was wondering if anyone has ever tried?

Also, is there anyway on these laptops to force a BIOS flash from floppy? It seems unlikely to me to be a corrupt BIOS, but you never can tell...

Admin note: Edited subject line and moved to RAGZ forum

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

First off, can you confirm the model? As far as I know, there was no T22P ever made. There are A22p systems but those start out at 900Mhz. The T22 should be able to handle an 800Mhz CPU as the factory offerings were 800Mhz, 900Mhz and 1Ghz.

You can certainly try to flash the BIOS using a floppy. The diskette download page for the T22 system is here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4VWP54

but I personally would not try to do this as you could end up corrupting the BIOS to the point where the system won't boot anymore. Rather, I would instead download a copy of PC Doctor for DOS for the T22. You can either get it on three diskettes:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4YZM3F

or I host a CD image of the same program here:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t2x/ibm_t22_pcdiag.iso

Try to boot the diskettes/CD and see if you can get past the IBM splash screen. Press the F12 key when the splash screen appears and you should get a menu where you can select the boot drive. If there's a hard disk drive in the system, it may be having problems and causing the system to hang. There's also a chance that the MiniPC card behind the panel to the left of the IBM label is defective so I'd also remove that and see if it helps.

[zittybird]

well,, Duhh.. what made me put T22P? Probably the fact I have a box of T20/21/22/etc!

Your right, its an A22P, and I can't get it to even attempt to boot, it just gives me the splash screen then nothing.

Everything thats removeable has been, but no change.

[RealBlackStuff]

Take out the RAM, then try to boot.
If the motherboard still is 'alive', it should beep 1-3-3-1.
Any other sequence (or no beeps at all), your mobo is toast!

[rkawakami]

Ah, then I'm not sure if an 800Mhz CPU can work in the A22p. If you can post the Intel SL number that's on top of the processor then we should be able to tell if it is compatible with the system. This should list all of the Mobile Pentium III CPUs:

http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.a ... ProcFam=55

[Neil]

I'm a little confused. Are you able to see the IBM splash screen when booting with the original CPU or the 800MHz CPU? Have you tried to boot into safe mode?

I have an A22P with a bad GPU, and when I was able to use it last (about a year ago), it would show the splash screen and boot into the BIOS or safe mode OK. But, when trying to boot normally, as soon as the ATI driver would begin to load (just after the IBM splash), the screen would go black and the system became unresponsive just like you describe. This Thinkpad was also my first attempt at re-flowing the GPU, and I failed miserable. Destroyed the system board.

[zittybird]

Well, cutting a long story short, I managed to get into it yesterday and have a look at the motherboard, and its got quite a bit of obvious liquid damage to various components, including the main and CPU voltage regulators chips and the CPU clock generator.

The HDD and CD Drive have both failed too, both dead, so I looks like a 5V voltage surge that's probably done some serious damage to the chipset.

Somebody had been in there before and has added lots of heatsink pads all over the inductors, mosfets and the back of the chipset; which would of been a good idea if it hadn't trapped the liquid underneath and probably caused more damage as a result.

Ah well, it makes a nice doorstop

[RealBlackStuff]

There are quite a few A22* mobos around on eBay.
Or place a Want To Buy (WTB:) ad in our Market forum.