Thinkpad 340 POST error

[tghlk]

Picked up one in great shape, looks brand new. The hard drive was bad so I replaced it with a 540mb one.

The system powered on with a 174/163 error. I set the date and time and now it POSTs with a 174 error. If I cancel out of ezsetup, it will reboot back to the 174 error. If I select OK, the system hangs in the ezsetup screen. I did not see a CMOS battery inside that I could possibly replace.

What now?

[Harryc]

Can you get in to the device test section of ezsetup? Try running the device tests, start with the hard drive.

[rkawakami]

First step, grab a copy of the relevant Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM). Unfortunately the tpvol2.pdf file, along with the entire IBM ftp site, seems to be AWOL. I've uploaded my copy and you can get it from here:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_psref/ibm_hmm_tpvol2.pdf

Second, scan through the HMM for the error codes (page 35). 163 (date/time error) is usually caused by a dead backup battery; the 174 appears to be something about device configuration. The HMM shows that the backup (and standby) batteries can be accessed from a panel on the bottom (page 51). I would pull the backup battery and measure it with a voltmeter (page 31). If it's less than 2.8V, I would consider it dead.

Regarding the 174 error, if you can run the diagnostic routine on page 45, then try that. If you can't even get to that menu, then pull out the hard drive and any other hardware (floppy, PCMCIA, etc.) and see if that helps.

edit: Nosed out by Harry by a few seconds....