T21 HDD failure PXE:E61 operating system failure

[reallynice2tryme]

Hi Guys,

Just need a lil help. I have a Thinkpad T21 and have Windows XP Pro with SP3.

Recently it seems to have packed in, which I believe is HDD failure. Been trawling the net for solutions but nothing.
I am unsure if it was caused by switch the pc off by the plug and not shutting down the normally way through XP.

When I turn the laptop on, it comes up with a screen that is black saying Hard drive not installed, and also operating system. So removed the hard drive and re-inserted it to no success. Then after I realised when doing CTRL+ALT+DEL when that message came on, it would restart but then after tell me windows did not shut down correctly. I could then choose any of the usual F8 settings. after this XP would load and show the windows logog with the loading bar below, then freeze, show a blue screen errror then restart the pc. It did not matter which option I picked in F8, wheter it was safe mode, normal or last known good settings that worked.
Now I removed and reinstalled the hard drive it does not go to that screen but says:
PXE:E61 mediatest failure, check cable
PXE-MOF: Exiting Intel PXEROS
operating system not found.
press any key

If you press any key it would repeat the message. Switch off, opened up the laptop and even checked at the back of where the hard drive would go and there is not a cable. Just a connector and all terminals from it to the motherboard appear to be soldered ok.
Fit it back up, and turn it on, same thing, but now the HDD is making loud ticking noises. I bought the HDD about 4 years ago after the other one went. But this is confusing me. Even if the laptop is turned on without the HDD in it, it shows exactly the same thing. So believe it is not recognising the hard drive. I even pressed F1 and checked the BIOS and it is listed as 1 in the boot sequence. Although the overall BIOS screen does not show anything corresponding to it. i.e. the amount of memory the HDD has i.e 40GB and I am sure it used to show up in BIOS.
I even put the Win XP CD in to see if it would boot from it, but no success.

I am on holiday at the moment and its annoying it has packed in now. Its making me think of gettin a new Thinkpad now, but I really love this T21 as I built it up over the years.

TIA

[billp117]

Sure sounds like a hard drive failure...the good news is they are inexpensive to buy.

Good luck...

[RealBlackStuff]

I concur, the electronics board on your HD has probably packed in, so your T21 does not 'find' a HD any more.

[Neil]

I even put the Win XP CD in to see if it would boot from it, but no success.

I agree with the rest here. Sounds like a HDD failure. But it should boot from a CD even without a hard drive installed. So, did the Win XP CD boot but could not find a hard drive, or not boot at all?

[reallynice2tryme]

I put the win XP cd in to load, but it never boot. Once it is in, is it F8 I am meant to press to run the CD. I cannot even remember now.

[Neil]

F12 brings up the boot options menu.

[reallynice2tryme]

F12 brings up the boot options menu.

Even when i do this i am able to select boot options, then it would start spinning the cd, only to stop after and show the intel agent screen with the pxe error

[RealBlackStuff]

Have you tried booting from CD without the hard disk in the laptop?

[jronald]

Neither of my T22's would boot from the CD. Possible issue with the bios, but Im not that surprised your T21 will not boot from the CD.

Ron

[reallynice2tryme]

I did try to boot from cd, with the hard drive installed and without it installed and still got the same messages, no difference. Even if I disabled the hard drive in BIOS options it still gave the message hard drive not installed. Strange thing is that it does make the cd spin, but not load up.

I have a strange feeling the motherboard is gone.

[Mornsgrans]

Did you use the Harddrive in its cage fixed with all the four screws? If not, solders of the IDE-connector on the board can be broken.

Annother idea:
Remove the RAM-cover and the RAM-module near the front side. Tightly press with your finger on the Atmel-chip (but do not touch the contacts) near the front side while turning on the laptop. After the IBM-Bootlogo disappeared, you can remove your finger from the Atmel-chip.
If the hard-drive has been found then, the Atmel-chip has to be re-soldered.