Ghosts in the machine??

[hexeta]

Having revived my 600E with the excellent help of the members here, I wonder if I could enlist your further assistance with the erratic behavior it is now displaying!

There are many odd things happening, I'll just list them as can recall, so no particular order of appearance!

The "DOS" type screens (for want of a better description!) The ones that appear whils Mint is loading, have suddenly shrunk in size and now occupy only the centre portion of the screen (about a third of the screen area.)
Once the log in screen appears, it is presented full screen, so it's not a problem, I just don't understand what has caused it.

Screen saver I had set to fade in after 10 mins and run for ten mins.
Now it just suddenly goes black, and when I press any key the last screen fades in.
If it has been black for ten minutes, then the screen saver fades in to view at a key press, and the work screen re appears upon a further key stroke......all back to front!!!

Things plugged in to the USB port, may or may not be acknowledged/read, on a very random basis

I have come to realize that the keyboard is also quite random in deciding which keys it will recognise!

Quite early on in these "Ghostly happenings", I noticed that the "Beep" which normally followed the memory count and "Thinkpad" screen no longer happened.

Occasionally having achieved the Thinkpad screen, it gives up and will not load the OS. This is not because the BIOS Needs re setting, as was my earlier problem, successive shut downs and re boots eventually coax it to load the OS!

On one occasion, and only on one occasion, I did get an error code "EO 301" which I believe indicates a keyboard problem, the "EO" bit apparently denoting the possible key group at fault.
This sometimes results in certain letters not registering, and has probably been the cause of me having re installed the OS on several occasions thinking that the login info has become corrupt, because I seem to get into a never ending loop of username?....Password?......Username......ad infinitum!!!
In truth, there are letters missing from my submission, and the system just presents the screen again without telling you that the info previously provided was wrong!

Anyone recognise what the problem might be???

[rkawakami]

I would think that some of the keyboard/sound symptoms could be explained by either a loose keyboard connection somewhere in the laptop or a defective keyboard. On the 600 series, the keyboard is plugged into the Sub Card, which in turn is plugged into the motherboard. You might try re-seating both the keyboard connector and the Sub Card. The Hardware Maintenance Manual shows how to get to these parts:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... WIK-3SYPX2

Keyboard assembly is shown on page 72, the Sub Card on page 81. I don't believe it's necessary to remove the LCD assembly when removing the Sub Card; it's been some time since I worked inside the 600 series. Then again, the lack of sound could be because it's been muted . Press the Fn+PgUp key combination a couple of times and see if that recovers the sound. You can do this in the Easy-Setup (BIOS) menu.

The E0 301 errors indicates that one or more keys could be stuck. A web page I set up a few years ago can help:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_600x/301errors/

E0 can mean 1 of 13 keys have been detected to be stuck when booting: R Alt, PrtSc, R Ctrl, End, L Arrow, Home, Insert, Delete, Down Arrow, R Arrow, Up Arrow, PgDn, PgUp. Given that you are having sound problems, I'd look at the PgDn key. If that's stuck in conjunction with the Fn key, then your keyboard is telling the system to turn the sound down.

Can't help on the USB problem other than to say that there may be a loose connection somewhere.

The change of size to the "DOS" screens can be controlled by what's called the Screen Expansion option. When the option is enabled, whenever a program switches to a smaller screen configuration than the 600E's XGA (1024x768) screen, BIOS will enlarge the image to fill the entire screen. It sounds like the Mint screen is telling the video adapter to use VGA (640x480) format. On the 600 series, I think you need the DOS Configuration Utility to define this feature. This was what I found at the Support site:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... ZFPEG.html

It's an old, clunky, program that has many cryptic options (command line switches) for setting various system options, perfect for a Linux user .

edit: Correct list of error E0 keys from 11 to 13.

[hexeta]

Hi Ray,
Thanks for your help, I'm seriously impressed that you and "The Author of the 600x/301errors" website are one and the same.

I must be improving, I found your web site yesterday, that's where I unlocked the secret of the keyboard Error Code!
In anticipation of impending "dismantlement", I also found and downloaded the hardware manual to which you refer! (I'm seriously on a roll here!)

This has boosted my confidence no end!
I am not only a total Linux Newb, I've never had the lid off a lappy before, and I smell the faint whiff of disaster in the air, or it could be absolute panic!

Then again, the lack of sound could be because it's been muted . Press the Fn+PgUp key combination a couple of times and see if that recovers the sound.

The odd thing is, before things started going wrong, I could Pgup/Pgdn without the addition of the Fn key to raise/lower the POST Beep...whilst I was on the "Thinkpad screen", now there is no reaction either with or without the Fn button.
However, following your comments, I have tried whilst "in" Linux,to alter the volume (this is not easy since I can't get the sound to work again yet! I only have control over the Beeps!!) and I find that just the merest contact with the Fn key enables control of volume with Pgup/Pgdn.
Without exageration this requires no more contact than would be needed to get a static shock from your car!
So that has been a revelation already!

The change of size to the "DOS" screens can be controlled by what's called the Screen Expansion option. When the option is enabled, whenever a program switches to a smaller screen configuration than the 600E's XGA (1024x768) screen, BIOS will enlarge the image to fill the entire screen. It sounds like the Mint screen is telling the video adapter to use VGA (640x480) format. On the 600 series, I think you need the DOS Configuration Utility to define this feature. This was what I found at the Support site:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... ZFPEG.html

I'm not complaining about this change, in fact it looks much more tidy than the full screen version, I'm just mystified as to what has caused the change, and quite frankly the linked utility scares the pants off me!(I think DOS must be very much an acquired taste!)

It's an old, clunky, program that has many cryptic options (command line switches) for setting various system options, perfect for a Linux user

I do like a guy with a sense of humor!

[pkiff]

I'm not complaining about this change, in fact it looks much more tidy than the full screen version, I'm just mystified as to what has caused the change, and quite frankly the linked utility scares the pants off me!(I think DOS must be very much an acquired taste!)

I'm pretty sure that you reset this setting when you pushed the reset button back when you were trying to get into the BIOS/CMOS/Easy-Startup screens. The reset button returned all your config settings back to their factory defaults, and that probably included turning screen expansion off.

Phil.

[hexeta]

Thanks Phil, can't recall at what point the small screen made it's first appearance, so you are probably right!

Since then, I went on a "Magical Mystery Tour" of the "Easy set-up", saw many wondrous things, and , lo, when I rebooted, ...back to full screen!
No idea what I did!

Since then, the machine has had another attack of dementia, and no longer recognises my login details.
Tried the re-set button which worked last time, but no-longer!

Just hunting round trying to "cadge" a drive larger than my current 3GB, which I suspect is the cause of the memory loss.
A recent software install failed due to lack of space and this latest memory loss followed at the next boot.

Alternatively, should I maybe try Puppy, or DSL?
I am not experienced enough to be able to evaluate such things.
I did try AntiX, but that was just so spartan I thought I was in Siberia in the 1960's!!

[RealBlackStuff]

You should perhaps swap out the CMOS battery.
It's probably gone the way of the dodo, after being unused for so long.

[hexeta]

You should perhaps swap out the CMOS battery.
It's probably gone the way of the dodo, after being unused for so long.

You're right, but I put in a new one two weeks ago!
I used a CR2032 which has 220mAh capacity rather than the 160mAh offered by the "official" unit.