Sharedoc I need help!

[HotRod600e]

I put a P3 650 in my 600e. I want to make the 127 error go away. Here's my unique problem. I have already changed the cmos value to 01 in order to disable the trackpoint. If I put in the value you specified I get the 8611 error again. Do you know what hex code needs to be there to disable the trackpoint and the L2 cache? Any help would be appreciated.

[hjulian]

Hi,
I am having the same problem. Although I still haven't changed any values, this would be my problem, too.
What I did yesterday was, I disconnected the BIOS battery for 2 or 3 minutes and the 8611 error was gone. The TrackPoint is still unusable, it has actually gone mad!

I still haven't started with installation, though. The TrackPoint was doing its crazy stuff while I set the time and date in the EasySetup. I was able to finish setting the time and date with an external mouse plugged into the PS2 connector.

Somebody in another thread recommended getting a new subcard. It's supposed to have the TrackPoint controller in it.

Keep us posted if you find the right edit for the CMOS hex-editor.

[Sharedoc]

Edit CMOS byte 20H to '09' and you should have neither 127 nor 8611 errors.

[hjulian]

Sharedoc,

Thanks for your help. I have been doing some research with my TP 600X. I have the ThinkPad Configurator installed and have been doing the changes software-based and looking at what changes actually occur in the CMOS table inside EasySetup.

Wow! Really crazy stuff! I have the feeling values are changing absolutely at random!

Some values seem to maintain consistency but this stuff is way beyond my understanding (up to now; I'll try to maintain some hope!)

I'll probably need another 2 weeks before I actually get started with installation. The harddrive I bought had been formatted on a PC and the TP 600E was unable to format it properly. I think I'll just go and get a brand new HDD.

Any suggestions?

I like Seagate (just because I use the SCSI drives in my PC) but I am all ears. Hitachi is also OK.

[Sharedoc]

I have used a PC to format and clone disks for the 600E. You just need a ide/mini-ide adapter for the PC.

[hjulian]

What kind of an explanation is there for a drive that can't be formatted?

I used a diagnostic tool from Seagate and it found bad sectors. I didn't go ahead and correct the bad sectors before contacting the dealer I got it from.

Do you think that if I let the tool correct the bad sectors the drive will be OK. I was able to do the 'Quick formatting' that comes with the Windows XP CD, though. The full formatting didn't work. It stopped formatting at 46% every time.

[dakos]

If you have bad sectors then this is what prevents it from formatting the hard drive.

When you do a quick format then only the MBR (Master Boot Record) part of the drive gets rewritten, yes, that's where the FAT tables are, and the rest of the drive is left untouched, when you format the drive using regular format then you write zero's (00000) or one's (11111) on all he sectors of the drive. so you can see the difference of doing a quich format and a regular format...

If your bad sector is not at the begining of the drive, where the MBR is, then quick format is going to pass and regular format is going to get stuck at the point where the bad sector is.

Sometimes it's fixable using scandisk but if it needs to be fixed too many times then the drive runs out of "spare" space and then you get stuck.

So buy a new drive.

Cheers

[hjulian]

How can you explain this?

I formatted 30 GB of a 60 GB harddrive (FAT32) using a Windows XP installation CD, with no problems. I then decided to reinstall everything again but only had a Win98SE CD. What happened? I was unable to format. After a very, very slow 4 or 5% format, it jumped back to 0%. It never got past 7%.

Was it a TP 600X problem? Was it a TP 600X running on a Win98SE CD?

Or was it a Win98SE problem, alone?


By the way, I solved my problem with the other drive (46% format stop) using a Seagate Tool software. I have no idea how this software communicated with the drive but it was ready for installation in about 5 seconds (20 GB, NTFS formatted). This drive had been previously FAT32 formatted and I was unable to reformat it using the WinXP CD.

[KachiWachi]

I'd run the manufacturers tool on the drive. Do a complete drive test, and zero-fill. Then see what happens.