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> The machine won't even boot if the hard drive is installed. It > goes through the BIOS check (ram count, check hardware, etc.) > and freezes before it even does a floppy seek to begin booting. > That's why I convinced IBM it was a hardware problem. My 701 is so flaky that after 3 returns to EZS tey are going to replace the machine. Similar symptoms, probably different cause. However, I learned some things in the last month that might be helpful: (1) You *might* be able to have the machine boot from a floppy even with the HD in by giving it the A: C: sequence in the BIOS. If it doesn't boot the first time, when you freeze on 84 go to the test utility, and from there tell it to restart. After your restart you might see the floppy but not the HD; sometimes a c-a-d reboot will solve this as well. (2) THE UNDOCUMENTED ADVANCED DIAGNOSTICS: Sorry for the all-caps, but every 701 owner should know about this (which is not in the manual). When in the diag utility, <ctl>-A brings up an extra set of utils (loop tests, etc). From here there are even some other possibilities, like <ctl>-E. One of these will let you low-level format your HD! For details, see... (3) Repair manual on-line(!) I don't remember the exact path to it, but somewhere on www.pc.ibm.com there are field service manuals for all the thinkpads, including the 701 (they are grouped by dates instead of model, look for the one that covers 1995). Full of all kinds of goodies, and explains why EZ-serve never caught my intermittent error (the service recommendation for an error that can't be immediately reproduced is to not do anything!) BTW, apparently IBM has the policy of replacing a TP on its 4th return to EZ-serve, if the customer requests. EZ-serve will deny this; you have to do an end-run around them to IBM Customer Relations. I'll find out this week what they can give me in place of my current machine; I hope another 701, since I like the form factor, besides which I've bought an extra memory and a spare battery for it. (Which other thinkpads will the TP701 16meg SO-DIMM work in?) - David (ross@math.hawaii.edu)