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David Ross wrote: > > > 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) My 701 will probably be going in for the third time for the same intermittent problem. I can't hot swap batteries in suspend, it just powers down as soon as the battery comes out, they supposedly replaced both uppper and lower system boards and gave me 2 new Nimh batteries and still the problem persists. And you're right I questioned the woman at easy serve as to how many times I had to send it in before it was considered a lemon and she said 4 after that its time to replace it or possibly give you credit towards part of the price of a newer model. Probably the case since the 701's are discontinued. But let me know what deal you get incase I have to go that route too.