[ltp] Thinkpad 600 CDROM woes

[Willard Fullam III]

I will assume this is an Ultra-Bay unit. Things to check:

1. Remove the unit, clean lens and connectors (use antistatic brush or 
"canned air"- use with caution) and reseat in the Ultra-Bay

2. Update to the latest System Setup (BIOS) (see IBM support site)

3. Check for and install any firmware upgrades (see IBM support site)

4. Run Test from System Setup with and without CD inserted
	a. if it passes, OK but you are not home free, go to next step
	b. if it fails, replace

5. Test the unit in as many operating systems as you can; Linux, 							
	Windows, OS/2, whatever...
	a. if it fails any any one, check to see that the correct drivers, SW 	
		is installed and check again
	b. if it fails in more than one, replace
	c. if it fails in only one or you can only test one OS, and you have 		
	done all the steps above, the most likely cause is a defective unit; 		
	replace

One other test to try is to place it in the Ultra-Bay receiver in the 
Dock III unit (which I think the TP600 uses) and if it works here, you 
have a defective internal connector or system board. I have one for my 
TP770X and this is handy but that may not be an option for you.

This problem occurs with clean CD disks and various types from 
off-the-shelf SW and one's you have created or have been burned for 
you? I have run into problems where "burned" CDs did not work and could 
be traced to the media and in some cases to the SW used to create them. 
Older CD drives were prone to this problem.

In the end, I think you will most likely find the unit is defective, 
but this a way to confirm. Still under warranty by any chance?


On Wednesday 14 November 2001 02:03 pm, Martin Sanborn wrote:
> On Wednesday 14 November 2001 12:57 pm, Tod Harter wrote:
> > Well, in my experience ANY ide device that starts giving you that
> > "DriveReady SeekComplete Error" stuff is in bad shape, though it
> > can be
>
> That's been my experience too, though my experience with laptop
> hardware has been relatively limited.
>
> > classic set of symptoms for CD drives. Its POSSIBLE you could have
> > a dirty lens, you could try cleaning it.
>
> I am going to try cleaning it sometime soon, and see if that helps. I
> doubt it, though. It just behaves too much like dying hardware.
>
> Thanks for the suggestions from everyone.
>
> Marty Sanborn

-- 
Willard E. Fullam III
wfullam@bellsouth.net


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