[Thinkpad] Fwd: Re: T41p: HMD diskette

This is a forwarded message
Originally From: Andrew Webber <awebber@wwwebbers.com>
Originally To: thinkpad@stderr.org
Date: Saturday, July 14, 2007, 3:15:45 PM
Subject: [Thinkpad] T41p: HMD diskette

[I posted this earlier but haven't seen it on the list =aw]

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This is not going well. :(

First, I tried a copy of v1.74 that someone mailed me. It installed
onto a floppy disk and when I rebooted (cold boot, power off, press
ESC key when I see IBM logo), it launched into a menu:

>1. Set System Identification
>2. Test the audio feature
>3. Format the hard disk
>4. Assign UUID
>5. Erase Predesktop Area
>6. Set ECA infomration.

I chose #1 and got this message in reply:

>Warning! EEPROM is write-protected. Please power off and on, then
>try to press ESC key when IBM Logo is displayed.

I had already pressed ESC when the colour IBM ThinkPad logo came up,
but I tried again when the white IBM logo came up (when the DOS app
launched). I tried as soon as either logo came up, and just before
either logo disappeared (I was getting good at judging how long the
logo would be visible). Nothing I tried would make it work!

Then I formatted the floppy again and tried the version 1.72
downloaded and discussed earlier. There's no installer but I copied
all the files (except INFO.TXT and INFORMATION.TXT which seem to be
from the person who posted it). When I rebooted I got "Non-system
disk or disk error". I reformatted the floppy as a bootable disk, and
not all the files would fit. It would boot the T41p, but it said
"Windows Millenium" and gave me an A:\ prompt, which I don't think is
right.

ISTM the behaviour of the v1.74 is what's expected, except for the
write-protected EEPROM. Can anyone suggest a solution? Would
IBM/Lenovo/EasyServ/whatever fix this under warranty? I don't want to
take it in, and I'd rather get it working myself of course.

Thanks!

-- 
 Andrew                            mailto:awebber@wwwebbers.com
Wednesday, July 11, 2007, 1:41:39 PM, you wrote:
> Thanks, Bob.
>> I've looked at every string in all of the files that make up 
>> the HMD diskette, and I'm convinced it's the genuine article. 
>> If one is not concerned about violating all of the IBM 
>> copyright notices sprinkled throughout the files, go to it. I 
>> can see why the poster of it did so. Feel free to post this to 
>> the list - I've lost the thread. Bob Stockler
> For the record, the poster of the file
> included this info.txt file in the archive:
> "The origins of this distribution goes back to IBM's default on my
> laptop. When they replaced the motherboard, they didn't reload the
> system-type serial number. Following year, when the warranty was
> over, I had to reinstall the OS. To my surprise, Lenovo's driver
> packages wouldn't work with my machine since they can't read the
> system type information from my motherboard. When I called IBM,
> they said since it was out of warranty, even though it was their
> mistake, they wouldn't correct the problem. And, here we are
> talking about a two minute process, pop-in a floppy disk, enter
> the serial number, pop-out a floppy disk. For this reason, I
> decided to get this 'confidential' disk from somewhere else. I
> found this guy selling it on ebay, so I decided to buy it and
> distribute it for the benefit of people who are cheated by IBM..."
> "Enjoy it!
>        "K."
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> Thinkpad mailing list
> Thinkpad@stderr.org
> http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
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