IBM t21 dvdrom help - detection and bootability

Hey Guys,

I have a problem with my IBM thinkpad t21. It claims to have a dvd rom drive in it, but it does not detect as such under Windows XP. But this is really a side issue. I tried looking for newer drivers from IBM, but it doesn't make a difference.

I want to install linux on it, but when I reboot, it does not detect the cd/dvd drive as being bootable. I set it up in BIOS, and chose the cd-rom from the Boot devices list which comes up after POST... But it immediately reverts to booting from the hard drive. The cd/s I have used to try to boot are bootable, as they work in my other computer, but not in this one. rrrr.

Can anyone shed light on this?

Welcome to wd forums windshear. Can you get this to work at all ? (I'm a bit unclear about what you are saying about xp) - the dvd unit sounds faulty from over here (no boot== 'busted'), have you tried re-seating it ? (generally they can be taken out).

Is there a floppy drive in this unit ? if there is, try getting a '98 boot floppy' from somewhere (maybe bootdisk.com ) & see if you can start from that & read what's on a cd from dos to try & establish if there's any function at all ? ..

Can you see, in this particular bios, if that thinks this drive is connected or not ?

Sorry... here's what makes it strange... the drive will read cds, it will read the cd in windows.... (but it doesn't read dvds) Hmmm.... Got a slight problem with the second option... no floppy drive... rrr. (scarily enough, I've had this for a month or so and I only just noticed there was no floppy drive)

hmmmm.

The BIOS isn't terribly informative about what is installed, but it doesn't appear to see the cdrom drive.

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Originally Posted by windshear

..The BIOS isn't terribly informative about what is installed, but it doesn't appear to see the cdrom drive.

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Some 'see' cd roms/dvd's & some don't mention anything at all, it varies by bios implementation, but its working 'if only a bit' as you've got cd function in xp...

I think I'm going mmm too ! :D - are you sure this isn't just a cd rom ? The support page for this, doesn't mention anything dvd, at all it just talks about a cd rom .. hang on idiot 'ed .. read your own links, its optional ! :rolleyes: maybe take the unit out & make sure ? there should be some serial numbers or marking that hopefully make sense.

& I think I sussed why linux isn't 'having it ' - here 'Not all options are supported on Linux models' (which must be something to do with its bios, but I didn't dig about to make sure of this).

It has DVD-ROM on the front, and Windows detects it as a dvd rom... I pulled out the drive and it says DVD-ROM model SD-C2202... serial no. 9y5a200704... Can't see anything else useful. I have tried booting with a FreeDOS boot cd that I created for my main pc which also lacks a floppy drive... hrm.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by windshear

..pulled out the drive and it says DVD-ROM model SD-C2202..

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So that's a toshiba unit (s/be 4 x dvd rom & 24x cd) &, probably fitted as a replacement or upgrade (though since Toshiba & IBM were 'hand in glove' at the time this unit was made, it may have gotten added originally) .. now I can't find the full specs for this anywhere as its an OEM unit, but I can google quite a few descriptions quoting this as a 'combo' or 'dual laser' unit, which is a very common explanation for '1/2 workingness' ;)

.. units of this type have seperate mechanisms for both cd & dvd function, quite often the mechanisms end up mis-aligned, but the error correction routines are far more robust for cd reading than for DVD, & you get this situation ..

So I'm not being much help ! .. if this were me, I could test the drive somewhere else to make sure.

Hmmmm... I think I might ditch the idea altogether... I was thinking about selling it anyway, but wanted to use it to play with linux on... *shrug* *sigh* meh...