X31 - faulty harddisc?

[Zweetvoetje]

I've bought an X31 recently and it seemed OK. I installed ubuntu on it, at first it ran OK, but very soon I ran into lockups. Sometimes it refused to reboot. I had to remove al power wait some time to get it to start booting.
Twice it happend that I heard a 4-4-4-4 beep code. (but I had problems MUCH more often)

Now this looks like the "broken motherboard" story. But I've noticed that putting some pressure at the bottom of the laptop made the thing restart. (I needed to put some pressure underneath the harddisc/processor) So I've removed the harddisc...

At the moment I'm runnnig a test with an ubuntu live USB stick. Running it at 100% cpu with two movies. At the moment there haven't been any lockups yet.
So it seems that my harddisc is broken. It's gotten to a point now where I can't even boot my laptop with the harddisc inside. It'll always give some problems.


Now the question is: Will replacing the harddisc solve all the problems? Or will there be more problems? I mean I've also had the 4-4-4-4 beep-codes, I've also had quite a lot of symptoms of a broken motherboard. Are there any tests I can do to know if the rest of the laptop is still OK?

edit: harddisc: 40gb seagate
sn 3kw66smk
model 9t94011a

[Harryc]

Four cycles of four short beeps and a blank screen. System board (Security chip)
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 46018.html

It sounds like you have more than one problem. Nobody can answer your had drive question. Buy a really cheap one and try it.

[RealBlackStuff]

hmmm, a bit smelly here...

Run PC Doctor to test the mobo: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-56222
That's in ISO image, to burn onto a CD.
You need an external USB CD player or the X3 dock.
But my best guess is, that your mobo has hairline cracks, which 'open' when the hard disk is inserted.
That flexes the mobo enough to conk out.
Start looking for another one.

[Zweetvoetje]

What's the location of this security chip? It might be the problem...


@RBS: I'll try that pc doctor. First I'll have to find a way to get it onto an USB stick. Up to now it seems that you're right: It's the mechanical stress of having the harddisc inside which makes the laptop fail.

[Harryc]

Location of security chip is on the systemboard. I believe it is soldered on - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 44018.html

[Zweetvoetje]

It might be me, but I can't find the location of the security chip in the service manual... But there seem to be a lot of different system boards, some with and some without security chip. Do some units have an external security chip?

[Harryc]

Do some units have an external security chip?

I don't think so. I think some have a security chip soldered onto the board and some do not. It's been awhile since I had an X31 or X32 board in my hands though, so lets let another member confirm.

[topmahof]

When you buy a x31 or 32 board it comes with a smaller board with the security chip on it. The system board is matched to this smaller board. If you try to put your smaller board on a new motherboard, you'll get the security error. There's another post on this forum that says all about that, but I can't find it right now.

The security board has to be matched to the motherboard.
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-LENOVO-X31-X32- ... 1228wt_932


See that smaller board? That's the security board.

[Zweetvoetje]

Ah, now I've found it. It's the firewire/IR board, which seems to also have the security chip... (if I'd have known that before I wouldn't have had to pullout the complete system board)
There seems to be nothing wrong with it. But I could try resoldering it.

I can't get the pc-doctor cd to boot. I've tried a lot of things, but it just won't boot.


Booting from harddisc doesn't work, after a few times a clean install just screws up, giving all kinds of errors at startup. (initramfs unable to mount different things)
I haven't had any problem booting from usb. Except for some difficulty with getting the post-screen, but this is the same with or without harddisc.

I think that means I have more than 1 problem.

[topmahof]

I don't suppose you have a x3 ultrabase for that machine? I have one with a hard drive adapter that I use to test hard drives with. If your hard drive boots up and runs okay from the ultrabase,
well, at least you would know that the hard drive is okay. If it doesn't run from the ultrabase, then you would know that the hard drive is toast. x32's will boot from usb too. Like, from an external adapter.

Sometimes the crappy hard drive cover prevents the hard drive from seating on the internal connector properly. You might want to try putting the drive in the machine without the cover.
Although it's a little difficult getting it back out of there without the cover.

[Harryc]

Although it's a little difficult getting it back out of there without the cover.

Kind of off topic, but whenever I do this I take a piece of duct tape and tape it to the drive to act as a pull tab. You can tape it to both sides of the drive while folding it in half. Works every time.

[RealBlackStuff]

Rather than duct tape, which will leave nasty goo when you remove it, use a piece of 2" wide masking tape, that you stick onto the caddy, rather than onto the drive itself.
----------------\
____________>============
----------------/

where
---------- is single tape
_______ is caddy
======== pulling strip, double tape glued back onto itself, and continued on the bottom of the caddy

[Zweetvoetje]

At first I didn't use the hard disc cover, but even then I had problems.

I don't have an X3 ultrabase.


Reflowing might work. But I've never done that. The parts are way to small for my soldering iron.
Does anyone of you have any experience with that? I know some people use a small toaster for it. I've got an electric oven, which might work. But I'm afraid i'll just fry the whole thing...

[ParatoOptimal]

Gaffer tape doesn't leave a residue and you can reuse a piece over and over again. Just stick it on your desk or work bench as a tool to use the next time you need it.

[topmahof]

Somehow, you're gonna have to rule out the hard drive as being bad. Either through an external adapter or an ultrabase. If you find that you can boot up multiple times with an external adapter then I would look at the hard drive connector on the board.

This is probably gonna raise a few eyebrows, but I fixed one once that had a bad connector on the board by coating the hard drive pins with conductive dilectric grease. I coated the pins and put it in and out of the connector 5 or 6 times. Then I cleaned the excess grease off the connector and the pins with a couple of long q'tips. It was still working after 6 months when I sold it.

I'm not saying that's what's wrong with yours, but mine was shutting down and not seeing the hard drive and it was intermittent, which is different from what yours is doing, but I was broke and grasping at straws and that was a last resort. You really gotta rule out the hard drive first.

[Zweetvoetje]

There's no grease on the pins, I probably don't have your old unit

Yes, I'd like to rule out the harddisc too.

I've put together the laptop again. It's working again, after some problems. First I wasn't able to boot from harddisc, the kernel couldn't mount the harddisc. (or it couldn't find it) But after some time it magically started to boot again.
The laptop is stable for now. I hope it will be for some time, cause my desktop just stopped to post again. (had that before, it's not so bad, it just needs a lot of bios-resets)

[topmahof]

That would've been kinda funny if there was grease on the pins.

Fix one thing, another one breaks. Ain't that how it goes?

Well, good luck with your x32. I just hope it's not the motherboard.

[Zweetvoetje]

Both are working again now

Not for long I'm afraid, but you never know... At least I haven't had any crashes or strange behavior up to now.

[Zweetvoetje]

The problem is back again. I think it's a bad connection of one of the chips. I've read about the T42 having problems with bad soldered BGA-chips. This is constructed quite similar, so it could be the same problem.

It is now clear to me that pushing on the bottom of the board makes the laptop start working, and pushing on top of it will in some cases make it stop working.

Now I'm not sure which chips I'll have to reflow. Processor, GPU and mem-controller(?) are all BGA's, so I suspect it's one of them...

When I've got some time I'll try reflowing the thing...

[Harryc]

If it's related to the hard drive, that is controlled by the Southbridge.