Starting Up Windows Xp Thinkpad

I have a Windows XP Thinkpad that will not boot up. The following is what I have done to try to get it working again.

I had to go to the command prompt and typed Scanreg. It ran through the Registry and backed up all files. They found an error in the System files and restored a recent backup.

I restarted and ran through the Scandisk. I restarted in normal mode and got an error message "Windows Protection error. You need to restart your computer" I restarted in safe mode this time and got another error message "This program has performed an illegal operation and will shut down.

When I restarted it went through Scandisk again. This procedure keeps repeating every time I try to restart.

Is there a fix that I can do manually? It's obvious it doesn't restore automatically unless the restored recent backup is no good.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Red

 

I have just tried to start up again and got a different message.
INVALID SYSTEM DISK

I checked the Bios and this is the sequence listed.
1 USB FDD
2 Legacy floppy dries
3 ATAPI CDO:Toshiba DVD
4 USB CD
5 IDE HDD
6 PCI LAV
7 USB HDD
8 IDE HHI

The first is obviously wrong. Which one should I choose?

 

5 IDE HDD

 

What is the purpose of this machine?

 

The main purpose of this machine is to play old games.

Eldon suggested that I use IDE HDD as my first choice for booting up. It still doesn't start up. Perhaps I might need a new hard drive? I hope not because I'll loose all my old games.

 

Disconnect the USB drives.
Ensure there are no CDs, DVDs or FDs in their respective drives.

 

Thank you for your response.

All my drives were checked although I don't know what a FD drive is.

I am almost certain that the hard drive is defective. I say that because when I boot up with a bootable repair disk, it worked but unable to fix the problem. The system is able to read the DVD drive when there is a bootable disk in it but not the hard dive.

 

Floppy Disk.

One option is to remove the HDD and connect it to another PC via IDE to USB adapter.

 

Thank you Plodr for your response.

You are right, If I get my machine working again and reinstall my old games, I will certainly archive them this time. Thanks for your good advice.

 

As Eldon says- but whilst doing that,get another hard drive, and copy this hard drive to it,to save all that is on there. If a drive is faulty, I often find the copying, then running chkdsk /r will men the copy will be all O.K. as it keeps running checkdisk, it is a pretty sure sign the hard drive is failing-do it before you lose your old games.

 

Thank you baklogic for your response. When I get my new hard drive, I will definitely back up my old games once they are reinstalled.

 

Do you have a more modern machine which can run Virtual Machine software?

I have all my old operating systems running under VM.

 

I do have a Windows 8 Desktop and Windows 10 laptop.

I'm not familiar with the Virtual Machine Software. Can you please tell me more about it?

 

Download VirtualBox.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/virtualbox.html

Here are the instructions from baklogic (thank you!).
https://forums.majorgeeks.com/threa...m-vm-easily-with-oracle-vm-virtualbox.317642/

 

Thank you Mekanic for your advice. I downloaded the Virtualbox and had problems right from the start. I checked with Baklogic's Link and couldn't get any help from there.

Once I get my machine running with a new hard drive, I think I will be better off getting an external hard drive to store my old games.

 

Thanks also to Eldon for supplying the links.

 

Take it slowly, and let Virtualbox do it for you-Just refer to the pictures in that post -honestly-you can do it-It is easy to try again,just name the new VM something different -like XPgame, or, XP2....
As Eldon said in post 15- I use Oracle Virtualbox, as the link from Eldon- and having tried other Virtual Machines, I found that easiest,and it will run in Windows 7, 8,and Windows 10- and it is free!- If trying it in Windows 10, just do not enable Windows 10's own VM, as it will conflict with the Oracle version (I found that out the hard way)

Once you get he hang of it, like myself, you will be able to use XP without a separate partition, or, hard drive. In fact I have VM's for Linux, and have just managed to do a VM for Snow Leopard(purely for educational purposes)

 

It does sound like the hard drive is starting to fail. I would use a clonezilla live cd and make an image of the current drive--there's an option in the advanced settings to continue to retry bad sectors. Once you have this image, get a new drive and try restoring it. If that works and you haven't lost too much, it might boot and then you can start rebuilding from there. Good luck.

 

I have received and installed my new hard drive. I thought it would be recognized and installed automatically. It didn't.

I was able to reset the current time and date from Bios OK. When I boot up now I get this error message:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent.
Operating System not found

The boot code is:

Intel (R) Boot Agent Base code (BA1217BC)

Is there a way I can install it into my new hard drive?

 

Thank you TimW. You are so right. I wasn't using my brain cells when I expected the new hard drive to find & install the old operating system.

I wanted the old XP for the old games that I play. I'm installing Windows 7. I hope it will play some of my old games.

Thanks again to all that helped me.

Red

 

Sorry , I was unable to come back to you (sorting my own laptop out (It got knocked over, and I had to strip it to repair it)
TimW has seen you through it, and with Window 7, you could try the Virtual box at some time, if you cannot get Windows 7 to work in compatibility mode on some games.

 

Welcome back backlogic. Sorry you had that problem.

I was able to install Windows 7 but lost the sound. No audio output is detected. I tried to remedy this in Bios with no success. There also is no sound if I use earbuds in my laptop.

I had no success with the compatibility mode. The game that I just installed is silent. I have to use the closed capturing. I dread trying the Virtualbox with the problems I had running that. There really isn't any sense using Virtualbox, the sound will still be lost.

If I can get my onboard speakers working again, I'll be satisfied with that.

 

Do you still have the XP COA?

I still have old discs I can image to the cloud.

 

You need to install the drivers for the on-board audio.
Visit Lenovo's website, enter the laptop's model number and then look for the audio drivers for Windows 7.

 

You can try the conexant- Download Audio| Conexant Audio Software
Or,I find driver booster is brilliant wth driverss- it will look for and install them for you, too.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/iobit_driver_booster.html

 

Thank you all for trying to get my Thinkpad working. I am having too many problems with it. I'm going to forget about it and give up.

I have a Windows 7 desktop & Windows 10 laptop to play my newer games. I will forget about playing my old games.

Thanks again.
Red

 

No!
Give us your laptop's model number.

 

The the only number that I can come up with is IBM THINKPAD 2378.

My newest problem is with the Windows 7 operating system that I installed. The key code was accepted when I installed, but it no longer accepts the code. I really didn't want Windows 7, but that's the only installation disc that I have. Purchasing a Windows XP or 98 installation disc wouldn't be worth the cost. I spent more than this laptop is worth.

 

Have you got the XP coa ? - XP disks are difficult to find, or, as you say out of the question (cost) To be honest,if you have the COA, then have you no friends with an XP pro disk ?- that you can borrow,and use your Key ?
https://www.cnet.com/products/thinkpad-t42/specs/
https://thinkpads.com/support/Thinkpad-Drivers/download.lenovo.com/lenovo/content/ddfm/T42.html
Ibm Lenovo Thinkpad T42 Service Manual - WordPress.com

 

This might be a solution.

 

I have posted locally on FreeCycle if anyone has an XP installation disk they no longer need. It will take at least a day or so to get a response.

In the meantime waiting for a response, I removed the Windows 7 from my hard drive. I have heard before from MajorGeeks that uninstalling doesn't remove all files. So I cleaned the drive with DBAN.BZl.

Until I get an OS again, I can't try the download baklogic suggested.

 

Good luck. I hope you don not have too long to wait-
You did not need to DBAN it, but it saves you having to delete al partitions, when re-installing XP - I have sent you a private message.

 

Thank you Baklogic. In the private message you sent, can that be downloaded to a flash drive that can be made bootable?

 

The reason I would like to get the download on a bootable flash drive is if I don't get a response from FreeCycle I would have to reinstall Windows 7. The last time that I installed W 7, I had a lot of interference while connected to the Internet. It would be almost impossible to download from there.

 

Keep in mind, whether you install WinXP or Win7, you still need to install drivers for the on-board audio.

 

Thanks for reminding me. Once I get an OS that connects to the Internet, will be the first download.

I am now downloading the file from your private message to my Windows 7 Proffesional desktop. This machine now plays my newer games. Would it be wise to install the download to this machine? I could then have this machine to play my old and possibly new games on the XP download. I still have a Windows 10 laptop for new games.

 

Baklogic, I was wondering what your photo was until I looked more closely and saw that it was a robot inside the TV tinkering. Very amusing, I liked that.

 

So, do you have it all sorted out with XP on the old machine?

 

I use iso2usb- just make sure you tick the little box to make it bootable
http://www.isotousb.com/

 

Thanks Baklogic for that tip. I already downloaded and will do as you suggest.

Mekanic, I have submitted a post to my local FreeCycle and have recieved three responses for a XP installation disk. I'll get back to you when I get and install them.

Thanks for your concerns.

 

baclogik, when I try to copy your download, the only choice is to burn it to a disk. There are no options to copy to USB. There's also no options to make it bootable. Before I burn it to a disk, is there anything I can do to correct this?

 

Just startup the iso2usb program on your desktop, tick the little box to make it bootable, and at the top, click the to line to brouse to the iso file, then next box down, click refresh, and it should give you your usb stick, leve file system as fat 32, click to tick the make bootable little box, click on volume label, and name it XP, and then click the burn button.
The usb should be one that can be made bootable (most will, but occasionally some do not)​

 

The first sentence has me stumped. Getting the program mentioned on my desktop. Where do I get the iso2usp program. I just wanted to have it on a flash drive for a spare.

I installed the download on a DVD disk and was able to install XP successfuly. I have it running but still have the same problem with no sound. I can't get the audio driver from the web because I'm unable to get onto the Internet. When I tried from the control panel, I can't activate it from there because I have Verizon cable and they give instructions for dial up only.

 

Forgive me baklogic, my mind is all screwed up. You gave me that link in #42. I completely forgot about it. At my age, memory keeps getting worse.

 

What you need is the ethernet drivers to get you online. With XP drivers were not automatic, as it were. They are machine specific and as abandonware they may not be available.

Do you have all the Service Packs installed up to number 3? Chances are those Packs MAY contain the drivers generic or otherwise you require.

 

Check this link if you have too much trouble. Your key should work with these slipstreamed images. However, no implicit guaranty.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1gWp-_cIrl3eEdwT3VteHpiQmM?usp=sharing

 

No problem- you have it n dvd now, so forget the usb tool- I only showed that tool,as I was not confident that the Microsoft media tool would work on XP.
DRIVERS-

On your W7 PC, Create a folder on the desktop -right click on the desktop-choose new-folder (so that you can find it easily, for,now-you can always delete the folder later) DOWNLOAD the drivers to that folder(Just click on the driver, and then click to SAVE AS, -this will give you an option to save somewhere other than downloads, - just save as it says- then after you do that the other drivers will want to save in the same place, in that new folder. When you have them all, you can either copy to a usb stick, or,burn to cd/dvd , and then put the usb/cd/dvd in the XP PC, and copy to that pc. (Post 28) You can try the conexant- Download Audio| Conexant Audio Software- just click on the Download ,and it will download- From my searches, it seems the most likely sound driver for you.
Lan ethernet driver - just click link in blue
Probably https://thinkpads.com/support/Thinkpad-Drivers/download.lenovo.com/express/images/download_icon.gif Intel PRO/1000 LAN adapter software

(Post 32)All drivers forthe XP machine should be available here--
https://thinkpads.com/support/Thinkpad-Drivers/download.lenovo.com/lenovo/content/ddfm/T42.html

Explorer 7/8 are well outdated- again download to the W7 pc.
To get on-line, you could try this browser-- http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/avant_browser_ultimate.html
Or, http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/vole_internet_expedition.html