Help with a Laptop...

[DeadComp]

Stupid as it may sound, I'm trying to install Windows 98 SE on my 486 laptop. It's a Thinkpad, 755CE, and it has no internal CDROM drive. I have the docking bay for it with a SCSI CDROM, but I can't seem to find a SCSI boot disk that works (The one that I made within Windows, on another computer, doesn't work). I've scoured the IBM site without any luck. Can anyone tell me where to get a SCSI boot disk? Btw, an IBM tech told me that the internal SCSI controller is probably Adaptec.

 

[DeadComp]

bumppp....

 

[sohcrates]

with the laptop in the docking station, have you tried going into the bios? are there any options there for booting off cd-rom?

 

[Dogma]

Throw that piece of crap in the garbage.

 

[crypticlogin]

I once read that some Thinkpad docking stations have switches somewhere that enable or disable the SCSI functions. Have you fiddled with those?

 

[dkozloski]

I just installed Win98SE on my Vaio. Boot from a Win98 floppy and at the A: prompt execute the Setup.exe command and away you go. You don't need a bootable CD.

 

[sohcrates]

the problem, though, is that his boot floppy would need to have scsi cd-rom drivers on it, and most don't. so when he boots off a disk and he can't see his cd-rom to run setup.exe

 

[Dennis Travis]

If you knew for sure the brand/model of the SCSI card in the Docking Station a driver could be found so you could boot with a 98 bootdisk and load the SCSI driver and access your CDROM. Is there anyway you can find out for sure? Can you look in the docking station and see what it's using for a SCSI card?

With that info I could find you a driver that would work. If it's adaptec like the IBM tech support person said that would be very easy to find a driver for.

 

[DeadComp]

The windows98 Bootdisk that I made from my other computer supposedly has Adaptec SCSI drivers on it, but it still won't find it.

Dogma - It's compact, its 100 mhz, and has a TFT screen. It's definately not garbage.

 

[DeadComp]

The BIOS has some self tests, and the CDROM option is greyed out. Hopefully that doesn't mean my CD drive is broken.... <sigh>

 

[HappyPuppy]

Bootdisk.com is worth a try.

 

[dkozloski]

What does the SCSI BIOS say when you boot up? If there is no SCSI BIOS message it is a non bootable adapter.

 

[DeadComp]

There isn't a SCSI Bios, but i'm not trying to directly boot from it. I'm trying to find a boot disk with the right SCSI software (but I'm beginning to think there's a hardware problem...)

Thanks for the help though, guys =)

 

[crypticlogin]

I don't know if this helps, but posts at deja.com seem to point that you have an AHA-1542 based SCSI controller in that docking bay.

Deja.com post

Sorry, it's been years since I've touched SCSI boot disks and can't remember diddly to help.