T43 + SSD not booting Windows

[T43_user]

Hi all,

I have a rather strange problem, where other forums could not yet help me:

I got a T43 (2669) and I want to upgrade it with a new 128GB  TS128GPSD320 PATA SSD. The BIOS does detect it well and it is up to date with the latest version from 2006.

Now to the issue:

1) Win7 Setup booted from DVD does not detect the drive - formated, unformated, partitioned in different configurations... no chance

2) Win2k Setup booted from CD does install well, but at the first reboot required after copying all files, the startup hangs up with a black screen right at system loading

3) Booting from HDD and having the SSD on USB, full access is available through Win7 and WinXP and even Win7 Setup does recognise the SSD, yed installing this way does not make any sense

4) cloning the 80GB HDD to the 128GB SSD does work well, but the startup with the SSD hangs after choosing either my Win7 or WinXP partition in Windows Boot Manager with the following error (translated from German) message:

Status: 0xc000000e
Info: Error in start option. Access to the required device not possible.

Now the question is, why does the system can access the SSD to load the boot manager, but fails to start any system and why does Win7 Setup DVD cannot recognize the SSD inside the notebook? The jumper is set right, else BIOS would refuse to recognize the SSD.

I pretty much run out of ideas, so other forum users... The Lenovo and Transcend tech support did not yet respond...

In Bios, there is nothing to configure wrong, especially since it's an IDE drive...

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!

Best regards,

T43_user

[goretsky Community Moderator]

Hello,

I wonder if the 128GB Transcend TS128GPSD320 PATA SSD is initialiizing in some way that the BIOS for the ThinkPad T43 cannot see it.  Have you checked with Transcend to see if there is newer firmware available which may correct this?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[T43_user]

Hi, I just got a feedback from Transcend today:

I found out, that booting from WinXP CD the setup finds 7410 MB of the hard drive and I can use it to install. After done that, I again booted from WIN7 DVD and suddenly it showed me also ~ 7.5 GB, which I could use to install. In both cases, unfortunately Windows could not alocate the missing 120GB (not sure what it's called in English: there is some sort of drive management or drive administration tool where I can find unpartitioned or unformated drives).

Now Transcend told me, the problem might be related to the cylinder count:

Model P/N                    Cylinder            Head    Sector     User LBA          Physical Capacity

TS32GPSD320          16383               15          63            62,533,632        32,018,219,584 Byte

TS64GPSD320          16383               15          63          125,044,736        64,002,424,832 Byte

TS128GPSD320        16383               15          63          250,071,040      128,036,372,480 Byte

Support said I should try to increase the head count to 255, keep the 63 sectors which then relates to 15.566 cylinders and this equals about 128 GB... UNFORTUNATELY, I cannot change the drive config in BIOS, because it only provides auto-detect...

They now say they cannot do anything about it and it's all IBM/Lenovo's "fault"... So I can use it only as a very expensive USB-Backup drive...

Best regards,

T43_User

[goretsky Community Moderator]

Hello,

I would suggest returning the SSD, if you are still within the timeframe to do so.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[ajkula66 Guru]

My train of thoughts would be:

a) Return the SSD

b) Perform a SATA-mod as seen here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=94308

c) Enjoy the performance boost from a SATA SSD.

Good luck.