Let's try this again....... If I get you correctly, the drive works in the T30 but not in the docking station. That means that the nasty complex connector at the bottom of the Thinkpad isn't seating quite with the matching part on the station.
Usually, this isn't fixable unless you are really really good at open heart surgery and don't mind finding the blasted part. I'm not sure you can even get the part by itself, thinkpad or docking flavor. But you can stare at both parts and look for problems. I have once fixed this kind of problem on an A31p by finding a part of the metal side that wasn't quite straight, and after smoothing it out with needle-nose pliers, the connection was better, though not perfect. Your docking station is a kind of electrical spine going into the thinkpad. If I had parts that didn't work with the docking station I'd be scared to use it at all, fearing that something else might happen. You can get the schematics, but finding a docking station on ebay or something might give you a 50% chance of fixing it. If that doesn't work, then you are looking at fixing something in the t30 and I think it would be more sane to find another unit (unless you enjoy Quixote Electronica, in which case, prepare for battle!) --STeve Andre' On Monday 06 April 2009 23:49:46 RBay wrote: > Optical drives go bad without notice. It appears one or more of yours are > bad. > > There is no fix, except a replacement. There are not really any relevant > lines and connections to the Ultrabay 2000 slot run from the T30 > motherboard except those that you see connected. There may be drivers that > you will find on the Lenovo site, by type number. > > There is no continuity to test, realistically... but you can unplug and > reseat any and ever connection and sometimes have luck in getting things to > work. > > But I suspect you need a replacement drive. > > There are diagrams and schematics on the Lenovo site that you can find by > going through all the available materials by type or part number... and > there is a full schematic of the T-30... But there are such a large number > of replacment drives that you will be lucky to find any useful information > for your. > > The main problem is that the drives go out of alignment ever so slightly... > microns, actually, so that when they are out of alignment, you just > replacement as they are worn out. > > > The T-30 is a very old unit from about 2000... and parts are seldom > available, but you will occasionally find them in Google searches and on > Thinkpad sites. There is an excellent one in Raleigh, NC, but I don't > remember the name at the moment. They sell almost daily on eBay > > Good luck. > > > Hello Thinkpad lovers: > > > > I am posting this again with a few revisions due to > > an absent response from this very knowledgeable > > group. Should I try thinkpads.com instead? > > > > I have a T30 that I use with an IBM ThinkPad Docking > > Station II (2877) at each of five locations to allow > > quick access to a variety of hardware. At this time > > I have two hard drives installed in my T30. In some > > of the docking stations I have an optical drive > > installed in the Ultrabay 2000 slot. I have been > > experiencing a failure of recognition upon booting > > of the drive in the docking station Ultrabay 2000 > > slot. Please note that when the optical drive is > > inserted into the Ultrabay 2000 slot in the T30 it > > is recognized and operates as would be expected. > > > > Where would the relevant lines and connections to > > the Ultrabay 2000 slot run from the T30 motherboard? > > How could I safely test their continuity? Are there > > connectors that might productively be disassembled > > and then reseated? And, are there any diagrams > > and/or schematics readily available for such things? > > Please note that I have the easily found repair and > > parts list files from the IBM and now Lenovo sites. > > Finally, given the price of T30s on eBay, should I > > simply purchase a replacement rather than repair > > the one I have? > > > > TIA, > > > > - Mark > > > > Mark Henigan _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
