IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad R51/R52

I bought and installed a GB of RAM, I hope that the performance will be better now (atm I'm testing it with MemTest86+). And on the monday the guy who sold me the laptop will send me the caddy for the HDD, I hope that he will keep his word and that this will fix the BSOD problem. Thank you all for help again.

 

Good luck and keep us posted...

 

I got the caddy and the screws and screwed it on the HDD, also the screw which holds the HDD in the laptop, it all seems way sturdier now. The laptop is working fine and I hope that it stays that way. That's all. Thank you.

 

Had a couple of BSODs from time to time but today a really persistand problem - this is what it says when trying to boot up:

A disk read error occured
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

I tried everything in BIOS Boot setup, removed RAM and inserted it back again, removed HDD and inserted it back again, but the problem persists.

Anyone had such an issue, what's the solution?

Thank you!

 

That sounds like a corrupt Windows install (missing MBR?) and/or a failing hard drive.

Is the hard drive still visible in BIOS?

 

The HDD is still visible in BIOS. I don't know why MBR would be missing but there's always something with this laptop... I'll check it out when I have time and report here, thank you for helping!

 

Try locating a retail XP disk of any kind in the meantime...you should be able to repair the installation with it...

Good luck.

 

...and I'm formatting it again. It said the HDD was corrupted, couldn't be read. I think the HDD is faulty and that's it. Thanx for the help.

 

OK, today it happened again. The laptop simply froze (hourglass in Windows XP), nothing helped and when it froze I could distinctly hear the HDD making unusual sounds this time. So I'm guessing it is the HDD that is faulty. I just hope it's only HDD and not also something else. So I'm thinking of replacing that HDD with a used one I'm gonna get somewhere for cheap I hope.

Can you please help me with which HDDs are compatible with this laptop?

ThinkPad R52 (1846-B5G)
P M 740(1.73GHz), 512MB RAM, 60GB 5400rpm HD, 15in 1024x768 LCD, 64MB ATI Radeon X300, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Bluetooth/Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, IEEE 1394, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

So the damaged HDD that I removed is Seagate Momentus 5400.2 60GB. It says Ultra ATA - does the next one have to be Ultra ATA too? Does it have to be Seagate? How many GB is the limit? The connector is IDE and not SATA. The HDD looks like this:


So which HDDs will work with the specific laptop?

Thank you!

 

Any standard 9.5mm/2.5" IDE/PATA laptop drive will work.

Most of the newer ones will throw a "2010 error" on boot, but you can press Esc to bypass it, or set BIOS for the machine to continue booting after ghe error has been displayed.

 

I didn't know that I can choose from all kidns of IDE 2.5 drives, thank you very much for that information. I've already set eyes on a 40GB one which costs 10 €.

 

I bought and instaleld that 40 GB HDD and the system works perfectly now. I hope that was finally it! I have a question though: is there a way to set the ThinkPad R52 (1846-B5G) monitor to a resolution higher than 1024x768? Probably not, but I want to be sure. Thank you all for helping me!

 

According to Lenovo:

The answer to your question is "no".

You could throw in a higher-resolution panel, with an appropriate cable and inverter, but that would likely cost more than the machine is worth altogether.

 

I just wanted to say that the laptop is still working like a charm! Thank you for all the help ajkula66! I'm getting an used T500 for my cousin now.

 

Good to hear!

Thank you for the kind words. Much appreciated.

As for the T500, a well-kept example should be perfectly capable of satisfying the needs of most users even today...

 

I'm back with more questions - after almost a year - and the machine still works perfectly.

So - Is anyone running Windows 8.1 (32-bit) on a IBM ThinkPad R52?

I have this old IBM R52 with these specs:
Pentium M 740 1.73GHz (I think it supports PAE, NX & SSE2)
ATI Radeon X300 (I think it supports DirectX 9)
1,5 GB RAM (so enough for Windows 8.1 x86)
40 GB HDD (so enough for Windows 8.1 x86)

I'm currently running Windows XP on it and it works fine but I've read that installing Windows 8.1 (x86) could make it more responsive (faster), not to mention how much more secure would it be.

I belive what it's said about security but am not 100% sure about performance - would it really increase?

Also, I can't find much drivers from the Lenovo support site. Does Windows 8.1 recognise everything and install them all by itself? For example I can't find a Windows 8.1 display driver for ATI Radeon X300.

----------

Another question (a little off topic, but since since I'm already asking) - I also have an older desktop PC, here are the specs:
AMD DualCore Athlon 64 X2 4600+ @ 2.40 GHz, 3 GB RAM, GeForce 9500 GT, 320 GB HDD.

I'm running XP on it too and am seriously thinking about upgrading to Windows 8.1 to make it more responsive (security is not an issue, I could stay with XP on this one).

What I can't decide is if I should go with Windows 8.1 x86 or x64. What do you think?

Thank you!

 

I doubt it...seriously. These machines are reaching retirement age, as much as I love them...their best years are behind them

Because there isn't one. You'll have to use the Vista driver and install it in compatibility mode. That will apply for quite a few other drivers as well.

Good luck.

 

I think I'm probably better off leaving XP on the R52. But I'm curious anyway - how do I install a driver in a (Vista) compatibility mode?

Any tought on the AMD part of the question maybe?

Thank you!

 

I can't answer that for W8.x since I don't use the OS in question. In W7 it's pretty much the same as in XP, the OS might just ask you whether the program/driver installed correctly and then re-install it if it hasn't.

Sorry, not from me...I'm clueless in that respect.

 

I thibk that I've have decided - XP is staying. Though it's tempting for me to experiment and try 8.1... Well, I'll see, maybe I'll try it and then report here.

I will also clean the laptop with compressed air and was thinking of unmounting the whole heatsink and change the thermal paste on CPU (and GPU). I've seen in a R52 video on Youtube that the screws which hold in the heatsink are weird looking (or maybe I didn't see clearly - I only saw the openings really). Will I be able to remove and then screw it back in using a regular screwdriver?

 

If you *really* want to try something new, W7 Pro 32 runs reasonably well on these machines, but your current CPU is somewhat of a slug, and will suffer even while browsing the web...

A small Philips is all you'll ever need with these machines...along with the HMM:

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/39t2462_01.pdf

Good luck.

 

No, I've decided - XP is staying forever on this R52.

What's a HMM?

Edit: OK, realised in a second - Hardware Maintenance Manual. Thank you!

 

Today I finally had time to do it, I followed the HMM (which is very nicely written) and it was a peace of cake really. I unmounted the DVD drive, then the HDD, then the keyboard and then the keyboard bezel. After I removed the fan I blew out all the dust I could and then cleaned it some more. After that I reapplied the thermal paste on the CPU (there was no paste applied on the GPU, just some strange thin rubber-like material betwen the GPU and the heatsink - so I applied no paste there). The only tricky part was removing and then putting the heatsink back in (as it was blocked by a part that holds down the heatsink over the ATI GPU). It seems quieter and it shows a little lower temps.

Now I'm going to install Windows XP SP3, the drivers and everything else.

Thank you for all the help, I really like the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads.

 

I have one thing to report: when the laptop is connected to the AC adaptor (and the adaptor to the electric outlet) the adaptor is making strange whiny noise, quiet but consistent.

Anyone has any experience with such anomaly? Is it safe to use?