Hey ALL !
I have a Thinkpad 600. I bought a new hard drive and RAM.
I went to install Windows XP Pro on the hard drive and it won't do it. I have installed this disc on desk tops before and had no problems.
While it is " Installing Windows", it blue screens and tells me that " ( 0X000000E0), "Your computer BIOS has reported that a component in your system is faulty and has prevented Windows from operating."
The system setup log says " SZS.dll Syntax errorin manifest or policy file "D:\i386\asms\10100\MSFT\Windows\GDIPLUS\GDIPLUS.MAN" on line 4
Now I'm stuck. I went to this web page
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/15875/
and I downloaded the dll file , gdiplus.dll
. I put it on a disc , loaded it into the cd rom but nothing happends.
I reinserted the Windows XP Pro disc buty it just runs a minute or two then blue screens.
I had a 3 GB hard drive in the computer before I put this new 30GB drive in . The 3 GB drive was fine and it had Windows 98 on it. I wanted a bigger hard drive and Windows XP.....now I just have a mess.
Any and all help is very much appreciated !!!
Recommended Answers
Jump to PostYou need to update the BIOS i think
I had a very old R series and in order to get XP to run on it i needed a BIOS update
Jump to PostYou need to download the BIOS update from the ibm/lenovo site and install it. either run it from an older operating system (put the old hard drive in with win98 on?) or use the floppy-based version
Follow the usual precautions for flashing a BIOS. Exercise caution, understand what you …
Jump to PostFlashing the BIOS means updating it
Glad you got it sorted. Ive got an old Thinkpad R30 (pentium 3 650mhz, 128mb ram, 25gb hdd). I upgraded the ram to 384 and it runs fine with xp. Runs a lot faster if you disable visual effects and tweak the services.
…
Jump to PostControl panel -> system -> performance
Control panel -> admin tools -> services
Jump to PostYeah there are lists but it kind of depends on what you intend to do with it.
Tell me what you need the machine to do and I will make you a list services + settings suitable for you.
Using the classic theme + disabling the themes service …
All 26 Replies
You need to update the BIOS i think
I had a very old R series and in order to get XP to run on it i needed a BIOS update
Thank you for your reply !
I can't get the computer on the internet yet. I have a wireless card to install in it, but it won't go on the internet if there isn't any system on it. How else would I update the BIOS ?
Any and all help is very much appreciated !!!
You need to download the BIOS update from the ibm/lenovo site and install it. either run it from an older operating system (put the old hard drive in with win98 on?) or use the floppy-based version
Follow the usual precautions for flashing a BIOS. Exercise caution, understand what you are doing, and DO NOT turn off your machine during the flash.
I just got another Thinkpad 600 working, so I will take that hard drive and put it in the TROUBLED laptop and do as you suggested. Thanks ! I will update the results tomorrow !
I took another working hard drive, in another Thinkpad, and downloaded a BIOS update on it and transfered it to the non working Thinkpad. I updated the BIOS and then reinstalled the 30GB hard drive and put the Windows XP Pro disk in and it installed just fine !!! YES !!!
I don't know about " flashing a BIOS " ?
The computer runs fine now, a little slow but with that little of RAM, thats understandable.
I am going to look for a "low end" laptop that I can afford , but also one that I won't want to throw out a window. Any suggestions ?
Thank you for all your help Jbennet !!!
Flashing the BIOS means updating it
Glad you got it sorted. Ive got an old Thinkpad R30 (pentium 3 650mhz, 128mb ram, 25gb hdd). I upgraded the ram to 384 and it runs fine with xp. Runs a lot faster if you disable visual effects and tweak the services.
It originally shipped with Win98 and Windows 2000 pro. Windows 2000 seemed much faster than XP but its getting a bit long in the tooth these days.
How would I disable visual effects and what services could I tweak......and how would I tweak them. Where are they at ? I need to find so speed for this thing, LOL.
Control panel -> system -> performance
Control panel -> admin tools -> services
I went to " performances "and selected to adjust for best performance.
When I went to "services" I was a bit overwhelmed with what may work and what may not. Is there a list somewhere that would tell me what I can able and disable ?
Yeah there are lists but it kind of depends on what you intend to do with it.
Tell me what you need the machine to do and I will make you a list services + settings suitable for you.
Using the classic theme + disabling the themes service also increases speed, as is using the classic login instead of the welcome screen.
Your cool !
This laptop will sit in the living room and be used when sports is on or whatevers on, to surf the net and listen to a couple songs. It will be part of my inhome network, connected to 2 other computers. I will not use this laptop to burn cd's, or play any dvd's or movies. Mostley just sufing the net and maybe downloading small programs such as AVD, ZONE ALARM, tweak programs, and then transfer those downloaded programs to another computer either by USB thumb drives or wirelessly.
Thats it.
So it will need support for windows file/print sharing?
Will it need wireless?
AVG and zone alarm are not reccomended for machines with less than 512 of ram.
I will be sharing files wirelessly between 2 other computers. Yes wireless. It uses a Airlink 101 wireless card in it.
What antivirus and firewall program would you recomend since it only has 256 mb ram ?
You could run an antivirus, just dont enable the realtime protection, thats what eats memory (bad thing is that then means its only good at clearing them once you are infected, and you have to remember to manually scan)
windows firewall is generally fine, especially if you are behind a router
I have a router and will have it completly working this week. Right now I'm piggy backin off a friend down the road wirelessly till I get everything working.
I will shut off Zone Alarm and see how that works for now.....I'm scared already ! lol
Let me know what to enable and disable in services and I think we will be done, unless ya can come up with any more tips.
Thanks for working with me !!!
Thanks for that website ! I am installing Service Pack 3 right now so that I can use that website. I will post results tomorrow and let ya know how it goes.
Thanks again for all your help !!!
no problem. One tip by the way - do not install IE7. It will be slow. Stick with IE6.
So if I've already installed Internet 7, can I go back to 6 ?
dont know
how are you finding 7?
I have 7 as an .exe file on a thumb drive that I use to put on peoples computers. I had already installed it on this computer. THEN, I make a mistake. After loading this computer the way I wanted it, all I had to do was leave it alone......but I just couldn't lol
I wanted to remove the LOG ON screen so I looked it up and did these instructions:
Select Run from the Start Menu, type control userpasswords2, and click Ok.
Turn off the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer option, and click Ok.
When I did that, it removed ALL my personal settings, all my pic's, all my music. It reverted back to as if I had just put a fresh install of Windows XP on the machine, except, it left AVG on there. LOL
It also removed Internet Explorer 7 so I'm just going to leave it off there and start over ! But, when I looked at "MY COMPUTER" properties, it still says that the computer has SP3.
I went to RESTORE the computer but then realized that I had turned off System Restore to start fresh with it and had forgotton to turn the dern thing back on.....MY BAD !
One bit of good news....NO MORE LOG ON SCREEN......LOL
you can have SP3 without having IE7 and vice versa
COOL !
I reckon this is as much as I can do to it. I will leave Internet Explorer 6 on there. I should have left Windows 98 on it. I didn't know that XP would need so much RAM!
I appreciate all your help !
What would you suggest as an inexpensive, but good laptop ? One that I could run Windows XP on it and it run good. I don't need one to play games on or anything heavy, just mostly surf the web and listen to a little music on. I would max it out on RAM.
512mb ram and something like a Pentium M or Celeron would be fine for a cheap web surfing laptop.
Thank you jbennet for working with me patiently ! You are good solid help and very much appreciated !
This laptop is quicker and I've learned alot !
Thanks also for Daniweb being here for the world when needed !
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