[lam]

I have an old Thinkpad 600E and I would like to install FC5. I know it had WBEL3 running on it before.

My problem is that I can't seem to boot from the cd drive and the OS won't load either.

At startup I get error messages 161 (dead battery, it's not installed right now) and 163 (time and date not set).
I set the time/date, go to the icon in the lower right corner and hit enter.
This gets me the IBM startup screen.
I hold F2 until the system beeps and release the key. (F1 held from power on does not access the bios as the IBM site states)
I get another ERROR 301 ( Keyboard error) hit OK and then it goes to the bios. (easy set up)
I reset the boot sequence.
I have tried cdrom, fdd and hdd-1 in every combination, then exit and get a screen asking OK? and I hit enter.
Then I get a screen with O with OFF below it then > then | with ON below it, flashing from left to right continuously.
At that point the computer stops responding to any keyboard input.

The machine is secondhand and has no manuals. I've been to the IBM site, several forums and many articles but haven't found anything that sounds like this. I suspect the issue is so simple that no one has written about it so I'd appreciate any suggestions. I need a laptop and hoped I could get this one running.

[lam]

Of course I finally found something after I posted here. I need a new cmos battery.

Anyone know anything about the Thinkpads? (specific to 600e)