Hello, I am hoping someone can help me. I have an old IBM Thinkpad from 1995. The bottom says “Type 9545.” I have not used this computer for 6 months. Upon turning it on today, the computer immediately began to make strange noises that were not being produced by the speaker. It sounded like 3 strange tones in a row…repeating over and over. A diagram of a floppy disk and a floppy drive then appeared, with arrows indicating to insert the disk into the drive. The bottom had a diagram with arrows pointing to the “F1” key. Upon pressing this key, “I9990305” appeared in the upper left. This is as far as I was able to get. What is wrong?…and what can I do in order to retrieve needed files from this hard drive? Thank you for your time in reading this. Tom

The system is asking for the setup disk. Your CMOS battery has probably died. You can find the disk at the IBM website.

What if the CMOS battery died and replacing still doesn´t help. I have this type of problem with my Thinkpad 770. Is it true that Thinkpads don´t operate at all without CMOS battery?

Changing the battery does not reset the CMOS. You will have to run the setup to reset the CMOS. Why do people keep throwing away the system reference disk? Try going to the IBM web site and downloading a copy.

tech-fred, Thank you for your responses. I went to the IBM site and downloaded a bunch of disks...none worked. Could you please tell me which is correct? The Thinkpad is a 755CX with windows 3.1. Should the disk be in the floppy before turning the computer on? The online IBM assistant also mentioned to reseat the hard drive. My knowledge of computers is not the best. Are there any general guidelines on how to do this? Thanks again for your time. Tom

You could try booting with the floppy in.

My Thinkpad 770 doesn´t even get to booting from Floppy. The error message about the battery comes first (don´t remember the number it displays at this time)......