Thinkpads Forum

X31 type 2872-REU with new 40g 7200 RPM hard drive.
Used recovery disks and installed Windows SP 3.
Loaded System Update and selected all critical and recommended updates. Started the update process, got part way through and unit died. Now all I get is the green battery light and nothing happens, no beeps. I didn’t pay much attention to what programs were being updated, but I know the BIOS was not current. I expected the update to change the BIOS as it has in past updates on other units I’ve done the same procedure.

My guess at a probable cause is System Update loaded the the embedded control leaving the old BIOS unchanged. What else could cause a no boot? Is there a reset button?

Did you install M$ .NET Framework 2.0 or higher first?
Try hitting F1 to see if you can go into BIOS.
If not, take the hard disk out, and try it again.
Connect an external monitor.
Take out the wifi-card.
Any luck?

Took out the main battery and it booted normally. Put the battery back in and it booted normally. Did I blame System Update unfairly? Did SU do something to the battery charging?
Will wonders never cease?

this is the kind of report that keeps me away from using system update and sticking with software installer.

glad it all seems worked out for you now.

Don't blindly use update to install the latest versions of utilities for an older model. Review the release notes for each, look for the "change log" or "version history" and see which version actually had a fix for your model. That's the version you'd want to find.

See my recent, longer post in the T4x forum under FPR software failing for details.