Reflashing a T-42 BIOS Ver. 3.23 (1RETDRWW)

[wsalomon]

This may have answered previously, but after searching, i can't find a reference.

I am reloading a number of T-42's after rebuilding them, and, to be sure there is no corruption, or in case a potential malicious BIOS alteration, I wish to re-flash the BIOS. All are 3.23 (1RETDRWW).

I have a copy of the Windows .exe which runs, but gives the "No update needed at this time" message. As i recall, one solution was to go back one BIOS version (which would be 3.21 - 1RETDPWW), run that, and then go back up to the latest version.

I may have had this years ago, but after Lenovo re-did the download site, all those older versions are gone, and I can't find my copy.

Obviously, few of us have USB floppy around (actually I do), and if needed, can the floppy image creator be "re-purposed" to do this?

I have seen somewhere that there actually command line / RUN "switches" for either the diskette .exe or the Windows .exe that can "force" a re-flash, without having to go back a BIOS version.

Are any of these the right approach, and if so, any suggestions for a download link?

Thanks!

[ajkula66]

Are any of these the right approach, and if so, any suggestions for a download link?

You should be able to find BIOS(es) that you're looking for by clicking on the "drivers" link at the top of the page.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with the whole scenario of downgrading and then upgrading the BIOS on a decade-old-system, but these are your machines to play with...

[wsalomon]

upgrading the BIOS on a decade-old-system, but these are your machines to play with...

Point well taken.

These belong to several friends and their kids who abuse them badly, and there are few laptops that stand that kind of abuse better than older ThinkPads for e-mail browsing, simple Office tasks, with passable graphics.

I have a bin-ful of spare plastic, and I maximally upgraded them years ago, so this is not a huge expenditure of time. (I can almost rebuild these in my sleep...)

The issue was re-flashing the current, and latest BIOS (3.23) in case it became corrupted.

The software is being loaded was from a base Windows 7 disk image, so at least they have Security Updates as opposed to XP.

Obviously, the next "life" for these is as portable "smart" VT-100 terminals, E-bay, or the e-waste pile.

[RealBlackStuff]

run CMD as Administrator, then go to your BIOS file and type 1RUJ37UD.EXE /? to see if there are any switches
Probable options:
/s = silent
/f = force
Can't do it myself since I have 64-bit OS and these BIOS files are 32-bit.

Alternative: make a DOS-bootable USB stick, using e.g. Rufus: https://rufus.akeo.ie/
There's a TTAV134-modded BIOS 3.23 around with Slic and no-1802:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... kpad/page4
Scroll down to post #37 to find the link: https://www.sendspace.com/file/j2ekci
It contains only the ROM-file and some other info, so you'd need to also find phlash16.exe which AFAIK has an option /force
Rename the BIOS ROM-file to BIOS.WPH
Copy the whole lot onto the USB stick, boot and flash: phlash16 /s /x /force