Changing BIOS Boot Logo - IBM Thinkpad T41

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jephhy · #31 Post by **jephhy** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 8:43 pm

How do you extract the BIOS diskette files onto your USB key? I tried it and it gives me an error message. I am attempting to extract it from a directory without a space in its name...

Jeff

akerman · #32 Post by **akerman** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 7:27 am

You sure your USB key isn't write protected? You can also try formatting it as FAT..

jephhy · #33 Post by **jephhy** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:54 pm

akerman wrote:You sure your USB key isn't write protected? You can also try formatting it as FAT..

Yes, I'm pretty sure it's not write protected...I can put other files on it just fine. Maybe I'm not entering the drive letter correctly - the extraction utility asks for a floppy drive letter and I just enter in E:\ and it doesn't seem to like that. Thoughts anyone?

Jeff

kilago · #34 Post by **kilago** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 5:12 pm

n3il wrote:From the README.txt file on the BIOS update floppy diskette:

NOTES ON CUSTOM START UP IMAGES
THIS VERSION OF THE FLASH UPDATE PROGRAM GIVES THE OPTION OF REPLACING (OR ELIMINATING) THE DEFAULT "IBM" IMAGE THAT IS DISPLAYED DURING SYSTEM START UP.
THE USER CAN SUBSTITUTE A 16 COLOR WINDOWS BITMAP (.BMP) TO REPLACE THE DEFAULT IMAGE.

1. LOGO.BAT (ON THE FLASH DISKETTE) WILL ONLY WORK IN A MICROSOFT (R) OPERATING SYSTEM DOS WINDOW.
2. PREPARE YOUR IMAGE BY NAMING IT 'LOGO.BMP'.
3. PLACE THE LOGO.BMP FILE ON THE FLASH DISKETTE
4. GO TO THE DOS WINDOW AND SWITCH TO THE DISKETTE DRIVE WITH THE FLASH DISKETTE. RUN LOGO.BAT TO COMPRESS AND PREPARE THE BITMAP FILE FOR FLASHING. LOGO.MOD IS THE RESULT.
5. UDATE ACCORDING TO INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

AFTER YOU UPDATE THE BIOS ON YOUR SYSTEM, YOUR LOGO WILL APPEAR ON THE STARTUP SCREEN.

SOME GUIDELINES FOR THESE IMAGES INCLUDE:

1. THE COMPRESSED IMAGE FILE SIZE LIMITED TO 10KB.
2. SIMPLE DESIGNS (THE IMAGE WILL BE COMPRESSED AND COMPLEX IMAGES DON'T COMPRESS WELL...)
3. AN IBM LOGO IS USED BY DEFAULT, BUT A 16 COLOR 640x480 WINDOWS .BMP FILE CAN BE USED INSTEAD.

HTH

Am I the only one confused about where these files are? I can't find a link anywhere in this post...could someone help me?

Thanks!

n3il · #35 Post by **n3il** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 5:28 pm

As I mentioned in the post you quoted, they are on the BIOS update floppy diskette....

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-50275

HTH

n3il · #36 Post by **n3il** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 5:30 pm

jephhy wrote:...the extraction utility asks for a floppy drive letter and I just enter in E:\ and it doesn't seem to like that. Thoughts anyone?

Jeff

The BIOS flash diskette will only extract to a Floppy - try extracting it on a machine with a FDD and then copy the files to the memory key. Still not convinced/sure if it'll work with the memory key....

HTH

Neil

jephhy · #37 Post by **jephhy** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 8:17 pm

Hmm...well that would be a problem since i don't have a floppy drive for my Thinkpad! ..and no easy access to a floppy drive either...

Jeff

Leon · #38 Post by **Leon** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 11:38 am

there's GOT to be another way.... can someone post the file somewhere?

n3il · #39 Post by **n3il** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 3:21 pm

It isn't just one file - that is the problem. The logo change option is only available WHILE "flashing the BIOS" - the logo info resides in CMOS too. I use a TP 600 Floppy drive connected to the Port Rep II - but any (not necessarily IBM) USB floppy drive will work...

On the other hand - I reckon it may work by burning the files onto CD (but u'd have to use another computer with a floppy drive to extract the files)

Just a thought...

Leon · #40 Post by **Leon** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 3:39 pm

still confused

IF someone got the files onto a CD, then they could post the files somewhere and people could download them and put them on another cd?

mhouston · #41 Post by **mhouston** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 7:17 pm

If someone can post or send me a zip file, I can put it up on the web for people to get. Then those of us without a floppy drive (honestly, who uses them anymore when there are USB keys...) can play with this.

Everytime I've tried to extact the files with my desktop Dell, the disk cannot be read by Windows/DOS, so I can't move the files to a bootable usb key.

Has anyone successfully changed the picture in the bios yet? I have my Windows boot and login screens modified, it would be nice to modify the bios screen to match.

It would be great to post a guide once we have it figure out. I can handle posting that as well if people would like, but we should probably make it a forum sticky.

-Mike

Leon · #42 Post by **Leon** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 9:20 pm

and... if you put on hd, bios, & admin passwords, changing this screen with return information may be the only way to get back a stolen or lost TPAD...

s0larian · #43 Post by **s0larian** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 6:13 pm

I tried to change the bootlogo with an IBM usb-diskette drive. I createt the bmp file with 16 colors 640x480, compressed it with the logo.bat file of the bios update diskette which created the logo.mod file correctly. But after I installed the Bios update the original logo still was there, no replacement with my own logo.mod. Did anyone have success with the procedure as explained in the readme of the diskette?

mhouston · #44 Post by **mhouston** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:50 pm

S0larian was nice enough to send me a zip file of the bios disk so that we can all play.

http://graphics.stanford.edu/~mhouston/IBM/ibmbios.zip

I'll see if I can have better luck tonight. If we figure this out, can one of the admins make this thread or a new one a sticky thread ?

-Mike

G-Man · #45 Post by **G-Man** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 8:50 pm

Yeah, we can do something with it. Just let us know how it works. I'm too tired now to play with my IBM USB Memory Key...

Regards,
G-Man

mhouston · #46 Post by **mhouston** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 10:35 pm

The link I provided contains my current boot image. Just a warning, this bios is the latest bios (3.06f) so it requires the latest embedded controller update.

In short, create a 16 color indexed BMP (similar to what you would do for a modified windows boot screen). Name this logo.bmp and copy it onto your bootable usb key. To find out how to make your usbkey bootable, try http://www.aaltonen.us/archives/000172.html. From the command prompt, run logo.bat from your usbkey on your new image. If the image was too large to use for the bios image, it will give you a nice warning message. Modify lcreflsh.bat to read:

@echo off
flash2.exe /u /L:LOGO.MOD

Reboot from your usbkey and enjoy.

As more people have success with this, I'm up for writing a more formal guide with link to everything required to get this to work.

-Mike

Leon · #47 Post by **Leon** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 10:59 pm

Thanks! We all really appreciate this.

EnsignRicki · #48 Post by **EnsignRicki** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:31 am

Thanks for all the info everyone. I didn't have a usb key or anything so I used a cdrw instead. It seemed to work just fine. Here's a pic of my cool new startup logo.

http://imagehost.5gigs.com/uploads/startup_logo.jpg

Chatbox · #49 Post by **Chatbox** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 11:42 pm

Here's my first real contribution to this forum.
I have a 100% software solution to this particular issue. You don't need a physical floppy disk, CDR/RW nor a USB key.

Two files to download:
1. Download Virtual Floppy Disk (VFD) from http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.zip.
2. Download the BIOS upgrade from IBM (the disk-less version).

NOTE: If your current BIOS is the same as the one you're downloading in Step 2, you'll need to downgrade your BIOS first before you continue.

Step 3: Unzip vfd.zip (from step 1) into a temporary directory. Or if you're lazy, unzip to the desktop will do.

Step 4: Double click on the IBM BIOS upgrade file (from step 2), then click Next, then accept the agreement and Next again. Go straight to step 5 (i.e. leave this running for now).

Step 5: Run vfdwin.exe (from step 3). The image file that you're going to use is from C:\Documents and Settings\[Your Username]\Local Settings\Temp\ In one of those directory, there's another sub directory containing the extracted files (from step 4). The size of the image file is 1440kB with .IMG extension. Select it and mount it. Viola, you now have a floppy disk drive with the files. NOTE: VFD is slightly buggy, if you can't see A: drive under My Computer, just type in A:\ in the Address Bar in explorer (it'll take you to A: drive).

Step 6: Copy your Logo.bmp (640x480, 16 colours Bitmap file) to A:\.

Step 7: Run logo.bat. You'll know if you're successful or not. The generated LOGO.MOD has to be less than 10kB.

Step 8: Edit lcreflsh.bat (from A:\) to contain "flash2.exe /u /L:LOGO.MOD" (without quotes). NOTE: lcreflsh.bat might be "read-only" so make sure it isn't, otherwise you can't save the edited version).

Step 9: Unmount A:\

Step 10: Continue with the BIOS update (i.e. clicking Next 4 times).

I hope this is useful for you guys. Let me know.

pat · #50 Post by **pat** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:15 am

will this work on an X40?

Leon · #51 Post by **Leon** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:29 am

Chatbox... haven't tried it yet, but THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your fine contribution!!!

Chatbox · #52 Post by **Chatbox** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:25 pm

pat wrote:will this work on an X40?

Yes, because it's 100% software based. All you need as storage is a harddrive (which you already have in your lappy...I hope. hehe).

One other thing: You might want to make a backup copy of the updated floppy image file after you've umounted it in step 9, because as you go on to Step 10, the image file is moved upon reboot. So, remember, if you want to save the floppy image, do it between Step 9 and 10.

pat · #53 Post by **pat** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 5:54 pm

Chatbox wrote: Step 4: Double click on the IBM BIOS upgrade file (from step 2), then click Next, then accept the agreement and Next again. Go straight to step 5 (i.e. leave this running for now).

what file do i click on? i downloaded the bios from here: http://graphics.stanford.edu/~mhouston/IBM/ibmbios.zip

G-Man · #54 Post by **G-Man** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 6:12 pm

Download it from here.

Regards,
G-Man

Chatbox · #55 Post by **Chatbox** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 7:08 pm

LoL...maybe I should have been more specific.

Download the BIOS update file from IBM's website, one that correspond to your particular model of ThinkPad.

pat · #56 Post by **pat** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 7:56 pm

does anyone recommend any tips on shrinking a bmp file? i have one i'd like to use thats 50 kb and when i run logo.bat, the mod file is 22 kb.

any tips?

EnsignRicki · #57 Post by **EnsignRicki** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:41 pm

Make the image smaller. I started out with mine at like 400 x 400 with a black background taking up the rest of the 640 x 480 canvas and ended up having to shrink it to 220 x 220 with a black background taking up the rest of the 640 x 680 canvas. I actually think the image looks better smaller than taking up the entire width of the screen.

synapse · #58 Post by **synapse** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 11:46 pm

I know this is a basic question but could somebody explain to me how to make a 16 color bmp in photoshop? All my images are HUGE file sizes. Thanks!

-Dan

Logi7 · #59 Post by **Logi7** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 3:07 am

i havent tried it yet

dunno if this will work... but

http://ds-labs.com/idx.jpg

EnsignRicki · #60 Post by **EnsignRicki** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 2:13 pm

Yes that does work. That's exactly what I did to convert my image to 16 colors.

One thing you want to keep in mind is that it doesn't matter what the file size of your finished bmp is. For me no matter what I did my 640x480 image was always 150 kB. That's just how bmp's are. What matters is how compressible that 150 kB image is. It has to be compressible to 10 kB. The more complex the image is the harder it is compress it effectively. For my image I am using the seal of the air force. Initially the dimensions of the seal was about 400 x 400 with the rest of 640 x 480 image being a black background. When I attempted to compress it using the logo.bat utility the resulting compressed logo.mod file was about 30 kB. So what I did was make the seal about 200 x 200 with the rest of the 640 x 480 being a black background. So basically I had the majority of the image as simple (black background) with a much smaller part of it complex (the seal). So when I compressed it again the logo.mod file came out to the required 10 kB. So basically you want to keep shrinking the main part of your image with respect to your simple background until you get a logo.mod file that is at the most 10 kB.

I hope I haven't been too confusing. Be glad to answer any question you might have about it.

Changing BIOS Boot Logo - IBM Thinkpad T41

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