Thinkpads Forum

Can I use the middleton BIOS update on my T61 7658? Thanks!

To be as succinct as possible... Yes

I assume that it will also work on the T61 8100. Can someone point me to a step by step install guide?

Many thanks.

In a nutshell: Burn the .iso to a disc, leave it in the drive, and reboot the machine with a charged battery and AC adapter connected to power. I'd also remove any external peripherals before the reboot. Any flash is risky, even if you dot all the i's and cross the t's, so know for certain that you will make use of the new functionality before you do it.

Well, I have a T61 T8100 with 4GB or ram running win 7 64. I just purchased a 120GB Intel 330 SSD, so I'd really like Sata II. Where is the latest ISO? Also read something about a fix or mod for fan control. Is this something that I should be using as well?

Many thanks.

-North

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ost6501443

http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/donate.html

If you have a drive with 32bit windows installed you can update the bios from within windows. The CDrom boot disc works well as long as your disc and drive are good. I've done well over 100 middleton bios updates on T61 series and the ONLY one to fail was with a boot disc. I now do them all from within windows (32bit). I have a hdd with testing software and the bios update app on it and all you have to do is "right click" on the "winuptp.exe" file and "run as administrator". As long as you have a stable system you'll be fine, but keep in mind if the update doesn't complete, your system won't be able to boot and there is no recovery system for a failed bios flash other then to replace or repair the board.

Which option you select is a matter of opinion, I'm not saying the boot disc is a bad option, just letting you know it's not the only option.

I created a bootable CD, and attempted the upgrade. I got an error that the "flash over LAN was disabled on this client" I was able to enable LAN updating over the network, but now the update failed because I'm using WIN 7 Enterprise and a apparently this BIOS wont upgrade with bitlocker driver protection. Appears that I have to disable it before the bios update. Any suggestions?

Go into the BIOS and enable it there.

I had to go into the Bios menue to enable "Network Bios Updates", and then turn off Bitlocker AND TPM. Both needed to be turned off. The Middleton Bios loaded fine after that. The machine is very fast now.

Thanks for your help.

I do have one more questions. The bios kit came with a ctrl/alt swap feature in one of the versions. Is this a permanent swap, or user changeable though the bios. I would like to change it, but want to be able to go back.

As noted on Middleton's download page:

CTRL-FN swap is optional. Each BIOS package contains two versions of the patch.
You can select the version without CTRL-FN swap.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ost6501443

The cntl/fn swap is NOT user selectable in the bios, it can be switched back and forth only by reflashing the bios, with all risks included, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you want it to stay that way.