Thinkpads Forum

Hey all, I tried to update the BIOS for my T60 using lenovo's BIOS update utility, it was going fine until it everything stopped and it crashed to the desktop, it then started shutting down saying that "windows is updating".

However when it rebooted the screen went black and it made a series of beeps, Im not sure how many beeps I think it made around 4 beeps?

Now it wont turn on, when I press the power button all the lights flash briefly and then only the AC, battery and the z circle light turn on.

I'd appreciate any help in fixing this,

Thanks alot.

Unfortunately it sounds like you're going to need to replace you motherboard. Without it's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) it has no ability to boot. It is possible to reburn the bios chip and there are services that do this but they generally cost 2-3 times what a good T60 board costs. If you want a board I'd recommend contacting member "ajkula66", or if you're interested in upgrading to a T60p board that has a better graphic system, then I could help you.

I'm sorry I don't have better news for you but Lenovo didn't design any method of recovery from a failed bios flash.

ps. This is an extreme long-shot, but you might as well try removing the battery and ac power and cycling the power button ten times, holding for a few seconds each time and 30 seconds on the last, then reconnect power. If that doesn't help try removing the Cmos battery that is under the keyboard and repeat the steps, however I don't expect this will help.

Welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear about your difficulties... but a (albeit small) light in the dark is this forum; if there is anything you can do yourself, you will find help here.

First: Please be kind to report a bit more in detail what you did; e.g. updated the BIOS from within Windows, or using a bootable CD? If updating the BIOS from within Windows, the T60 would (if everything goes normal) first prepare the update, then do a reboot and then do the actual BIOS update. Afterwards - when the BIOS have been updated - the T60 would boot normal into Windows. How far did this go in your case?

Next: Please provide the precise beep codes... just saying that it made "some beeps" is unfortunately too imprecise (!). Reason for asking about the beep codes is that the beep-pattern will give you an indication of what's wrong as per Beep and no beep symptoms - ThinkPad General.

Third: If you are a bit technical, you could try download and burn (on another PC, obviously!) the bootable CD "Hiren's Boot-CD" (and boot into the miniXP environment) and try if your T60 will boot from this CD? A link to how-to download and burn this CD is found in the thread My HDD just died T42... see this post.

In the worst case (but we have not yet determined that we ARE at that point!), your motherboard will have to be replaced. If you are just a little bit technical you can do this on your own (with help from this forum!), or you can have someone friendly forum-member assist you; in the UK I'd highly suggest that you contact member poshgeordie who is running the small company Reflow Repairs - Laptop Repairs, Reballing, Graphics Repair, GPU Repairs. Nick is located in Newcastle upon Tyne.

An used but OK condition (standard) T60 motherboard can typically be found on eBay.de (and probably also on eBay.co.uk) for around €35 - €40.

Finally: Please provide us with the model/type number of your T60; it is printed on a label at the bottom... a four-digit number followed bu a three-character letter/character code (e.g. 2007-QPG). With this information, we may be able to help you with precise information about what motherboard your T60 has now, and what replacement motherboards may substitute this.

Johan