Thinkpads Forum

Hi

I decided to upgrade the CPU in my T61 from a T7300 to a T9300. I haven't installed it as I wanted to change to Middleton's BIOS first. I burned the ISO to a CD, but I now think the disc was bad. When it booted from CD, it started the flash without me prompting it. Eventually it gave one long beep, said Done and rebooted. Then Vista wouldn't finish starting: it would blue screen and then reboot. So I attempted to reflash it using a known good BIOS disc. Unfortunately, after choosing '2. Update system program', it is now stuck at the main menu screen.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can un-brick it please?

Welcome to the forum!

If you remove the CD, can you enter BIOS by pressing F1 on boot?

Yes, I can get into the BIOS Setup utility. It says version 2.29 2011-03-18, which is the Middleton one.

Burn a "live" Linux CD such as Ubuntu or Mint and try booting from it.

I don't think that you've "bricked" the machine. Might be a different issue. A bad BIOS flash will normally give a blank screen without access to anything.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks, I'll give it a try and report back.

Since F1 works, check one thing in your BIOS settings:
Config > Serial ATA (SATA)

If the setting is Compatibility change to ACHI
If ACHI change to Compatibility
Save (F10) and reboot - you may get past the blue screen.

The BIOS flash might have changed your SATA setting so it doesn’t match the setting in place when Windows was installed.

Your description of Middleton BIOS flash sequence is the same as I remember. A bit scary the first time.

I managed to boot into ubuntu off a cd so you are right ajkula66, it was not a bad flash after all.
Turns out all I had to do was change the SATA mode from AHCI to compatibility as 91011 said.

Massive thanks to both of you!