Thinkpads Forum

I'm about ready to flash soon. Want to know where to download, the best written instructions and also what kind of problems might happen? I understand it unlocks the SATAII capability of my T61 but what are potential problems i.e., things that may no longer function? Any caveats to the installation itself or the process i.e. loss of HDD, supervisor passwords etc.? Thanks in advance.

LemarAntwanJackson wrote: Want to know where to download, the best written instructions

Download, discussion and other stuff here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ution.html

but what are potential problems i.e., things that may no longer function? Any caveats to the installation itself or the process i.e. loss of HDD, supervisor passwords etc.? Thanks in advance.

Well, a BIOS flash gone wrong leaves one with a door stopper of a laptop...nothing else really matters and everything else will be functional after a successful update... This applies to *any* BIOS flash, not just Middleton's...

ajkula66 wrote:

LemarAntwanJackson wrote: Want to know where to download, the best written instructions

Download, discussion and other stuff here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ution.html

but what are potential problems i.e., things that may no longer function? Any caveats to the installation itself or the process i.e. loss of HDD, supervisor passwords etc.? Thanks in advance.

Well, a BIOS flash gone wrong leaves one with a door stopper of a laptop...nothing else really matters and everything else will be functional after a successful update... This applies to *any* BIOS flash, not just Middleton's...

Re: T61/X61 SATA II 1.5 GB/s cap - willing to pay for a solution

Thanks, I read a thread on the first page:

"Mark's explanation sounds a lot more believable than what I thought was the "company line." I mean Lenovo capped it in order to save power.






Quote Originally Posted by Mark in that explanation from the Lenovo forums

Current Lenovo drives have firmware set to 1.5 Gb/s data rates.

Exchanging these drives for after-market drives which support SATA bus of 3.0 Gb/s should provide for the higher data rate at the overall system level
That's a new wrinkle for all Thinkpad users, not just 61 generation users So my Thinkpad's original hard drive had the same (barely noticeable) cap. Oh well, at least I don't want to worry about that. The 7K200 has been relegated to my UltraBay.

Did Lenovo ever offer the T or X61 with a SSD as default? If so I guess they would have to have a firmware flash. I just doubt a 2007-08 era SSD (besides the original X-25M and Lenovo only used Samsungs back then) would saturate the SATA 1 speeds. Ok, the people who need this are also bringing their own SSDs to the party anyway "

It seems like Lenovo said the cap is not written in the BIOS but the stock HDD. If one replaced it with an aftermarket drive the cap would be lifted as non-Lenovo drives don't have such a cap. Then why are we installing hacked BIOS'????????????????

LemarAntwanJackson wrote:

Did Lenovo ever offer the T or X61 with a SSD as default?

No. Never.

It seems like Lenovo said the cap is not written in the BIOS but the stock HDD. If one replaced it with an aftermarket drive the cap would be lifted as non-Lenovo drives don't have such a cap. Then why are we installing hacked BIOS'????????????????

Lenovo never said any such thing...and you're welcome to test the transfer speeds with a non-Lenovo drive and see where you get...