Thinkpads Forum

1st time user of the Forum. Here is my problem w/ my Thinkpad T60:

BIOS upgrade for WIN 7 Ultimate 64-b Thinkpad T60 produces error when upgrading BIOS using upgrade utility 79uj34us.exe ver 2.27. Downloaded to desktop and launched, next followed instructions and selected OPTION "Upgrade Thinkpad BIOS". Next is error msg....what is going on? I need HELP pls.

Upgrading BIOS from within Windows is something I don't do. Just too many more opportunities for failure. Best is to burn ISO to CD and upgrade from CD.

Welcome to the forum!

Question: Do you have a T60 with the (legacy) 4:3 format LCD, or do youhave a widescreen-T60? In the latter case, you'll need the BIOS update utility - ThinkPad T60, T60p wide screen models. It would be helpful, if you could post here the specific model/type of your T60 (e.g. 2007-QPG... see the label at the bottom, or see the BIOS, if it is accessible?)

PS: Note what it says at the bottom of the below-mentioned link: " If Windows 7 or Vista 64-bit is already installed on your system, then you must use the bootable CD ISO format of this BIOS update."

As Cigarguy pointed out, the (by far!) safest method to update a BIOS is always to use a bootable CD.

Good luck, and keep us posted here with your progress.

Johan

ok ...maybe some help please. Do I download the iso version from the LENOVO web page for T60 and for W7U-64b?? Next write it to a DVD/CD and boot?? I tried this w/ another Thinkpad and ver and saw no boot files, went directly to HD and Windows OS. No problem booting w/ LINUX utilities that always work.

Not too clear on the LENOVO web site for instructions on updating BIOIS....is ther ea link that can be used somewhere??

have a great Lenovo day.. and thank you again

ok...here we go..can't believe I can't update BIOS. Should be a simple task. The BIOS Setup Utility indicates the following after depressing Blue Thinkpad at startup and selecting F1:

BIOS version: 1.11 (7IET30WW)
BIOS DATE (Y-M-D): 2007-07-13
EMBEDDED CONTROLLER VER: 1.07
SYS-UNIT-SERIAL NUMBER: 87414GUL3AC222
SYS BRD SERIAL NUMBER: VF16A7931KF
CPU TYPE: Intel Core 2 Duo T7200
CPU Speed: 2.00GHz
Installed Memory: 3072MB
UUID: fef1c201-4927-11cb-a749-9a278b694946
MAC ADDR: 00 !A 6B CD 61 AC

Bottom Sticker:

PROD ID: 87414GU
S/N: L3-AC222 06/12
TYPE: 8741-4GU

Is this a "wide screen" model???

Lets try this update thing one-more time. I am doing this for an exercise only. Next we sort out my CBS and DISM logs w/ errors which I partially succeeded in understanding so that Updates can now occur.

have a Happy Lenovo day.. ...appreciate all your assistance

Is this a "wide screen" model???

87414GU

According to the MTM lookup:

T7200(2GHz), 1GB RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HD, 15.4in 1680x1050 LCD, 128MB ATI Radeon X1400, CDRW/DVD, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Bluetooth/Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

Yup, it's widescreen.

Download the ISO from here: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/migr-67020
Use a program like ImgBurn from: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn the ISO on a CD
Make sure you have both a charged battery installed and the charger connected.
Boot from that CD to update the BIOS.
- at boot time immediately hit F12 to show bootable items
- select ATAPI CD0: xxxxx
- hit Enter
- update BIOS
- when done, reboot and remove the CD before the restart.

I am using file 7iuj17uc.iso...burned it to a DVD using ImgBurn...burned 100s of iso files so pretty simple. Next rebooted and now the famous MSDOS headache.....an error reading the CDR. Error is a as follows..

CDR101: Not ready reading drive C: Abort, Retry, Fail

This is probably a bad command.com. Another machine stated Bad Command Interpreter. The output says I am using MSCDEX Ver 2.23, Drive C: = Driver TPCD001 unit 0

Take away.....has anybody successfully used the CD Boot file to update an IBM Lenovo T60 with installed Win 7U 64b?

Thank you so much for everybody's help and input. Great Forum. My T60 is running BIOS 1.11. Battery just died so really can't update BIOS until next week. Let me take a breather on this unbelievable experience trying to update my T60 BIOS

Have a great weekend and enjoy Spring.

When you are ready again with another battery, remove the HD/SSD before you start. (It shouldn't matter but you never know...)
Also, your DVD/CD drive may be faulty.
Have you tried making the CD in another machine?

abro89 wrote:
Take away.....has anybody successfully used the CD Boot file to update an IBM Lenovo T60 with installed Win 7U 64b?

Yes. The OS that is installed has no bearing on the update as long as you're running it from the CD.

Make sure that the option of BIOS update by end user is enabled in BIOS as well.

Good luck.

SOLVED.....DVD/CD FIRMWARE Incompatible w/ MS-DOS CD Driver (MSCDEX Ver 2.23)

HITACHI-LG DATA STORAGE, DVD WRITEABLE/ CD- RW Drive Model GSA-4083N. FRU P/N: 39T2679 ASM P/N: 39T2678 REV: 201 will not boot using Bootable CD w/ 7iuj17uc.iso.

I replaced DVD/CD device w/ another Thinkpad T60 equivalent and BINGO.....able to read from this new DVD/CD unit. Next installed BIOS 1.19 in my T60. Very smooth update using rather "old MS-DOS " box images but very functional.

Interesting is the fact that the HITACHI device DOES boot for all my LINUX utilities...dah!!!!!!!. Must try old Dr-DOS DVD/CD driver in my spare time. COMMAND/COM seems to be lurking for investigation.

Thx for all input and help. Great FORUM and helpful people

abro89

abro89 wrote:SOLVED.....DVD/CD FIRMWARE Incompatible w/ MS-DOS CD Driver (MSCDEX Ver 2.23)
Very smooth update using rather "old MS-DOS " box images but very functional.

I've noticed some of the external drives can just become faulty and unreliable over time; so it's possible it's just simply defective and not a manner of which manufacturer it is.

The particular DOS interface is derived from IBM's PS/2 line of computers which they re-used for the ThinkPad utilities.

Just a quick note to respectfully disagree with the bootable CD method being safer. I've flashed hundreds of T6x series laptops and the only time I destroyed a motherboard was using the boot disc. Normally I use a 32bit windows version installed on a harddrive I use for testing. As long as windows is stable, I've never had a problem, but the time I had a failure I used the boot disc and as soon as I started the flash I could hear the telltale signs of a disc not reading, spinning down and back up, then the hitting "retry", and eventually after about 20 minutes I got the message it completed and was left with a dead useless laptop.

My advice is if using the boot disc and burning with IMGburn, be sure to verify the burn and after it's complete use the "compare" option to compare the burned disc to the .iso image. This redundant step will confirm the disc is not only burned correctly, but can also be read. Also use the slowest burn speed your hardware supports.

Of course everyone has their own opinion of what is best and I can't say my way is best, but I do like to stick with what works.