How do I install custom BIOS on a T60

[sp5166]

Hello. I have a T60 and I want to upgrade the wifi card. This will need a custom BIOS that will erase the whitelist of the wifi cards. I got the iso file of the custom BIOS from somewhere but I don't know how to put the BIOS on my T60. (I tried Rufus but it won't work) Could anyone tell me how to? I do not have a CD so I can't burn the iso file on a CD. I do have USB drives though. I would prefer installing the BIOS on Windows by the way, but it doesn't have to be that way.

[RealBlackStuff]

Many of those older modded BIOSes don't play nice with USB sticks.
Go find a friend/computershop to burn the ISO on a CD for you, using e.g. Imgburn.

[ranixon]

Many of those older modded BIOSes don't play nice with USB sticks.
Go find a friend/computershop to burn the ISO on a CD for you, using e.g. Imgburn.

And how I burn it? I tried burning it with Brasero on Arch Linux, and ImgBurn and CDWinXP on Windows 10, and it never worked. I always have the same error "No valid operating system" (pic). This is how the CD looks (pic). It's necessary an special config or something else? I used my desktop burner (Sony Optiarc), should I use my thinkpad's burner?

I used this BIOS downloaded from thinkpad-forum.de.

Also tried using this method to install from a pendrive from thinkwiki, and get "Disk I/O error Replace the disk, and then press any key".

With a ch341a programmer to, and flashrom doesn't let me flash it because the custom BIOS it's 6214 bytes bigger.

[RealBlackStuff]

That burned CD seems to be missing the [BOOT] section.
Without it, you get the above errors.
Use the program 7-zip, rightclick the ISO, open it and check if you have that [BOOT].
https://www.7-zip.org/download.html

[ranixon]

Yes, it has [BOOT] section (pic). So, the problem is when I record it, right? What I should do?

[ranixon]

I can't burn the CD. In my Thinkpad's burner, using Windows 7 x64, I always have "calibration error". Unless there is a way to force or something the ch341a programmer or a burning software that's works, I'm done.

[Cigarguy]

It's not that difficult especially on this machine on this BIOS. Being that this is an older machine there are lots and lots of info on the interweb on how to create a boot CD. And on how to update BIOS/firmware from a CD. Booting from a USB may or may not work but it's not rocket science. There are only a few tools that I know of and have proven to work. If after some searching and it still doesn't work for you for some reason then yeah maybe it's time to give it up.

[ranixon]

Yes, I know. Most of the guides of "how to create a boot CD" are just "use this software and works" with no additional info. And other think that I believe that happen is a kind of Google bias because my main language is spanish and when I search something in english trays to force spanish result or throw me low quality english results (this happen a lot of times when I search Windows' BSOD error codes, Google gave a lot of websites that says "try this generic solution and, if not works, downloads this magical software that I make that would solve all your issues" and all of them are the same with an other colors).

My problem is not Google's fault, it just part of the problem. I have a others things to try, but I will wait that the quarantine finish in my country and try to buy a re writable CD.

I discovered that when I mount the BIOS ISO with WinCDEmu the [boot] section appears, I will try if is possible "copy" the mounted ISO to a CD like copy to two different physical CDs. I also have a friend with a T61 that will gave it to my to clean, upgrade and try to put the Middleton's BIOS on it, so I will try to use his CD burner in case that mine had a problem reading CDs.

Or maybe write the BIOS with de ch341a from Windows if this make any difference.

[RealBlackStuff]

Two months ago I suggested this:

Go find a friend/computershop to burn the ISO on a CD for you, using e.g. Imgburn.

And you still haven't tried that... (or use another CD/DVD drive).

[ranixon]

Two months ago I suggested this:

Go find a friend/computershop to burn the ISO on a CD for you, using e.g. Imgburn.

And you still haven't tried that... (or use another CD/DVD drive).

I tried the two that I have at home and they didn't work. I can't ask a friend to do something because I am in quarantine in my country and I can't go outside. I will do this things, when the quarantine is over.

[cadillacmike68]

Then you'll have to wait.

Do you have a system with win 7 or later? (vista might do this as well). All I do with an ISO I want to put on to a CD is right click the ISO file and select "Burn Image to disc" I made about 20 CDs/ DVDs last month. Had a couple bad discs, but otherwise no issues. I just lined up 3 or 4 T61s and used each one the make a different disc so it would go faster.

[shershen]

I had a very similar problem, though with the X61.
After spending a day trying to make Middleton BIOS ISO work from the USB, I opted out for following:

1. Retrieved Windows 7, 32-bit, ISO image
(it was 4th or 5th result from the top for "windows 7 iso image" Google search)
2. Downloaded WinToUSB, which runs under Windows, takes the ISO image from Step#1 and creates a bootable USB stick with Windows 7 on it
3. Uploaded Middleton BIOS `32-bit` folder with BIOS updater to another USB drive
4. Inserted Windows 7 stick into X1, changes bootup to USB drive in X61 BIOS
5. Once in Windows - inserted the USB with Middleton BIOS, opened the terminal and run WINUPTP.EXE

[ranixon]

Sorry for don't answer it, the problem was that the CD reader was faulty. I bought a new one and worked.