T60 dead after bios 2.01 update

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weismic · #1 Post by **weismic** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 8:31 am

I've got a serious problem now.

Yesterday i upgraded my ThinkPad T60 (2007-63G) with the newest bios version 2.01 from my old 1.11
The procedure was without complications. Everything was ok. After upgrading, the programm told me that it is required to restart the computer. And thats what I did finally or unfortunately.
Thinkpad restarted and freezes at the splash screen.
After 10min waiting, I hold the power button until my thinkpad should turn off. Even this didnt work.
Now i had no choice to disconnect the thinkpad from the power cord and detach the battery.
After reconnecting everything, my T60 was not reacting to anything. Until I press the power button my Thinkpad even dont start up. I can hear no fan or harddisk. The only thing which I can recognize until I press the power button is that Im able to open my DVD-Drive. It gets power. But it is absolutetly impossible to switch off again the T60 after recognizing that my thinkpad gots power. The only way to be able to turn it off is to detach the battery.
I have absolutely no idea what went wrong.
My only idea why this happend is maybe, coz during upgrading, my thinkpad was attached at the Advanced Dock. Maybe this was the fault why my ThinkPad had troubles. I have no other ideas what else should be wrong coz during bios upgrade, everything finished without problems.

On Monday, I will have no choice to call IBM/Lenovo for support and put it into warranty and wait several weeks

DAH · #2 Post by **DAH** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 8:44 am

The instructions tell you to remove the T60 from the dock. But did you allow your device to restart, or did you do it? This upgrade was suppose to be a two step event, after the first programing, it does it again, to upgrade the embedded controller, it sounds as if you may have turned off your IBM too soon.

DAH

#3 Post by **RonS** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 11:14 am

You're playing with sharp knives when upgrading the BIOS. It's really important (on any computer, not just Thinkpads) to follow the directions exactly. Charged battery, undocked, etc.

weismic · #4 Post by **weismic** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 11:45 am

I did let my device to reboot. Programm asked me to reboot and i pressed "yes". After reboot, ThinkPad Splash Screen appeared and nothing more happened after 10min waiting.
After that i tried to turn off my ThinkPad coz my oppinion was, my T60 freez and there fore i disconnected it from dock, from power cord and from my FULL charged battery.
After that, my Thinkpad is now dead. Even no information light lid up. Even the LED wont lid up which indicates that power cord is attached...

My personal oppinion... the only fault i had done was maybe not deattaching my Thinkpad from the dock.

perry_78 · #5 Post by **perry_78** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:04 pm

There you have the reason for the failed flash.

If I were you, I would not stress the fact that you failed to follow instructions when sending it in to lenovo, as it would be regarded as a user error.

Otherwise, I'm not sure how easy it is to replace a bios chip on the lenovo mainboard..

weismic · #6 Post by **weismic** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:23 pm

in fact, they wont replace the bios chip, they will replace the whole mainboard in case of time consumption.
For them its cheapier to replace the whole board instead "soldering" around the board.

own6volvos · #7 Post by **own6volvos** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 6:52 pm

weismic wrote:in fact, they wont replace the bios chip, they will replace the whole mainboard in case of time consumption.
For them its cheapier to replace the whole board instead "soldering" around the board.

Chances are the bios chip is wave soldered to the board w/o a socket. They might have an assembly that presses against the pins, and forces a flash externally though.

aswas · #8 Post by **aswas** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 11:34 am

Here's the story on this one.

Weismic - You didn't do anything wrong. This is a BAD bios update. It killed our T60p last night too. And we stumbled upon this board when trying to find out what was going on, only to read your post and have our jaws drop.

We've been trying to get our local IBM authorised fixer-upper to fix this as it's under warranty, and it's one of our main machines, so whatever is the quickest way to get this done, it needs to be done.

Here's what we found out:
There's about 13 different types of motherboard used in the T60 series, this bad BIOS update only affects certain motherboards, and those motherboards are back ordered with all the suppliers that deal with warranty items. This is a widespread issue.

corymcnutt · #9 Post by **corymcnutt** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:35 pm

aswas wrote:Here's the story on this one.

Weismic - You didn't do anything wrong. This is a BAD bios update. It killed our T60p last night too. And we stumbled upon this board when trying to find out what was going on, only to read your post and have our jaws drop.

We've been trying to get our local IBM authorised fixer-upper to fix this as it's under warranty, and it's one of our main machines, so whatever is the quickest way to get this done, it needs to be done.

Here's what we found out:
There's about 13 different types of motherboard used in the T60 series, this bad BIOS update only affects certain motherboards, and those motherboards are back ordered with all the suppliers that deal with warranty items. This is a widespread issue.

When did this bios update come out? I am suppose to be getting mine on Monday...will it already have the new bios in it? I sure don't want to upgrade it my board is one of the "bad" ones!

Cory

stephenaron · #10 Post by **stephenaron** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:12 pm

I too think it wrecked my machine. I sent it back to IBM and now have it back. Seems to work. T60p...2007-84U

aswas · #11 Post by **aswas** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:29 pm

I think that Bios came out on the 29th of October.

steveg47 · #12 Post by **steveg47** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 9:08 pm

Where can one download the previous good bios which I believe was 1.09 . Does Lenovo have a download site (ftp, etc) with older versions???

pianowizard · #13 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 9:20 pm

aswas wrote:Weismic - You didn't do anything wrong. This is a BAD bios update.

In that case, thousands of T60's must have been destroyed in the last few days! I think from now on I will wait for at least a month after the latest BIOS is released before installing it.

christopher_wolf · #14 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 9:27 pm

pianowizard wrote:
aswas wrote:Weismic - You didn't do anything wrong. This is a BAD bios update.
In that case, thousands of T60's must have been destroyed in the last few days! I think from now on I will wait for at least a month after the latest BIOS is released before installing it.

Dear lord...Think of the posts. The stickies that have to be posted in the forums. Think of the cleanup.

Does anybody know the part numbers of the planars that are affected?

Puppy · #15 Post by **Puppy** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 7:36 am

I never do any firmware updates unless there is serious problem to resolve it by the update. I have terrible experiences with BIOS and other firmware updates (dead motherboards etc).

T60 dead after bios 2.01 update

T60 dead after bios 2.01 update

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