Thinkpads Forum

Hey Everyone. I hope you can help with this one. I have a T60 with Vista 64 bit loaded for the last 2 weeks. Worked fine until a few days ago I attepmted to upgrade the BIOS. It uninstalled the old version and started to write the new when the machine froze and just sat there. Now the machine's a brick. I was hoping someone could tell me how I can write, restore or repair the BIOS without having to replace the Mother Board. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Well have you removed all power? The battery and the AC adapter? Then tried restarting the system? You might try using a CD install, instead of from a 64 bit OS.

If it will not start, then your best bet is IBM, IMHO. There are ways of re-programing the BIOS, but if you have to ask they are beyond you.

Thanks for the reply. I have tried everything including removing all power and rebooting. The problem is I can't use the OS or a Bootable CD because the machine won't get past POST. No errors or even a flicker of the monitor. From my limited knowledge that would be because the bios isn't loading the necessary drivers to make all the peripheral drives and ports work. You are correct in stating the process for reprogramming the BIOS chip are way over my head. I will check the Blog you mentioned and see if I can glean some information from that source. Thanks a lot.

This is a very interesting and informative resource that I'm happy I found. I'm just sorry my Thinkpad had to go south to find you guys.

You must have followed the procedure on the bios upgrade as recommended by IBM and it should proceed smoothly. It was not.

Would you be able to tell me the original bios version and the embedded controller version in your machine? I suspect the problem lies in the conflict between the current bios version and the older embeded controller version you have in your machine. My bios version is 1.10 and the embedded controller is 1.05b(the current version is 1.07). I don't think you can upgrade the embedded controller. If you can tell your original bios version I can trace the controller version.

I am about to upgrade my bios as well, I don't want to fall into the same situation you are in. Any advice anyone?.

thanks.

Is this T60 still under a maintenance contract? If yes, and you followed proper procedures to update the BIOS, and it failed, it is eligible for warranty repair. Call Lenovo.

ttan98 wrote:I don't think you can upgrade the embedded controller.

For T6x models, the BIOS and Embedded Controller are updated at the same time by the same utility.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Just wondering, did you update the bios via the bootable CD or directly from the HD? For the T61 bios update, it said to use bootable CD for Vista 64.

bill bolton wrote: For T6x models, the BIOS and Embedded Controller are updated at the same time by the same utility.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Technically this is incorrect. The same program will upgrade both if needed but it upgrades the embedded controller as a separate final step.

ttan98 wrote: I suspect the problem lies in the conflict between the current bios version and the older embedded controller version you have in your machine. My bios version is 1.10 and the embedded controller is 1.05b(the current version is 1.07). I don't think you can upgrade the embedded controller. If you can tell your original bios version I can trace the controller version.

The BIOS upgrades include the ability to reflash the embedded controller, both as an upgrade and as a downgrade. REMOVED ANY BIOS PASSWORD AS A FIRST STEP!! I can't stress that enough, if you attempt to flash a BIOS with a password it will fail.

IMHO flashing from a CD is safest. But flashing from a 32 bit OS works ok, if everything else is shut down first.

I find posties here are very friendly and knowledgeable(unlike the Dell forum who are more concern with getting the latest model of Dell laptop at the same time not very friendly), thanks
to everyone.

I will give a try. I am flashing from window xp pro, 32 bit with no bios password, i should be ok then.

cheers.

This is the second failed BIOS upgrade on a T60 that I have heard about the last few days. Despite hearing this I proceeded with my T60p BIOS upgrade to version 2.17. My upgrade completed successfully.

I wonder if there is a problem?

Brad[

well, my t60p is at the moment at IBM. I did such an update in windows to get 2.17 but it stopped, the system froze, nothing happened. After half an hour I made a hard reset and the computer was dead.
I am allways saying to other people: never touch a running system, and myself??. I am so stupid, because there was no need for an update, just the wish to have the newest bios.

I think I learned my lessons:

update only, if it is really necessary
allways update with the boot version, never do it within windows

strohscw wrote:well, my t60p is at the moment at IBM. I did such an update in windows to get 2.17 but it stopped, the system froze, nothing happened. After half an hour I made a hard reset and the computer was dead.
I am allways saying to other people: never touch a running system, and myself??. I am so stupid, because there was no need for an update, just the wish to have the newest bios.

I think I learned my lessons:

update only, if it is really necessary
allways update with the boot version, never do it within windows

did you try update from window vista or xp pro?

I tried to update from within XP Pro.

I have Windows XP SP2 fully patched.

My update was within Windows. I watched as about 29 blocks of data were read and written.

Brad

I tried the update from the bootable CD. I followed the instructions on the website but it failed, so Lenovo is going to replace my MB under warranty service. I don't remember which version was loaded on the T60 before I tried the upgrade. I'll be more observant next time and I want to thank everyone for your feedback. It was very valuable and enlightening.

Well in the last two weeks I have under Vista Ultimate 32 bit hard drive method, gone from 79ETD6WW (2.16) to 79ETD7WW (2.17) to 79ET67WW (1.11) to 79ET62WW (1.07) to 79ETD7WW (2.17) I've watched it update 29 blocks of my BIOS and then an additional 2 blocks for the embedded control after a pause on each of the last four flashings. My unit has been flashed at least twenty plus times, and I've not had to return it to the factory. It has had every BIOS released on it and a few that where not released.

DAH wrote: REMOVED ANY BIOS PASSWORD AS A FIRST STEP!! I can't stress that enough, if you attempt to flash a BIOS with a password it will fail.

How is this so? I've never removed my bios password before flashing and it has never failed.

acasto wrote:

DAH wrote: REMOVED ANY BIOS PASSWORD AS A FIRST STEP!! I can't stress that enough, if you attempt to flash a BIOS with a password it will fail.

How is this so? I've never removed my bios password before flashing and it has never failed.

Don't confuse the BIOS password with the HDD password.

clarksonknights wrote:

acasto wrote:

I have routinely flashed 3 T60s and 1 R60 using System Update within Windows XP. At least a dozen times total across these four laptops. All four have a power on password set (not HDD) which I have never removed prior to the flash. Never had a problem (yet).

I have updated my T61 with the last 2 bios updates via a boot CD with both a Power-On and HD password enabled.

The steps do say this...

Remove the Power-on password prior to updating the BIOS in RDM (Remote Deployment Manager) environment or similar environment.

But one thing it does say to do is to remove the system from a dock prior to flashing the bios.

clarksonknights wrote: Don't confuse the BIOS password with the HDD password.

Why would you assume I was talking about the HDD password?

For those with failed BIOS update:

Try looking at this

Though you need the ThinkPad's BIOS in order to use it and I can't find any suitable. I succeeded in dumping something using WinPhlash, the only problem is - it does not know how much data to dump and thus wants to know from me. And I don't know how much. Anyone here?

(I'm researching on this topic as I plan on installing WWAN card meant for T61 into my T60 and suppose I'm gonna have to alter miniPCI cards whitelist; and I would like to be sure I won't brick my machine)