Thinkpads Forum

With all the ThinkPad smarts out there, someone's gotta know this...

I will be the first to admit that I'm picky when it comes to the label on some of my hardware. Case in point: I really can't stand the ugly Lenovo logo sticker on my T61, nor the equally ugly Lenovo-branded splash screen I get on startup.

I've already got the casing stickers covered by the simple expedient of ordering IBM-colored replacements from one of the many Ebay sellers offering such.

The next step is the bootup splash screen. I want the original, color-striped IBM ThinkPad image, but have not been able to (as yet) locate the correct file for said image.

Does anyone happen to have a copy of this?

In unrelated news -- I ordered the Advanced Dock last night, plus some extra memory and a widget that I hadn't even known about until I went digging on NewEgg. It's a module for the expansion bay (goes in where the DVD drive is) that provides a serial and parallel port. Very handy for those of us who need a hardware RS232 port that doesn't depend on a USB connection.

Thanks much.

Hi

There is a solution , step by step guide is on site http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_ch ... ash_screen
I hope this helps

Regards
mancymonek

mancymonek wrote:Hi

There is a solution , step by step guide is on site http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_ch ... ash_screen
I hope this helps

Regards
mancymonek

Thank you. Finding the instructions to do so is not what I was having the problem with. The issue was finding the actual file for the IBM splash-screen image vs. the terminally-ugly Lenovo one.

HOWEVER -- It did occur to me that I may be able to extract it from one of those older T4x series BIOS files. I will see if this is possible.

In the meantime -- if anyone else has that splash image available, it would save much effort.

Keep the peace(es).

Looking forward to see the final result (did you manage to locate IBM image logo yet); since I got a T60 and as well would like to replace the Lenovo logo with the IBM.

1400 x 1050:


1024 x 768:

Andrew, those images wont work. The images need to be 16 color 640x480 and in BMP (4 Bit/pixel VGA palette) format - very specific, and it won't work otherwise.

This is from T30's BIOS...
ibm_logo.bmp
ibm_logo_orig.bmp - it was there this way

Edit: Hmm, but these are 8bit/pixel and actual color use shows it has 32 colors (5bit), so it can't be reduced to 4bit in a lossless way. This is letterboxed to 640x480 and reduced to 4bit: ibm_logo_hope.bmp

My deepest thanks to Zender for posting the 640 x 480 x 4 bitmap of the IBM splash screen. With a little tweaking in Fireworks, and subsequent re-conversion to 4-bit color in IRFANView, I'm happy to say that I now have a fully customized BIOS splash screen WITHOUT the plug-ugly Lenovo logo.

There's nothing really fancy about it... All I did was add some text that ID's who the thing belongs to, and my phone number. It helps greatly that the original splash had a black background. Yellow text shows up really well against it.

Anyway... Yes, this process really does work. Now, if I could just find an IBM-branded LED overlay label for the bottom part of the screen housing...

Keep the peace(es).

Can you share your boot splash image (obv. w/o your info etc)? I'd love to have it in my T60.

I, as well, would like the boot screen, kind sir.

OK... For those who wanted to know, here's a pair of links to the splash screen work I've done. This first one is simply the original IBM-logo'd screen that I started with.

http://www.bluefeathertech.com/pics/ibm_orig.bmp

This one is the same screen with my modifications. The initial text insertion editing was done in MacroMedia's 'Fireworks' package. The final editing, including shuffling the position of the IBM logo and my text, was done in IRFANView.

http://www.bluefeathertech.com/pics/ibm_mod.bmp

The repositioning of the logo, and my text, was required to accommodate the fact that the T61 pops up a Lenovo logo in the upper right of the screen, and some sort of other logo vertically along the right margin. Moving everything a bit to the left took care of things nicely.

MINOR UPDATE, 31-May-08: I just noticed that my silly question at the bottom of that screen ('Got Qwoob?') doesn't show up. I think I made the font too big, the position too low, or both.

Happy tweaking.

Nice mods.

kc7gr wrote:Now, if I could just find an IBM-branded LED overlay label for the bottom part of the screen housing...

There was never an IBM-branding on the LED overlay, it simply did not have "Lenovo" written on it, it was blank (apart from the model name and the LEDs).

Tried to download your logos but your site seems to be down. I hope this is not permanent, I really want to do this mod too. Also great idea about putting name/number on bios splash, I wish I did that with my old T43 (stolen, but BIOS/HDD passworded, likely in a ditch somewhere when the thief gave up on it).

Regards,

Ross..

Amigaman wrote:

kc7gr wrote:Now, if I could just find an IBM-branded LED overlay label for the bottom part of the screen housing...

There was never an IBM-branding on the LED overlay, it simply did not have "Lenovo" written on it, it was blank (apart from the model name and the LEDs).

Tried to download your logos but your site seems to be down. I hope this is not permanent, I really want to do this mod too. Also great idea about putting name/number on bios splash, I wish I did that with my old T43 (stolen, but BIOS/HDD passworded, likely in a ditch somewhere when the thief gave up on it).

Regards,

Ross..

Hi, Ross. I doubt that it's down. What I do note is that you're in Oz, and I've had to be pretty strict with our IP address blocklist for that part of the world due to spamming, port probes, and other abuse.

HOWEVER -- I also have the ability to 'whitelist' anything from a single address to an entire subnet. So... If you can give me some idea of what address range you're trying to come in from, I will punch a hole in the shielding for you.

Happy tweaking.

crashnburn wrote:Nice mods.

Thank you. I'm fairly pleased with how it worked out.

If you're so enamoured with the past and afraid of change, you should have used this one.

Hi,

kc7gr wrote:
Hi, Ross. I doubt that it's down. What I do note is that you're in Oz, and I've had to be pretty strict with our IP address blocklist for that part of the world due to spamming, port probes, and other abuse.

HOWEVER -- I also have the ability to 'whitelist' anything from a single address to an entire subnet. So... If you can give me some idea of what address range you're trying to come in from, I will punch a hole in the shielding for you.

A lot of spamming, probing and abuse does come out of Asia e.g China, but I'm surprised you're finding Australia to be so bad too..!
Spam/Abuse reports to Australian ISPs, do usually get followed up.

I'm connected via a very large ISP here (www.optusnet.com.au), and we don't get static IP addresses. The address range I am on is: 211.28.0.0 - 211.31.255.255

If you prefer, I can PM you my IP address (it generally will not change even though it is dynamic) or my e-mail address..

Thanks,

Ross..

Amigaman wrote:Hi,

(snippage)

A lot of spamming, probing and abuse does come out of Asia e.g China, but I'm surprised you're finding Australia to be so bad too..!
Spam/Abuse reports to Australian ISPs, do usually get followed up.

I'm connected via a very large ISP here (www.optusnet.com.au), and we don't get static IP addresses. The address range I am on is: 211.28.0.0 - 211.31.255.255

If you prefer, I can PM you my IP address (it generally will not change even though it is dynamic) or my e-mail address..

Thanks,

Ross..

That would probably work best, as I'm reluctant to whitelist four entire /16's from the 211 subnet. Believe it or not, I've seen a fair amount of spammer spew from Optus IP ranges in times past, and notifications to Optus seem not to have much effect.

Thanks much.

pappcam wrote:If you're so enamoured with the past and afraid of change, you should have used this one.

Gad... I didn't even know that one existed. Which system is that?

In any case... I'm not "afraid" of change at all, as long as said change has a real benefit. I just happen to think that Lenovo makes butt-ugly logos.

As for being "enamoured" with the past, well... You won't get much argument from me there. To my mind, the absolute best technology is that which does not forget the lessons of the past, but takes advantage of what the future can bring.

Unfortunately, today's world of electronics seems to have too fscking little of the former, and way too much of the latter.

Keep the peace(es).

Sorry to revive an ancient thread, but...

Does anyone still have the original BIOS boot splash images from that T30 or any other pre-2005 machine? I can make a new one approximately like the old logo of course... but it would be even more neat to have the actual original. All the links above are long gone.

Or does someone here know how to extract it from a machine/BIOS upgrade image somehow? I grovelled through the files and didn't see anything embedded in the upgrade images I checked.

Your links deliver a 404 error.
I don't recall a link but there's a Russian site that has wallpaper and other media that was included on various IBM and Lenovo models.
I know it's referenced somewhere on this site but don't recall the thread.

The site you are thinking of is probably this one (but no BIOS splashes there):

http://www.mocom.ru/Wallpapers/ibm.htm