Thinkpads Forum

While flashing the BIOS to latest on my R61e with Windows 7 the flash hung and never recovered. After about 30 minutes I but the bullet and restarted the system and it won't come up. Battery and HDD LED's light up, fan runs but that uis it. Is there a BIOS reset pin on the mobo or a key combo that can get me well again? Can the BIOS chip be replaced? Any help would be greatly appreciated. BTW, I have taken this laptop apart before (upgraded the CPU) so am not averse to popping the top and working inside it.

Let me guess, Windows 7 64bit and you ran the flash from within Windows?
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=88052

Harryc wrote:Let me guess, Windows 7 64bit and you ran the flash from within Windows?
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=88052

You would be correct except it was 32 bit. Lenovo told me to pack sand.

My recommendation is to post your story and Lenovo's response at the following forum.
http://forums.lenovo.com/

Harryc wrote:My recommendation is to post your story and Lenovo's response at the following forum.
http://forums.lenovo.com/

I'll give it a shot, thanks. Oh well, had to happen sooner or later but it would be nice if I could simply pop a new CMOS in there.

I just noticed the BIOS repair sticky at the top of the forum. That would be another alternative. They charge $99.00 - $129.00 + Shipping.
http://www.aqstech.com/

Harryc wrote:I just noticed the BIOS repair sticky at the top of the forum. That would be another alternative. They charge $99.00 - $129.00 + Shipping.
http://www.aqstech.com/

Thanks Harry! I have emailed them with a short description and will let you know the results.

Today's Lesson:

Do not update the BIOS through Windows!

It seems super convenient to do so but there seems to be more chance in bricking your laptop. I can't imagine :knocks on wood: the sheer devastation I would go through if my T400 choked on bad BIOS updating! The warranty seems to cover these incidences but the wait time for repair and classes going on as usual would make my situation the proverbial monkey wrench!

EDIT:

BTW There is a new BIOS for the T400 and it says in the release notes that it fixes the brightness/sleep issue

emeraldgirl08 wrote:Today's Lesson:

Do not update the BIOS through Windows!

It seems super convenient to do so but there seems to be more chance in bricking your laptop. I can't imagine :knocks on wood: the sheer devastation I would go through if my T400 choked on bad BIOS updating! The warranty seems to cover these incidences but the wait time for repair and classes going on as usual would make my situation the proverbial monkey wrench!

EDIT:

BTW There is a new BIOS for the T400 and it says in the release notes that it fixes the brightness/sleep issue

YE[p, I know better too. I have flashed literally, 100's of BIOS but lenovo makes it so hard in that they don't offer a raw BIOS file like my desktops. I guess I'll use the ISO file from now on, if I can get this thing up and running. AQSTECH contacted me and said they can recover it for $99.

Merc wrote:AQSTECH contacted me and said they can recover it for $99.

Nice, let us know how they perform, and good luck.

Merc wrote:
BTW There is a new BIOS for the T400 and it says in the release notes that it fixes the brightness/sleep issue

YE[p, I know better too. I have flashed literally, 100's of BIOS but lenovo makes it so hard in that they don't offer a raw BIOS file like my desktops. I guess I'll use the ISO file from now on, if I can get this thing up and running. AQSTECH contacted me and said they can recover it for $99.[/quote]

I remember flashing the bios of my Asus Commando Motherboard. It had a really simple and easy interface in the bios settings for doing doing updates. It would be nice if the Thinkpads had something a little warmer in that department. I was really sweating when I did the bios upgrade a few days ago on my T60p.

Harryc wrote:Nice, let us know how they perform, and good luck.

I sent the R61e off on Thursday last and got a call Monday afternoon from Joe the owner. He had successfully flashed the last version of the BIOS but couldn't get the latest version to work. No worries, I told him, as the last version was stable (I know, why flash then? Lesson learned.). Joe also installed a new CPU heatsink/fan I had purchased at no additional cost since he was inside the thing already. Windows 7 was BSODing but I told him I'd take care of that.

He was reassembling and shipping the laptop back today so A+ for turnaround time. The price was $99.95 so A+ for cost and Joe was very, very informative so A+ for service. I'll let you know how it looks when I get it back but as of now AQSTech http://www.aqstech.com/ has my full and enthusiastic endorsement! This is a great service as the R61e was about to be cannibalized and thrown away but now I'll have a working machine again for $140 ($20 shipping each way).

Excellent, thanks for the report.

Last report. Laptop arrived back at the house to day and, except for the corrupted Windows 7 load which I told the tech I'd repair, it is functioning perfectly. One week turnaround and she is back up and running from what I thought was a trash bound machine.

Thanks for the follow-up.