Thinkpads Forum

Was going to buy a docking station for my X61s, then read that BIOS updates are
not possible from the drive in the docking station - is that true, why?

I'm considering this, anyone tried it, will it likely work?
StarTech SLMSOPTB USB to Slimline CD/DVD Optical Drive Black External Enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I'll buy it and try it if no one responds but thought I'd ask first.

it might be the opposite...? I seem to recall the last/final time I updated BIOS on my x61t, it didn't like ANY external CD/DVD drives. (this was .............. years ago .............. , so, my memory may be out.)

last time I tried/succeeded, was a middleton-fixed-for-SLIC-v2.1/win7 x61t bios. from what I recall, I had to extract the actual .exe loader from the Lenovo blob, and install the bios binary from freeDOS.

literal instructions I used to create the multi-boot USB flash drive I still use to this day:

https://black-pixel.net/bootable-usb-st ... -ubcd.html

I also use bootable USB flash-drives to update X61/X61s/X61t BIOS.
I create them using Rufus from http://rufus.akeo.ie/

Finally got a SAMSUNG USB 2.0 (3.0 Compatible) External DVD Writer Model SE-208GB/RSBD
burned the iso to CD and tried to boot from the CD over USB.
It tries to boot, I'm able to setup the boot in CMOS to CD on USB but it gives
me an error message. First it says "IBM IDE CD-ROM Driver Version 3.20"
Then "Driver was NOT installed . CD-ROM drive NOT found"
I suppose this is because there is no IDE drive.

Then it reports:
device driver not found: TPCD001
No valid CDROM device drivers selected
Bad command or file name

OK, perhaps the ISO is bootable for an IDE type CD ROM not one on a USB so I'd
guess that I have to find a USB CD-ROM device driver. But is this DOS? What is
the OS for this flash program? I'll look into it a bit more.

The odd thing is that once it boots I do get an A> if I do a ver it reports IBM DOS
Version 5.00. So it seems that I have to find a USB CD driver for DOS if such a
thing exists. Don't know how the OS got loaded without a driver.

I'll try a USB flash drive next.

I found a USB CDROM driver for DOS from Lenovo:
http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/migr-4tft8j

then realized that I need to add this to the ISO or make a new bootable CD with
it added. I'm not sure how to do this so I'm going to try the flash drive next.

Pete B wrote:I found a USB CDROM driver for DOS from Lenovo then realized that I
need to add this to the ISO or make a new bootable CD with it added.

I'm not certain that this holds true.

Many a times I've flashed Middleton's BIOS from an external (USB) media drive on X61T with no issues whatsoever.

The stock ISO images from Lenovo indeed only support CD drives in the dock. Without modification, they will not work with external CD drives.
I've always used Approach 10A on this page: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_Upgrade/X_Series

twistero wrote:The stock ISO images from Lenovo indeed only support CD drives in the dock. Without modification, they will not work with external CD drives.
I've always used Approach 10A on this page: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_Upgrade/X_Series

Correct. The others have it backwards. If you have a dock, use it. Given the catastrophic nature of flash failures, it might be worth buying one.

ajkula66 wrote:

Pete B wrote:I found a USB CDROM driver for DOS from Lenovo then realized that I
need to add this to the ISO or make a new bootable CD with it added.

I'm not certain that this holds true.

Many a times I've flashed Middleton's BIOS from an external (USB) media drive on X61T with no issues whatsoever.

Do you have the model of that drive handy? I think that it would have to emulate an IDE
over the USB if that's possible in order to work.

I have genuine Lenovo/IBM external USB 2.0 CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo II Drive.
It's made by Apricorn and has P/N: 40Y8686 and FRU: 40Y8687.
Mine dates from June 2006, but acts and looks like new.
As an aside: it works on my X61s.
And like I said before: I use a USB-stick for X61T.

RealBlackStuff wrote:I have genuine Lenovo/IBM external USB 2.0 CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo II Drive.
It's made by Apricorn and has P/N: 40Y8686 and FRU: 40Y8687.
Mine dates from June 2006, but acts and looks like new.
As an aside: it works on my X61s.
And like I said before: I use a USB-stick for X61T.

Sorry for asking so many questions but you say it works on the X61s am I correct
in thinking that it "works" to flash the Middleton BIOS?
And it does _not_ work to flash the X61T? This is important because I have a T also
that I want to flash. I would expect it to work since the systems are so similar but ...?
I'm going to buy one if it works, might buy it even if it doesn't just to have another external.

ok, my last middleton experience was literally years ago, but -

I had several noname usb dvdrw and NO luck with bios iso on any of them. I think my wife even had an x6t dock and even that was rejected, hilarious.

approach 10 has worked on my (much-hated) x100e, but it never worked on my (beloved) x61t.

approach 10A sounds solid, though. I would go for that, if I had to these days.

but back then what I had to end up doing was boot FreeDOS from usb stick, with a "fake" cdrom driver.

if you have no alternative, I can try to dig up this crazy fake cdrom thing.

I'm almost tempted to just pull out the drive take and old
one and install windows 32 bit. I have the disk to do it, don't
have to activate it. That would work, right since there is a
BIOS flasher that runs under win 32 bit?
It will probably boot in both of my systems.

good.
lord.

yeah, that was the method I had used on her x61t - swap the drive with a win32 one. ugh I think it was even vista but whatever it made life easier.

Pete B wrote: That would work, right since there is a
BIOS flasher that runs under win 32 bit?
It will probably boot in both of my systems.

The only time that I've bricked a perfectly healthy system by a BIOS update was from the Windows environment.

You've been forewarned.

Good luck.

ajkula66 wrote:

Pete B wrote: That would work, right since there is a
BIOS flasher that runs under win 32 bit?
It will probably boot in both of my systems.

The only time that I've bricked a perfectly healthy system by a BIOS update was from the Windows environment.

You've been forewarned.

Good luck.

That's good to know, I've done it many times from Windows with Dell computers
but I'm new to Thinkpads so don't know what to say. I will do some research
before trying it to see if there are any precautions.
Is there a thread somewhere giving step by step how to do Middleton from Windows?

I just remembered that I had a test install of Win7 32 on my T60 doner, put that drive
in the X61s and it booted no problem. Ready to try it.

I downloaded the Windows BIOS updater from Lenovo and it tries to load version 2.22 which I already have. Do I just replace the .FL1 and .FL2 files with the ones from Middleton or is there more to it? I've googled this and found more about doing it for Linux, or from a flashdrive. Not much about doing it from windows.

I'm also having trouble finding the Middleton downloads, I remember a table with links to downloads but can't seem to find it anymore.

Check post # 1154 here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads ... st-9936913

Thanks, I was able to do my X61S and my T61 by swapping my 32 bit OS disk into them, I could have done the T61 by the CD ROM iso but the WIN 32 bit loader was just too easy.
I asked how to do it from Win 7 32 bit and you just download the correct Middleton .rar file, extract it, go to the correct sub directory, with or without ctrl-fn swap and follow the instructions in the readme.
I had done the T61 in the past without the CTRL-FN swap and I just could not work with it like that had to redo it with the swap.

Thanks again for all the help.