N100 0768 - Failed BIOS upgrade - will boot DOS but not XP

[londonarnold]

Hi, This is my first post on Thinkpads.com

I have an N100 core 2 duo at 1.66 with 2GB RAM and Nvdia Graphics.

All was fine with it until one day I decided to use Lenovo Care and automatically upgrade all the drivers to the latest versions.

The drivers were loaded sucessfully until Lenovo care asked me if I wanted to upgrade the BIOS and stupidly I accepted and a BIOS upgrade was performed and then when I rebooted the machine went through the post successfully but would not and still wont boot any version of Windows (or even Linux). All I get is the dreaded BSOD.

The BIOS version currently installed is:
61ET37WW (V2.06)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and advice,

Regards,

Arnold,
London NW5

[londonarnold]

It seems that what I've done is install the BIOS update for a C200 and not the correct one for my N100.

Does anyone please know how I can restore the BIOS to one for the N100 - as I can't get into Windows maybe there's a way of loading an N100 bios from DOS ?

Also if anyone knows how to reprogram or physically replace the BIOS chip I'm all ears...

Many Thanks,
Arnie
London, UK.

[Stargate199]

There should be a way to flash the bios from a usb thumb drive if Lenovo puts the file out there. They want you to use the Windows version so there is less of a chance of bricking the machine. Software update should have installed the correct BIOS so I wonder if something is wrong with the boot order or something. Look around the support and downloads section and see if you can find a BIOS update that can be put on a flash drive and see if you can flash the BIOS again.

[londonarnold]

Thanks for the reply.

I've done as you suggest. I also thought it might be a hard drive error so I tried a brand new 120Gb drive which completes the DOS stage then bsod's as soon as it tries to install / boot windows.

I've tried setting the boot menu too with no sucesss, however the N100 does run BartPE !!!

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***** Does anyone think running the Lenovo BIOS update from BartPE will work? *****

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I can't find any BIOS updates for a USB stick yet but I guess they must be out there somewhere.

Many Thanks and Season's Greetings to All

[RealBlackStuff]

From the horse's mouth:
http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/mess ... ge.id=5677

[londonarnold]

Thanks for the reply and the link to the thread. Have read it - and so it could be something else, hopefully?

The N100 actually runs linux live cds (puppy & ubuntu) so now I'm thinking that perhaps there's a hard drive issue, as currently discussed on this forum (and T43 petition), ?

So the N100 is in the attic for now, until I come across sata 2.5" disks to test with it - and new mobo ....

Regards,
Arnold

London,
UK