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X220T Bios Update. USB listed after F12 but will not update.

X200/X201/X220 (including equivalent tablet models) and X300/X301 Series
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ThinkCat
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Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2024 8:56 am
Location: Ipswich, England

X220T Bios Update. USB listed after F12 but will not update.

#1 Post by ThinkCat » Thu Nov 27, 2025 9:56 am

Hi,

I scored an X220T i7 with a 'broken' screen that turned out to be a loose connector. I am now trying to upgrade its bios (2011 flavour) following the instructions from,

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/update-le ... stick-pen/

I have done this a few times on X220s and X230's

With the X220T I plug in the flashed thumb drive and hit F12 on start up. The drive is shown as an option in the boot menu but when I scroll down to it and hit enter I am just brought back to the boot menu. I've tried a few time and also tried reflashing without getting a different result.

The iso file from Lenovo is 8duj31us.iso

The battery is full and the charger is plugged in.

Any ideas?

dr_st
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Re: X220T Bios Update. USB listed after F12 but will not update.

#2 Post by dr_st » Thu Nov 27, 2025 11:07 am

Possibly, the USB thumbdrive is not formatted/partition the way the BIOS expects it. Either it's legacy mode and requires UEFI, or vice-versa.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T16 Gen 3 (21MQ), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

ThinkCat
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2024 8:56 am
Location: Ipswich, England

Re: X220T Bios Update. USB listed after F12 but will not update.

#3 Post by ThinkCat » Fri Nov 28, 2025 6:45 am

Bingo! Thanks for the head shake.

I did check it in another X220 and then I checked that I had enabled user flashing under security on the X220T. The one I had missed was in the startup menu where it was set to UEFI only. Switched to legacy and slipped in the new bios.

Thank you.

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