Replaced system board, HMD on CD, but the MB serial number?

[dr.zapp]

I could not find this info through a board search, so pardon if I missed it. Read on for how to make a Hardware Maintenance Disk into a bootable CD.

I have an l412 with a defective system board- would not POST. So I replaced the system board (it's a year out of warranty) and booted up, only to be met with an error code about a system serial number mismatch. Boots OK, but system update does not work (because of the serial number mismatch).
The instructions for WHAT to do about this are in the online service manual http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 635_02.pdf

When the computer was manufactured, the EEPROM on the system board was loaded with the serial numbers of the system and all major components. These numbers need to remain the same throughout the life of the computer.
If you replace the system board, you must restore the serial number of the system unit to its original value.

You need the LENOVO ThinkPad Hardware Maintenance Diskette to do this. This floppy disk is only available to certified Lenovo service centers. Or those who know how to use Google. Version 1.83 is the one I used.http://www.elvikom.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?p=40478

You read that correctly- DISKETTE. As in floppy disk. How many laptops have one of these? Now you see the problem.
The real trick is HOW to do this- without a USB floppy drive. If you have one of these, stop, you don't need to know this.
For the rest of us....
First, find a computer with a floppy drive. Any computer.
Extract the HMD 1.83 archive onto it. Follow the instructions in the file to make an HMD floppy disk.
Use this program http://www.boodaa.de/index.php/download ... ainmenu-44 to make an image of the floppy. Be sure to save it as a .img type, not .bin
Use this program http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1814 to create a bootable CD image using the floppy .img file you just made.
Burn the ISO to a CD and boot from it.
At least on my l412, it works!

Now the problem. I updated my system serial OK (using #20 in the menu and the sticker on the bottom of the laptop), but my motherboard serial is blank in the BIOS. Using #40 I can change this, but to what? There are 3 stickers on the motherboard (the FRU PN:75y4088, the MAC address, and one that I think is the serial #...) but what part of the sticker number do I enter? If I enter the whole thing HMD says the string is too long. The number is

Code: Select all

11875y4089z1 zn k30c30j8    01c

[RealBlackStuff]

Rather than write all this complicated nonsense here, read the program's readme.txt for a change...
In there it says:

Code: Select all

How to make Maintenance Key:

  1. Connect the USB memory key to the system.
  2. Execute USBFMTPW.EXE.

As to the mobo S/N, forget it.
For TVSU to work it only needs the MTM and S/N from option #20

BTW, the latest version is 1.86

[dr.zapp]

I tried several USB thumb drives, as per the readme.txt. None of them would boot, even though USB booting was enabled in the BIOS, and I can boot an alternate OS from a USB... Thus "all this complicated nonsense"

[RealBlackStuff]

If your PC/laptop does not 'behave', try this:
go to http://rufus.akeo.ie/ and download/install the latest RUFUS.
If the USB key is not found, click on the triangle next to Format Options.
New 'Advanced Options' will now be shown further down.
Go there and ENable List USB Hard Drives

Create a bootable USB key using MS-DOS from the options.
Then copy all the files from C:\Drivers\Maintenance Diskette\i7tm31us onto the USB key, overwriting whatever is asked for.
Then try again.

[cadillacmike68]

My apologies for necroposting, but;
Do we need to remove the rufus autorun files from the bootable USB stick?

[thinkpadcollection]

And note that rufus utility broke with DOS for FreeDOS.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[RealBlackStuff]

Don't know where you got that wisdom from, but that is NOT true.
Rufus can use both MS-DOS and FreeDOS.

[cadillacmike68]

I used the make usb program usbfmtpw.exe that's in the newer HMD zip files and that one formats the bootable stick AND copies everything onto the new stick, so no worries at all.

Rufus Does allow Free-DOS or MS-DOS, so there should be no problems for someone who wants to make a bootable stick for general use. And that seemed to work fine, but I didn't boot that stick, I reformatted it with the IBM utility noted above.

When I free up another older stick, I'll make a couple Rufus sticks to see what tpcollection is talking about, but in my years on this board, I have no reason to doubt anything that RBS says on any topics on this forum.