Major Problems WIth My IBM Thinkpad A20M

[Chad]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. I powered my notebook up on a dead battery (little did I know at the time) and it shutdown in the middle of the initial bootup where the EEPROM is being written to for security.

Now, whenever I bootup my machine, I get the following display.

ERROR 0188: Invalid RFID Serialization Information Area or Bad CRC2

I've spent countless hours on google looking for information and the solution doesn't look promising. Basically, IBM's official stance is "replace system board". This would be great, but replacing the system board would roughly equal the cost of a new laptop.

I'm basically locked out of my machine and very frustrated as it's my only Windows machine and I have very important data I cannot access. I'm currently in the process of calling local repair shops, but considering IBM's stubbornness on this issue (as I have been reading), combined with the age of the laptop; I am not looking forward to spending 200+ just to replace the system board.

I'm leaning towards getting an IDE adapter so I can attach my HDD to a desktop to retrieve and backup my data, and sell my laptop (maybe parted out) on ebay. I'm still deliberating my options and I was hoping someone might be able to give me some insight or direct me to a fix that I might have overlooked. In any case, any help is MUCH appreciated as this is a stressful situation for me, as one could imagine.

Thanks,
Chad Paulson
http://www.warppipe.com

[nikemen]

we have several of these mothballed, I could probably get one out of the office for a relatively paltry sum. Might make a nice parts machine if you are going to be continuing to use it.
I still use mine at home, even with the new T41

[dperron]

To the best of my knowledge, all you need to do is reprogram your eeprom chip with an uncorrupted chip image. I don't know if you can actually dump the eeprom via software (on someone else's thinkpad of the same model...) but once you have such an image all you need to do is open the thinkpad and reprogram it (if you have the proper interface...)
You can also unsolder it and bring it to someone who as a chip programmer.

You could also buy an eeprom replacement chip, but it's not cheap...

such as:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 11038&rd=1

[frankiepankie]

I am sorry for bumping this old thread, but this might be fixable with the HMD (Hardware Maintenance Diskette) be sure to not get the newest version, because the won't always boot on your older ThinkPad.


If you are in the menu of the Hardware Maintenance Diskette, try to re-enter the system serial number.