Thinkpad 380Z Resolution problem after BIOS update

[beskus]

Hello,

After updating my BIOS using IBM's update diskette from v1.0 to v1.08 provided by Lenovo's official driver page, the BIOS bootscreen and text mode resolution is set to 640x480, instead of 1024x768. To clearify the problem, before the BIOS update, the blue IBM logo was still visible and now it is no longer displayed, and any commandline interface crops the screen to the wrong resolution. When any graphical service is active, the problem is no longer present. Any solutions to this problem? There appears to be no easy way to downgrade the BIOS version to check whether that solves the issue.

Technical specifications matches the exact same as on thinkwiki.org's, except I upgraded the RAM to 160MB (which turned out OK at the test section of the EasySetup)

Pictures can be found here: http://s1382.photobucket.com/user/besku ... 80Z%20pics

Thanks in advance

[geka3250]

Hi!
Have you tried pressing Fn+F8 in BIOS?

[beskus]

Hi!
Have you tried pressing Fn+F8 in BIOS?

Thank you for your reply!

It actually did scale up the text, and uses the whole screen, but still at the wrong aspect ratio. Now the text looks heavily stretched. I was hoping to get the right text size and the boot logo back. Also had no idea Fn + F8 actually had a function, it was never documented I think...

[micrex22]

Huh...

What's weird is that version 1.04 is the only one that seems to be referred to in older IBM documentation (which would be spsdig26.exe and not spsdig30.exe):
http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/aca2.htm
ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/IBM_PC_BBS/m ... sdig26.txt

spsdig30.exe is listed here as a file made in 2005:
http://ps-2.kev009.com/pccbbs/allfiles.txt

Oddly enough it seems that Lenovo still has spsdig26 (which would be version 1.04), I guess give it a shot if you want to see what this version of the BIOS will do:
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... sdig26.exe

Make sure you enable the POST image if it asks as an option.

[beskus]

Thank you micrex22 for all the great archived files and information

I was stunned to find that the older spsdig26.exe worked after I installing spsdig30.exe from Lenovo, since I remember that IBM doesn't allow downgrading your BIOS' version. Nonetheless, I made a floppy with version 1.04 and installed it, then re-initialized the system using the BIOS and the resolution has not changed and remains at 640x480. During the installation the setup provided no POST image setting I must add. My conclusion is that this problem is unfixable. spsdig30 has most likely caused permanent damage to the system. So technically speaking, Lenovo support has ruined my BIOS by providing a non-suitable update disk. Quite sad, isn't it.