Thinkpads Forum

I bought a 600 (2645-51U) off of EBay. It has Bios version 1.03 on it which is pretty old. I want to upgrade to the most current Bios level (1.22) primarily so that I can upgrade the RAM to 288MB.

I have downloaded the Bios V1.22 and created the diskette.

The instructions from IBM say:

"You need an AC adapter and a charged battery pack to update the system program"

So, here's the question - Do I really need a charged battery pack?

I have the AC adapter, but while the battery pack is there, it doesn't hold a charge.

Can I safely proceed with the bios upgrade without a charged battery pack?

You'll have to do a workaround I think to get the software to update as the updater checks for the charged battery. I think there's a couple posts somewhere on this forum covering the same issue. Check the FAQ.

Having just done this last week, I can tell you that the update will not start up if the program cannot detect a charged battery. I tried it before I got a battery, and it cycled itself off.

There is supposed to be a chance of frying your board if the computer stops while it's processing the upgrade (in the README text for the upgrade file), and I suppose that making a charged battery part of the requirement is to save you from an unlikely, but costly mistake.

Thanks all - got a battery and successfully did the Bios upgrade.

The reason for requiring a charged battery is that if power fails in the middle of flashing the BIOS the BIOS could be corrupted in such a way that it can't be recovered. The chance of that should be pretty slim, desktops have flashable BIOS chips too, and I've never had a problem, but then the power hasn't gone out in the middle of the process either. Most desktops have a hardware "erase" jumper to toally clear the chip, laptops don't. It's easier/cheaper to replace a desktop mainboard too.