Thinkpads Forum

Greetings,
O.K., has anyone done a bios upgrade disk hack (so there is no need for a fully charged battery) for a TP770 that has worked?
here are the files present on the upgrade floppy:

<DIR> .
<DIR> ..
$0031000.fl1
$0031000.fl2
COMMAND.COM
CONFIG.SYS
FLASH2.EXE
PROD.DA2
PROD.DAT
UPDTFLSH.EXE
updtrom.exe
USERINT.EXE
UTILINFO.EXE

my question is which files do i rename and copy? please do not refer me to
http://thinkpads.com/batteryless.htm as these files dont apply to the 770.

Hasn't anyone done this before??

thanks,
joe

*I have just finished posting this at WIMS Bios forum*

OK... Here it goes...

I acutally registered to provide this info for all the poor souls wanting to update their Thinkpad 600,600E,600X etc with a dead battery.

Follow the instructions below as I have just updated mine with a dead battery.

*** This is NOT a safe way to update the bios (disclaimer) ***

* First you need to make a BIOS update floppy disk (from the bios file from IBM - place disk in a: drive, run app and answer Y to the agreement) and then format another disk by right clicking on A: - format - make system bootdisk (assuming you have another machine spare)

* Copy all the files from the IBM Boot disk - in my case
$0029000.fl1
$0029000.fl2
FLASH2.EXE
PROD.DAT
UPDTFLSH.EXE
updtrom.exe
USERINT.EXE
UTILINFO.EXE
to the other clean bootdisk.

* Ensure that there is no config.sys and autoexec.bat so it just runs straight into DOS.

* Place the disk into the Laptop, reboot and allow the machine to load via the floppy

* At the command prompt, type "FLASH2.EXE /U" with no quotes then press enter.

The program will automatically search for the files *.FL1 & *.FL2 and load the bios first then the platform file.

The program will automatically update and perform erasing on the rom and then finish with "Update complete".

* Now reboot.

* Hold F1 down as you turn the laptop back on and go into Easy Setup under "Config" click on Initialize to ensure defaults and settings are error free.

* Save and exit...

Man, this has been a pain but after the search and coming across the command line by chance; I could not sit back after success and not share the cure/fix with the rest of the world...

Enjoy

pHuZ

Greetings,

Hey, this really worked!! Finally somebody figured it out... It worked fine.

Thanks for the tip...

Joe