TP 770Z bios upgrade without battery?

Older ThinkPads.. from the 600, the 7xx, the iSeries, 300, 500, the Transnote and, of course, the 701
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Insomniac1971
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TP 770Z bios upgrade without battery?

#1 Post by Insomniac1971 » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:58 am

Did anyone ever get this to work? Any way to bypass there battery check?

Its model 9549-810

With kind regards

JBJ
Live life to to fullest:) I do!

ieee488
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#2 Post by ieee488 » Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:31 am

go to http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/topic7229-15.html and look for the first post by richtoy.

It worked for me on my Thinkpad 390E.

Worth a shot to see if it will work for your model.

Insomniac1971
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#3 Post by Insomniac1971 » Thu Sep 11, 2008 3:44 am

Hi and thnx for the quick reply:) Yeah I read that allready, unfortunately I cant see that it worked on my model, since its using different files to update the bios:(

Isn't there anyone who cracked this bios so that it doesn't check for battery?
The only reason I can see why this is, is so that IBM can sell more batteries. DEll has the same in some of their models.

JBJ
Live life to to fullest:) I do!

ieee488
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#4 Post by ieee488 » Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:04 am

Yes, but did you try opening the flash files and search for something similar?

hjanzen
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#5 Post by hjanzen » Mon Sep 15, 2008 6:20 am

I have succesfully used the "1Byte Hack" method.

It is described on a German Thinkpad Forum and is based on the replacement of one Byte in the updtflsh.exe file using a Hexeditor , thus avoiding the checking of the battery by the Flashprogram.
This is an easy and safe method.

On the update floppy disk you find a.o. the file updtflsh.exe
Open that file in a hexeditor, scroll down about 7/8 of the text till you see at the far right column the following 3 lines:

pdtrom /np /prep
2 updtrom upd
trom updtrom /np

On the left you have 16 colomns of figures.
The far most left figure in the line "2 updtrom upd" is 32.
That figure represents the figure 2 in the above text.
Now select that figure 2, and replace it by a 1.
On the far left, 32 has become 31 now.
That is all!!
Safe the changes and you are ready to use the hacked floppy to flash the BIOS without a working battery.
If you can read German you may visit the following site:

http://groups.google.de/group/de.comp.s ... um=1&hl=de

This procedure is OK for Thinkpads 770 and 600 series.
I have used it for 770X 770Z, 600E and 600X.
Regards, Hans
600X PIII 650MHz 576MB, 701C DX4 75MHz 40MB, T61

Insomniac1971
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#6 Post by Insomniac1971 » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:44 pm

Hi Hans, thanx for the info:)

What HEX editor do you use?


With kind regards

JBJ
Live life to to fullest:) I do!

hjanzen
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#7 Post by hjanzen » Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:15 pm

Hi JBJ,

I use HDD Free Hex Editor.

Hans
600X PIII 650MHz 576MB, 701C DX4 75MHz 40MB, T61

TriAngle
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ThinkPad 770X BIOS Update with a Dead Battery

#8 Post by TriAngle » Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:16 am

ThinkPad 770X BIOS Update with a Dead Battery:
1. Create the BIOS update Floppy Disk using the updated BIOS file downloaded from ibm's website.
* NOTE: If you do not have a Floppy Disk Drive, just run the BIOS update file on a computer with a Floppy Disk Drive, then burn the contents of the Floppy Disk to a blank CD-R disk (you can just make a folder on your desktop and copy all the contents of the floppy disk to this folder, then burn the contents of this folder as a DATA disk to a blank CD-R disk), then in Step 4 below, insert the BIOS update CD-R into the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive, then locate the CD-R disk via the 'dir' command in DOS-mode, and continue with with Step 5 below.
2. Restart the laptop using a WinME StartUp Floppy Disk.
3. After the laptop boots into DOS-mode, remove the WinME StartUp Floppy Disk.
4. Insert the BIOS update Floppy Disk from Step 1.
5. Type "Flash2 /u" (without the quotes).
6. Hit Enter.
7. The BIOS will 'unconditionally' update, regardless of a dead battery.
8. After the BIOS has been updated, remove the BIOS update Floppy Disk.
9. Turn OFF the laptop (do NOT restart).
10. Press and HOLD DOWN the F1 key.
11. Turn the laptop ON (while still HOLDING DOWN the F1 key).
12. The BIOS Setup screen will appear.
13. Click "Config".
14. Click "Initialize".
15. Click "OK".
16. Click "OK", again (if necessary).
17. Check the new BIOS name/date, etc.
18. Exit out of BIOS Setup.
19. Restart the laptop into Windows.
20. Click Start/Programs/ThinkPad/Configuration.
21. Check the BIOS name/date, etc.

This is the ONLY method that worked for me.
The "flash2 /u" command does not check for a battery, period.
Good luck.
Tri.

Insomniac1971
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#9 Post by Insomniac1971 » Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:18 pm

Mange tak:) Månge tack:) Thank You very much:) Danke Schön:) Kop khun kap:) Maraming salamat:) zhe zhe:)

with kind regards

JBJ
Live life to to fullest:) I do!

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