770Z BIOS issues (updated)

[Borias]

Hello. I'm a long time lurker, first time registered poster in dire need of help. I've purchased a 500mhz Pentium 3 for my stock 770z, and I know I need to flash the BIOS for it to work. The BIOS image is at http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 7F3VA.html

The problem is I don't have a floppy drive on any PC that I own, or any 3.5" disks for that matter. I need one of the kind posters on this forum to run the file I linked to, which will put an image onto a floppy disk, copy the image from the floppy disk and post it here so that I can burn it onto a CD-R and use it on my Thinkpad.

I've been struggling with this problem for several hours now. I have tried setting up a virtual floppy drive, then using the application to put the image on that, but to no avail. I've searched the Internet and have only found a person that has posted a disk image for the standard 770 BIOS, not the 770z. (By the way, that's at http://dag.wieers.com/howto/thinkpad/77 ... -v1.34.img if anyone is interested)

Please help! If you have a floppy drive and a spare disk, please take a minute of your time to make this image and upload it, or email it to me at my email, which is available below.
(admin edit to remove email from view, use the email button below)

If I am emailed it, I will post it online myself for the benefit of others.

Thank you very much!

[hjanzen]

With a bit of luck you may find a floppy drive for less than 10 $ at Ebay.

[Borias]

Thanks for the advice, but I'm making this appeal for help because I don't want to buy a piece of hardware I am only going to use one time. so I'm kinda throwing myself on the kindness of this community

[pkiff]

I need one of the kind posters on this forum to run the file I linked to, which will put an image onto a floppy disk, copy the image from the floppy disk and post it here so that I can burn it onto a CD-R and use it on my Thinkpad.

http://thinkpads.kiff.ca/files/bios-tp-770z-v1.05.iso

This is an ISO image of a non-bootable CD created by Nero. There are various techniques for trying to run BIOS updates via CD instead of via the floppy drive, but I have never tried any of them and cannot verify that the files on this CD will serve your purpose.

I'll probably keep the file posted for a while unless there is a problem with it.

Phil.

[Borias]

Thank you so much pkiff! That looks like exactly what I need! Hopefully I'll be posting a success story soon

[Borias]

All right, I've got another problem. I burned the ISO you provided, and another with an MS-DOS 6.2.2 boot disk. I boot off of the DOS CD, then put in the BIOS CD.

When I try to run flash2.exe, I get the message "This program must be used with the LCCM host system in a LAN environment. You cannot use the program in a stand-alone environment." I get the same message if I try to run updtrom.exe.

Looking up this phrase, all I found was to enable flashing the BIOS in the control panel that's activated by holding F1 while booting, which I already have done.

Also, if I run flash2 /u, I get the message "Starting Flash Update Utility. Please wait... The ROM image file was not found. The progress ended."

Lastly, if I try to run updtflsh.exe directly, I get a red box that says "Error. The system program file was not found on the diskette. Insert the correct diskette in the drive."

I know I must be missing something simple now

UPDATE: I got it! I ended up not using the floppies or the CDs. I just took the files from the ISO pkiff so helpfully posted and left them on my C drive, then rebooted my [Windows 98] machine into DOS mode and flashed without a hitch.

It's a real facepalm how easy it was in the end. Oh well, live and learn, and hopefully someone else will read this.

[pkiff]

Excellent! Glad to hear you got that far okay. Hopefully the new CPU and whatever other upgrades you are doing work out.

Cheers,
Phil.

[Borias]

Excellent! Glad to hear you got that far okay. Hopefully the new CPU and whatever other upgrades you are doing work out.

Cheers,
Phil.

There should be a disclaimer somewhere that accessing the CPU on an IBM 770 is one of the inner circles of hell. I was completely unprepared after the breezy tasks that entailed upgrading the RAM and HD. I spent two days removing part after part, and now that I've got it all back together, the thing won't boot. Either my new CPU is no good, or I damaged something in the shuffle of dis/re-assembly. Which is possible, because I heard an unpleasant cracking noise when I was taking a screw with a stripped head out of the motherboard.

[pkiff]

There should be a disclaimer somewhere that accessing the CPU on an IBM 770 is one of the inner circles of hell.

Yes, it is a bit of a chore. And if you are also trying to replace the onboard 64MB chip (with for e.g., a 128 MB 100MHz chip), then you have to go even further. Putting it back together feels akin to building an entire laptop from scratch.

[...]when I was taking a screw with a stripped head out of the motherboard.

I've had problems with seized/stripped screws in two of my three 770E/Z machines. I wonder if that is just due to age, or if some of those screws were just screwed in too tight during initial assembly. I've tried various methods to get these out, but none have been too successful. The best method I've found is to use a combination of a dab of WD-40, waiting for an hour or two, and then using a miniature set of pliars -- ideally a set that locks.

I started to write up a full set of instructions on how to disassemble the 770Z for CPU replacements, but I never finished:
http://thinkpads.kiff.ca/770z/cpu_upgrade

Hope you can resolve your issues on disassembly/reassembly...

Phil.