[SOLVED] X201 Tablet - 82577LC Network Adapter NVM Corrupted

[ianthrelfall]

Hello,

The 82577LC network adapter in my Thinkpad x201 Tablet has stopped working.

In Windows 10 the adapter shows as Cannot Start Code 10. When booting I now get a message that says - PXE-E05: The LAN adapter's NVM configuration is corrupted. Booting with a Linux live CD confirms there is an issue with the card, and using a USB to Ethernet adapter works but I'd love to get the network card working again.

So I am trying as a last attempt to flash my Network Cards NVRAM using Intels BootUtil, but I cannot find a copy of the .rom file for the 82577LC to achieve this.

Does anyone have this file or any other suggestions for how to fix the corruption?

Thanks

Ian

[dr_st]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your trouble.

My experience is that Intel typically does not provide LAN NVM modification tools to end-users.

I wonder if reflashing the Lenovo BIOS image will also reflash the LAN NVM?

[ianthrelfall]

Thanks! Yes I am starting to feel this might be the case.

I thought something similar and I tried updating the BIOS via the Windows tool to the latest on the Lenovo legacy website. But sadly this didn't do it.

Is there a better way to reflash the BIOS other than the Lenovo windows utility?

[RealBlackStuff]

Try this: viewtopic.php?p=237169#p237169

[ianthrelfall]

Thanks for that RBS.

That's definitely helping me in the right direction.

I am struggling to get the utility to work in DOS so I am going to try Linux hopefully with more success.

I'll report back.

[ianthrelfall]

Fixed it! Thanks for both your help with this.

So here is what I did to resolve it for anyone else with the same problem:

1. Download a Linux Live build (I used Ubuntu - https://ubuntu.com/download)
2. Copy this to a bootable USB Key (in Windows 10 I used Rufus to do this easily - https://rufus.ie/en)
3. On my Thinkpad I booted to this USB key and choose to run Ubuntu Live (My BIOS boot order allowed this but you may need to change it)
4. Once in Ubuntu I downloaded the current Linux version of the Intel® Ethernet Connections Boot Utility, Preboot Images, and EFI Drivers (Currently 26.4 - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... ivers.html)
5. Extract this .tar file to a location on the drive. (I choose the home folder /home/ubuntu)
5. cd to the following folder in the file extraction location /Preboot/APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64 So in my case I ran:

Code: Select all

cd /home/ubuntu/Preboot/APPS/BootUtil/Linux_x64

6. Give execution permissions to bootutil64e

Code: Select all

chmod +x bootutil64e

7. Run the boot utility with the following options:

Code: Select all

sudo ./bootutil64e -NIC 1 -defcfg 

Once this ran (which it did in seconds!) I rebooted my computer back to Windows 10 and all was working.

[dr_st]

Glad it worked. Good to know that Bootutil can help recover from such an issue.

I will edit the first post with link to solution.