Crisis BIOS Recovery of Thinkpad T43

[troubadix]

for Crisis BIOS Recovery of Thinkpad T43 you will need:

http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~schmit ... covery.zip

1. USB floppy
2. Update Key/boot-block jumper LPT_plug (wiring diagram see .pdf)
3. WinXP running machine
4. decompress software i.e. 7zip

steps on WinX pmachine:
1. download from Lenovo site BIOS Update (Non-Diskette) image/program
(i.e. 1yuj18us.exe or 70uj29us.exe)
2. decompress (i.e by 7zip) image/program to find .img-file
(i.e.: 1YUJ18US.IMG or 70UJ29US.IMG)
2a.decompress img-file to find file $xxxxxxxxx.FL1 (x=dummy)
(i.e. $0197000.FL1 or $0199000.FL1)
3. extract BIOS.WPH by running at command prompt:
"e_bcpvpw.exe $0197000.FL1 BIOS.WPH" or
"e_bcpvpw.exe $0199000.FL1)BIOS.WPH"
4. place BIOS.WPH into folder containing
a. WINCRIS.EXE
b. PHLASH16.EXE
c. MINIDOS.SYS
d. MAKEBOOT.EXE
e. CRISBOOT.BIN
5. plug USB floppy to WinXP machine
6. run WINCRIS.exe to create Crisis Recovery Floppy

steps on Thinkpad T43 with faulty BIOS:
1. connect to Update Key/boot-block jumper LPT_plug
2. connect USB floppy
3. push poweron button
4. wait until Thinkpad T43 beebs and stops running
5. disconnect Update Key/boot-block jumper LPT_plug

have fun

edit: may be I succeeded with my two types of T43 as there was no SuperVisorPassword SVP set and TCPA security chip was disabled. besides these conditions there might be different results
http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/TCPA.pdf

[RealBlackStuff]

Thanks for posting this.
Looking in the restoring.pdf, it says there:
"Please note that the PHLASH16.EXE tool does not support this feature [i.e. update the bootblock] so far."
Does that still apply?

[troubadix]

Sorry, no idea bad BIOS had been flashed with phlash16 without option /PF=BB, so old boot block had not been overwritten.

[rusty196500]

hi any instructions for T60 would be greatly appreciated thanks

[poshgeordie]

@rusty196500 welcome to the forums.

I wasn't too sure what crisis BIOS recovery meant, so if anyone else is as thick as me (!) this excellent technique replaces the missing or damaged code contained within the BIOS Chip.

[Emilio]

Hi all,

this method is ok o not ok?

Thanks in advance for answer and best regards.

[Emilio]

Hi

I have continued the operatios, but nothing, the pc does not read the floppy. Suggestion?

Thanks and regards.

[Emilio]

Hi all,

at the end I have buyed a Motherboad. Fortunately I have paid it ongly 38,00 €.

Thanks and regards.

[RealBlackStuff]

After supposedly bricking an R52 by flashing the wrong BIOS, I tried The Crisis Disk.
It's not just for T43/T43p, it also works great on an R52 with ATI X300 graphics (1849-4WU).
Just get the IBM/Lenovo BIOS for the R52 concerned (76uj28us.exe in this case) and extract the BIOS.WPH as instructed above in the first post by Troubadix.

Instead of making a jumper-block out of a 25-pin parallel plug, I just used 5 pieces of 2" long sturdy wire.
I plugged those in the printer-port, connecting:
2-15
3-13
4-11
5-12
6-10

On the printer-port itself the hole-numbers are also marked:
\ 13--12--11--10--9--8--7--6--5--4--3--2--1/
..\25-24-23-22-21-20-19-18-17-16-15-14../

[rkawakami]

How "badly" was the bricked system really bricked? A quick glance through the docs seems to say that the system needs to be able to boot a floppy. If that's the case, then wouldn't a regular BIOS update floppy work just as well?

[troubadix]

...will not work

The crisis recovery Boot Mode requires that all code accesses must remain within the boot block area, while other Boot Modes allow accesses to the normal area.

http://wiki.phoenix.com/wiki/index.php/Crisis_Recovery

[rkawakami]

Ah, thank you. So this method would appear to work on Phoenix BIOS systems that have a parallel port. I don't know if I still have any bricked system in my inventory that fits this description but if I run across one, I'll give this a try. I've fixed several CRC1 errors before (the infamous 0175 boot error code) using a different technique but this one seems easier to do.

[RealBlackStuff]

I tried to flash the TTAV134 BIOS with Slic, no-1802 and no-2010.
However, the version I had selected was for an R52 with Intel gfx.
I was busy and pressed an error-msg OK too fast, my fault.

I then tried to extract BIOS.WPH from the correct TTAV134 BIOS, but the Crisis Disk didn't work with that.
So finally I tried it with BIOS.WPH from the correct IBM/Lenovo BIOS, and now it worked!