Solution: BIOS directory cannot be found

[Rich H]

Solution: "BIOS directory cannot be found. The utility process has not completed."

It took me a couple of years and lots of dead-ends to figure out what was preventing me from updating the original BIOS on my W500. This issue was raised on this board in the past, so I wanted to post the solution I discovered. But I can't locate any posts before 2011. So I'll create this new topic for anyone who gets here via Web search...

The root of the problem is that the name of the BIOS installed on my W500 4058CTO laptop began with the characters "7U" rather than the "7V" that Lenovo's Support website says was installed on W500s.* So the BIOS updates offered on the W500 support page would not install to my machine. Further investigation revealed that the "7U" BIOS was what was installed on T400 laptops. So, instead of "telling" the Support website that I have a W500, I said it was a T400. That brought me to the T400 support page, where I downloaded the latest BIOS download files for T400 laptops. (In my case, the download file for the iso image was named 7uuj49uc.iso. As it happens, that will install either a "7U" BIOS or a "7V" BIOS, depending on what it sees on your computer. That made me feel more confident that I wouldn't brick my W500 if I'd misunderstood what was going on.)

In the end, I installed the latest "7U" BIOS, but there were a few anxious moments. Let me list some of them, in case it helps someone else who encounters them:

--The first two times I tried to copy the 7uuj49uc.iso file to a blank CD, I got the warning, "Confirm Stream Loss: The file '7uuj49uc.iso' has extra information attached to it that might be lost if you continue copying. The contents of the file will not be affected. Do you want to copy the file anyway?" Well, the file WAS affected. It flat-out would not boot up the computer. I then tried copying the 7uuj49uc.iso file to CD using Roxio Creator, and got a clean copy on a CD; this time it DID work.

--Apparently you have to connect AC power AND a fully charged battery in order to do the BIOS update. I recommend having a fully charged battery inserted before you begin, so you don't have to disrupt the BIOS installation process.

--There are two ways to end the BIOS install and reboot the computer. I picked the one described in the readme file: Eject the CD with the 7uuj49uc.iso file on it, and press the Enter key to reboot. Unfortunately, that resulted in a very dark Windows XP startup screen frozen on my monitor, and nothing going on in the progress bar. I did a hard shutdown by holding down the On button for about 5 sec. When I then pressed the On key to reboot, there was whirring, but just a blank black screen eventually appeared. In near-panic, I went back into the BIOS (which appeared normally on the screen, BTW), and pressed the F9 key to select all the BIOS' default settings. After saving the settings and exiting the BIOS (via the F10 key), I dismounted the laptop from its docking station, and tried to start it up without having it connected to a monitor or any peripherals. I got a DOS-looking warning that Windows XP failed to boot up, and I was given some choices on what to do. I picked Safe Mode startup, saw that everything was in order, then shut down and rebooted normally. Whew! Everything worked. Now I can upgrade to Windows 7.

*--If you're not sure how to tell what BIOS is on your system, follow this route: Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information.

[Cigarguy]

Hmmm...sounds like someone flashed the BIOS in the first place. Lucky it did not brick the system. Typically the flash BIOS software will not allow you to do this but some flash software will allow you to force a BIOS update. This is handy for flashing the same version of the same BIOS.

Best way to tell the BIOS version is to press F1 on startup, in the intro screen it'll tell you that info and more. BIOS and Windows are mutually exclusive programs. Obviously the settings in BIOS will affect Windows and/or any other OS espeically the SATA settings (AHCI or Compatibility mode).