A30 battery looks dead after embedded controller BIOS update

[warnergt]

I went to the IBM website to check for updates for my IBM A30 ThinkPad.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 1004106089
I found a BIOS update (version 1.18) and a BIOS embedded controller
update (version 1.06). The description of the BIOS embedded controller
update says "(New) Enhancement of the battery control." The description
of the BIOS update says "(New) Enhancement of the battery control."

Anyway, it sounded like a reasonable update so I installed the embedded
controller update. Now, the virtually brand new battery always looks dead.
And, because it looks dead, I now cannot update (or downgrade) either
BIOS. My guess is that the embedded controller update REQUIRES the
BIOS update.

I called IBM. I explained the situation and, while they appeared to try to
help, they ran me around in circles. The guy had me downgrade the
power management driver (which is not the embedded controller BIOS).
He claimed that the embedded controller BIOS should have nothing to do
with the battery despite IBM's update description which totally contradicted
this. Basically, he got nowhere over a pretty long period. I do have a
third party battery in the laptop and, when he discovered this, he refused
to help any more (it was a nice out for him).

I'll get one but I'm pretty confident that a new IBM battery will not fix the
problem. I'm convinced that IBM has a software "Catch 22" problem. One
update requires the other but the embedded controller update disables
installing the other update.

Anyway, I'm looking for a solution. How do I downgrade the embedded
controller BIOS or upgrade the regular BIOS when it thinks I have a bad
battery? I saw the "batteryless BIOS upgrade" buy my computer does not
have a floppy drive to create a boot floppy.

I need a solution.

[warnergt]

Can I use one of those USB memory dongles to create a USB boot
drive and perform the "batteryless BIOS upgrade?"

Doe the "batteryless BIOS upgrade" work on IBM A30 ThinkPads?

[warnergt]

After a lot of experimenting, I was finally able to downgrade
my embedded BIOS from 1.06 to 1.03.

The IBM Embedded Controller version 1EHJ18WW(1.06)
is evil. Don't install it! It screws up the battery charge
indication and then you are screwed because you
cannot upgrade/downgrade the BIOS unless it
thinks you have a fully charged battery.

I was able to downgrade my embedded controller
BIOS after a lot of research and some experimenting.
It was risky but it worked. I will post my solution
for updating the BIOS (when the computer thinks
the battery isn't fully charged) in a separate thread.