(560x) bios update without AC adapter

[richpearl]

just wondering... i imagine it's risky, but is it possible to update the 560x bios with just a fully charged battery? can't plug in to adapter, have to use a port replicator on this machine.

conversely, would you install win98 or win2000 if the bios was 1.10, rather than 1.15? looking at the change logs, i see that the final bios offered support for 2000.

lastly, how about Linux? how important is the bios version in regards to that OS?

all comments and suggestions welcomed.

thanks,

rich

[Kyocera]

seems a bit risky, any bios update on any laptop I've done gives you a chance to make sure the machine is plugged in *and* has a fully charged battery.

[toddyjoe]

It is probably possible but risky. I recently updated the BIOS on my Thinkpad 310ED. The BIOS update required both a fully-charged battery and the AC adapter otherwise it would not let you do the BIOS update at all. I had a dead battery that would not hold any charge. However, I found that I could hold down the Scroll-Lock key when making the initial selection to start the BIOS upgrade and it would bypass the battery check and let me proceed. I updated the BIOS that way without any battery but I was nervous, tense and worried until it signaled the BIOS update was complete.

[richpearl]

toddy... how did you know to hold down that particular key?

btw... i've seen several posts discussing the possibility of dead battery BIOS updates, but none in regards to a non-working AC adaptor. as long as the machine is working, and doing well, i'm leaning to not doing anything. why fix what ain't broken? but knowledge is king! i'd love to know that the possibity exists.

i'm glad to hear it went well for you.

best to ya,

rich

[toddyjoe]

toddy... how did you know to hold down that particular key?

I found it doing a website search about battery checks and BIOS upgrades in general. One website identified holding down the Scroll-Lock key to get around a battery check with respect to a BIOS upgrade on another type of computer. I figured I would take the chance and try it on mine. At worst, I assumed it would not work and would still not let me proceed with the BIOS upgrade. Fortunately, it worked fine on the first attempt with no problems.