Reasons behind precautions when upgrading the bios?

[alpuzz]

Just curious,

While looking at the bios update instructions for my T43, I noticed several precautions which I don't necessarily understand.

1: They advise removing the computer from any docking station or port replicator. Why is this? I typically keep my machine on a port replicator II, and I can definitely remove it if need be, but I'm trying to understand why this would matter.
2. They advise removing any USB floppy drives before performing the upgrade. Again, why? If the drive is connected, but there is no disk in the drive, what difference does it make?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for taking every necessary precaution, but I don't like doing things just because it says so in some documentation.

any thoughts or explanations?

Thanks,

[EOMtp]

The "rules" are designed to minimize pathological conditions which may affect the BIOS update.

The two "rules" you note above do not affect the BIOS update UNLESS ... and there is the rub. One does not want to explain every time for everybody all the special conditions where a floppy or a device connected to a port replicator can have an unexpected and undesired effect.

[bill bolton]

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for taking every necessary precaution, but I don't like doing things just because it says so in some documentation.

With the docking station you don't get a choice. If the BIOS update utility detects that a T4x ThinkPad is on a docking station, it won't do the update!

Cheers,

Bill