Timing for "Press ESC when IBM logo appears"

[Frosty]

Hi, I got the Thinkpad Diskette 1.74 diskette. I want to program my serial number/machine type into the new motherboard, but the program always says that the EEPROM is write protected. I've tried many ways of pressing ESC and it still results in the same error. Can anyone explain to me, the exact timing? Thanks a lot.

[richk]

As soon as the logo comes up. I just keep hitting esc and it works. I assume you have not tried to make a bootable CD because that doesn't unlock the eeprom, whatever you do.

[Frosty]

What do you mean richk? Do you mean that even if I burn the diskette image to CD (and set boot order to CD), if its booted from CD, the eeprom wont unlock?

[rkawakami]

I believe the error message is a misnomer. The program is actually complaining that the disk media you are using is write-protected. If you burned the program onto a CDR, then there's no way to fix that except to use a diskette. If you are using a diskette, make sure that the write-protect hole is covered.

[richk]

I think you get the same message if you don't hit esc to unlock the eeprom