T43 Mother Board went Bad so I REPLACED it, But..PROBLEM :(

[djThinkbad]

Hi I have a t43 laptop but I had the usual motherboard flex problem develope. Move the laptop and it would freeze or turn off. So I ordered a new motherboard from ebay and installed it. (BRANDNEW). I started up the latop and everything worked well. I had reformated my hardrive earlier (Access IBM/Factory settings) so I wanted to update the thinkpad software using Software Update. Now here comes the problem before the software tries to update,, it tries to find the s/n and type of the machine. But this new mother board I installed doesnot have the serial number of my old mother board burned into it, or doesnot have a serial number at all for that matter. So right now my laptop has a new mother board everyting is fine, but no serial number or type

SO I CANNOT INSTALL THE IBM/LENOVO UPDATED SOFTWARE/Drivers

MY QUESTION :
Is there a way I can transfer the serial number & type of my old mother board into the new? How do I pass on the identity? Thanks!

[Brad]

You can easily update the model type and serial number.

You simply need a floppy disk, a floppy disk drive and a copy of the hardware maintenance diskette.

This is a very simple process.

You can search for the HMD or send a PM and I can email the image to you. This will allow you to create the bootable diskette.

Brad

[djThinkbad]

You can easily update the model type and serial number.

You simply need a floppy disk, a floppy disk drive and a copy of the hardware maintenance diskette.

This is a very simple process.

You can search for the HMD or send a PM and I can email the image to you. This will allow you to create the bootable diskette.

Brad

Thanks for the quick reply Brad!!

But I am not too familiar with HMD and in software in general. (Only a hardware guy.) I would greatly appreciate it if you could give some more info on what to do. Some steps would be nice
My email address is ahelpinghand@gmail.com

THANKS

[ulrich.von.lich]

Please take look at the thread below:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

I think everything has been clearly said. Please follow the steps of RealBlackStuff. If you still have questions, feel free to ask!

[djThinkbad]

Please take look at the thread below:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

I think everything has been clearly said. Please follow the steps of RealBlackStuff. If you still have questions, feel free to ask!

So if I understand correctly this is only possible if I have an external floppy drive?
No CD or usb memory can be used?

[ulrich.von.lich]

That is correct!

However I've heard of some sort of bootable CD, which some people claim doesn't work. IMO, why bother when you can get a USB floppy drive for just a few bucks?

[djThinkbad]

That is correct!

However I've heard of some sort of bootable CD, which some people claim doesn't work. IMO, why bother when you can get a USB floppy drive for just a few bucks?

Thanks ulrich.von.lich... for your reply!

[SteveS]

djThinkbad started this topic writing:

Hi I have a t43 laptop but I had the usual motherboard flex problem develope. Move the laptop and it would freeze or turn off.

I did not think T43 models were suspect to the GPU bonding problem. You don't see any posted "for parts" on e-bay with the classic GPU symptoms, whereas you see lots of T40-42 models in this condition.
Thoughts?

[richk]

T43 with models that start off 2xxx-xxx have AT1 graphics chips and can have the problem, although they are attached better than earlier models. T43 machines with 1xxx-xxx models have intel graphs which is entirely different and does not have the problem.

[sjthinkpader]

In the mid-nineties, a small company named Neomagic decided to take the risk and integrated GPU and VRAM on the same chip which was not done on a wide scale before. GPU and RAM were almost always done separately up to that time. The Neomagic approach can be called chip integration. This chip was used in the 600 series and dominated the laptop GPU market for a few years.

IBM decided to use an old chip from S3 in the T20 and the video performance was so so.

When IBM did the A2x, they selected ATi but with separate GPU and RAM. In the late nineties, ATi was working on a single chip GPU/RAM design. But they use a package integration approach using separate GPU and RAM chip then put them on a multi-chip module (MCM). This gave more flexibility in selecting the RAM and faster to market than the Neomagic's chip integration approach. Eventually this allowed ATi to edge out Neomagic in the laptop GPU market.

Up to that time, no large RAM supplier would supply bare chip called Known-Good-Die. But ATi got chips from smaller RAM suppliers in Taiwan. A30/A31 had a lot of space inside so these machines never used the MCM designs. The T4x series being more short on MB space started using these ATi MCM. Clearly they didn't do a good job in engineering a reliable product.