BIOS update seems to have failed. How to reprogram flash?

[kday]

I just received a T41 off ebay that was sold as-is because it had no HD. I installed the HD from my old, dead T40 and it booted up fine, except for the wireless card which needed drivers the T40 didn't have.

I ran the system update program, and with some trepidation checked the BIOS update along with the misc. software updates.

The (DOS-mode) BIOS update program started after the other updates were done, and churned along for 30 seconds (I counted). Then it beeped and the system rebooted. I got the BIOS splash screen and hit the Access IBM button to check the version.

Instead of going into the BIOS it started loading the rescue and recovery partition. Maybe it always works like this, I don't remember. In any event I got impatient at this point and held down the power button until the system turned off. No harm, right? Just aborting the (long) rescue startup.

Well, now the system doesn't boot at all. No beeps, the display never turns on, but I do get the Numlock/Capslock flash at startup.

I'm not sure exactly what happened. The symptoms now look like the flash programming did not succeed. Though I can't explain how it appeared to boot once.

Where is the flash chip on the motherboard? Does anyone have instructions for reflashing it with an external programmer?

I have two T40 motherboards for parts. I could desolder the flash from one of them and put it on the T41 board. Any idea if that would work?

Any other ideas?

Thanks

[Harryc]

Yes desoldering the flash would work. The actual BIOS flash happens on reboot, which you interrupted. Your flash is toast.

[kday]

Ok, thanks... I don't understand how the BIOS would get erased, but not programmed until after it booted though. I powered the laptop off when it was in the rescue partition startup (with the bar graph at the bottom of the screen.)

Can someone point me to the flash chip on the motherboard, or give me a part number? I assume there may be more than one flash, don't want to swap the wrong one...

[fasterbybike]

I'm not sure which chip holds the BIOS. I'd imagine it is a plcc type chip soldered directly to the board and would be a bear to remove/replace. On a dead T42P that I have, there are 2 chips that are located on the mobo underneath the PC card bay. One has a sticker with 13R1144 and the other has a sticker 13R1146. I'd suspect it is one of these.

But to be honest I'd say the board is toast

[SteveS]

Your flash should have burned in the first step. Did you get all the warnings in the DOS program (AC adapter connected, charged battery connected, etc?) the flash program will not burn unless you answer all of these correctly (Y), then asks for one final time if you want to proceed (Y required). If you did not see these, I would guess the flash update program did not run.

What did happen is that Access IBM mapping has switched to Rescue and Recovery.. I think the Lenovo updates are doing this now. The BIOS screen you wanted to get to is accessed by pressing F1 during boot. So I don’t understand how interrupting the R&R process could have anything to do with the flash failure.

I would seriously doubt that the BIOS from a T40 would work in a T41. After all, that is the purpose of BIOS – to make a transparent interface between the operating system and the specifics of hardware. Note that not all of the flash memory is reprogrammed during a BIOS update. The machine serial number, system board ID are just a few of the things we can see that don’t change. There probably are some others we don’t see as well.

Programmed flash memory is not a serviceable FRU. Replacement of the system board is unfortunately required.

[kday]

Your flash should have burned in the first step. Did you get all the warnings in the DOS program (AC adapter connected, charged battery connected, etc?) the flash program will not burn unless you answer all of these correctly (Y), then asks for one final time if you want to proceed (Y required). If you did not see these, I would guess the flash update program did not run.

I did get those prompts, yes. It certainly appeared the programming process completed...

I would seriously doubt that the BIOS from a T40 would work in a T41. After all, that is the purpose of BIOS – to make a transparent interface between the operating system and the specifics of hardware.

That was certainly true at one time, but nowadays it seems more like a glorified bootloader. It might be close enough to at least run the flash programmer again.

[sarbin]

@SteveS...
"What did happen is that Access IBM mapping has switched to Rescue and Recovery."

can you elaborate? i'm interested in how the switch might occur, where the mapping for the Access IBM button is retained and if it can be modified.
tia.

[fasterbybike]

I would seriously doubt that the BIOS from a T40 would work in a T41.

T40 and T41 use the same BIOS, but ...

Programmed flash memory is not a serviceable FRU. Replacement of the system board is unfortunately required.

Agreed.

[fasterbybike]

I have two T40 motherboards for parts.

If either of these mobos are serviceable, you can replace your T41 mobo with one of these. The main differences between T40 and T41 were in the GPU fitted. The Hardware Maintenance Manualgives details of what is fitted to each machine type. Other differences included field replaceable parts such as CPU, RAM and HDD etc.