Strange ThinkPad X41... engineering system?

[PiZzA EnGiNeEr]

I just got a used ThinkPad X41 and I've noticed it looks a little different than other X41s I've seen. It has a sticker above the keyboard that says "Lenovo" and the logo on the outside lid is the newer ThinkPad logo and the logo inside the palmrest is the traditional IBM ThinkPad logo. Also on the bottom there is a sticker that says "Not a customer ship level system". It's machine type 2525-6HU and it has a weird serial number.. KV-00xxx

My question is... is it safe to update the BIOS on this machine with the latest X41 code? There is an option in the BIOS under config that says "Debug port" that I don't think I've ever seen on a ThinkPad before. If I update the BIOS will is possibly brick the machine? For some reason it won't power on with an X4 ultrabase attached but otherwise it seems to function fine. Any ideas on this?

[sjthinkpader]

At least run the BIOS capture utility and save a copy of this unique BIOS:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-41472

[tim S]

A Google search reveals that your X41 shipped with BIOS 74ET30WW 1.00 (01/31/2005).
This is the first BIOS for that machine and will allow you to install other hard drives or SSD's
without the annoying 2010 error.
It seems to me that your machine was perhaps a prototype put together to see if it could
be made to be more Lenovo and less IBM. Maybe Lenovo was going to change some of the
internal workings of the machine as well, thus the BIOS debug.
As to changing the BIOS to a newer version I doubt anything bad would happen but it's your call.
More worrying and annoying is the fact that it won't boot with the base attached.
Tim S

[PiZzA EnGiNeEr]

It seems like the Ultrabase X4 is working now after I did a restore defaults in the BIOS... I think I'm going to leave the BIOS alone as it looks like everything else works as it should. I'll post a couple pics of it in a little bit for you guys to take a look at. Thanks

[mrozema]

Definitely sounds like a pre-production unit.