Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

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ro-germ
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Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#1 Post by ro-germ » Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:14 pm

So, after I completed repairs on the LCD..new lamp...and got the GPU reflowed, I reassemble the laptop to bring it back on line. It takes a minute to bring up the Bios screen and was surprised to find that it couldn't recognize the CPU speed. It saw the type and the make but couldn't tell the speed (1.7). When I looked at the Bios and controller version it answered my delema. The bios and controller were 1 step above the initial set up version, so I dropped a 1.3 out of a T40 and temp solved that problem.
I WAS going to load up windows and go to Lenovo support to upgrade the bios to where it should be: BUT when I attempt to do that I get a "Line error and something about a corrupt or missing "inf" file and instructed to stop loading.
Now, since I cannot load an OS of any kind on the get online my next option is to update the BIOS by diskett or cd-rom. Haven't used floppys in years. So I'm down to a bootable bios cd. I've done some research as to how to accomplish this and it get's a little technical for my feeble mind, so what I am wondering does anyone know of a website or who to contact so I can get :CD iso file of the correct bios and embeded controller for the T41p to try and get this puppy back up? TIA R :mrgreen: og

richk
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Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#2 Post by richk » Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:19 pm

I think you are going to need to use a USB floppy. I don't remember a CD version

Kaervak
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Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#3 Post by Kaervak » Thu Nov 12, 2009 6:59 pm

ro-germ, I can make the BIOS & ECP update boot CDs for you. I'll have them up in a bit. :)


Right Click -> Save As
BIOS:
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kaervak/2373GGUbios.iso

Embedded Controller Program:
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kaervak/2373GGUecp.iso

ro-germ
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Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#4 Post by ro-germ » Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:55 pm

Thank you sir I'll give 'em a try and see if I can revive this thing. Appreciate you help very much. Rog

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Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#5 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:59 pm

I'm having similar problems with a T40p which uses the same BIOS/ECP.
Trying to use a USB floppy to update the ECP. Waiting for over an hour but still nothing going...
Now trying your CD version, and still waiting...

Q: after having done loads of T23 and T30 BIOS/ECP updates, where you always do the BIOS first, out of that habit I also updated the T40p BIOS first to V3.23, which went without a hitch (using USB floppy).
Now the ECP update does nothing...

Actually, after trying it a few times, I just made sure to keep the CD running, by quickly hitting Y/Enter/Enter/Y, so the CD never stopped turning. Success!
Thanks Kaervak :D
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)

Check out The Boardroom for Parts, Mods and Other Services.

ro-germ
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Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#6 Post by ro-germ » Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:38 pm

As I was saying I was attempting to revive a T41p I bought when I ran into a small problem with the Bios not recognizing the speed of the stock 1.7 processor that it came with and which I installed a 1.3 from another T40 that I had and it saw that ok. Then when attempting to load an operating system I continued to get a "damaged system file" error, which prevented that and me from being able to upgrade the bios and ESC so that the computer would see the 1.7 processor.
Even with the CD Iso's so graciously provided by Mr. Kaervak (Thank You Again!) It would only allow me to update the ESC and not the Bios with the CD's, repeating "damaged system file" error. At this point I was ready to throw in the towel and start searching for a good used motherboard to complete the project. Then... for some unknown reason I reinstalled the 1.7 processor to see if the ESC would have solved that problem and forgot that I left the Bios disc in the dvd drive and when I exited the bios screen with it still showing "????" for processor speed the cd took off and it went into the Bios upgrade and completed without a hitch. I guess from the computers point of view having the other processor in could be considered a damaged file. Anyway, she's up and running strong with XP on it. Thanks Again

plazma247
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Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#7 Post by plazma247 » Mon Sep 26, 2011 9:13 pm

Ok after this took me over 3 hours to fully work out, I thought it was best I save others from the ball ache, I know its an old post, but this may help someone else out there :)

As well all know for what ever reason IBM decided not to release a Windows Disk Less Update for the 3.04

After creating lots of coasters attempting to get it going by exporting the floppy image and converting it to CD I stumbled onto this post (thinking for the first time ever magic iso had failed me).. my cds booted and like im sure many others got stuck at : reading the embedded controller program file.

The iso provided here for 3.04 also failed to work for me, at this point I was starting to lose my cool, and then I noticed if you scroll down the page on IBM ECP update you can get the older versions and it was there I noticed 3.03 had a disk less install (windows flash), I don't have a floppy drive and the CD iso method had bore no happiness.

Link for official download page for disk based 3.04 and older versions (disk less)
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... MIGR-50273

So i tried the disk less 3.03 upgrade and would you adam and eve it, loaded first time no issue under windows...

Grrr Still no 3.04 but one step closer, it was at this point i decided to pick apart the 3.03 disk less installer and well well well, looks like it just used a floppy image, so i took out the 3.04 disk image I created earlier with virtual disk and replaced 3.03 update with my 3.04, stuck it all into a self running rar (exe) file and what ja know, the bugger works, stone the crows.

So here it is the disk less update (windows based) for 3.04 embu1r71.exe that IBM never actually made :)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=W3WS7FBV
http://www.fileserve.com/file/JYeUyG4/embu1r71.exe
http://www.filesonic.com/file/2208757381/embu1r71.exe

And anyone who tells you that you have to do the ECP update before the bios is wrong, i went from the 1 but lowest rev bios and the 1 but lowest rev ecp, upgraded the bios first to latest and then got stuck on the ecp, that was until I found this solution.

WHY OH WHY IBM never made a disk less install for this and instead offer everyone a disk only upgrade for 3.04 is frankly beyond me, cus as I have proved it wasn't hard when I had the right tools and a little know how.

This release supports the following systems:
- ThinkPad R50, R50p
- ThinkPad R51 (M/T 1829, 1830, 1831 and 1836)(*1)
- ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p

Note: (*1) Machine Type 2883, 2887, 2888, 2889, 2894 and 2895 of ThinkPad R51 family are not supported.

Obviously if you brick your system running this don't come crying to me, you run take the file and run it at your own risk, basically once the installer runs, follow the instructions and and for the love of god don't turn the system off until it completes. If you worried about a virus, go and get the 3.03 disk less and confirm for yourself the CRC for the exes in that self expanding rar is still the same, the only other file is the just the disk image. If your really worried make your own, but believe me its clean here is a scan result from virus total (0 out of 43 hits) : http://tinyurl.com/5tvcg28

Now my laptops rocking on 1.7GHz SL7EP Dothan instead of the previous piss poor 1.3 Banias :) woot, anyone upgrading the CPU i needed a later bios before it would boot the 1.7 chip, also if you get another cpu check here:

Right time for bed :) peace out yall.

Ogg
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Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#8 Post by Ogg » Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:30 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:I'm having similar problems with a T40p which uses the same BIOS/ECP.
Trying to use a USB floppy to update the ECP. Waiting for over an hour but still nothing going...
Now trying your CD version, and still waiting...

Q: after having done loads of T23 and T30 BIOS/ECP updates, where you always do the BIOS first, out of that habit I also updated the T40p BIOS first to V3.23, which went without a hitch (using USB floppy).
Now the ECP update does nothing...

Actually, after trying it a few times, I just made sure to keep the CD running, by quickly hitting Y/Enter/Enter/Y, so the CD never stopped turning. Success!
Thanks Kaervak :D
My T40p is sitting at ECP 3.04 and BIOS 3.21. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't recall doing anything special to update my TP with ECP 3.04. I've been using Thinkvantage System Update. It seems to be quite automatic in downloading and applying updates.

BTW... is the effort from BIOS 3.21 to 3.23 worth it?
T60 2008-CTO - 1.83GHz, 2.5GB RAM, 250GB
T40p 2373-AU4/G3U - 1.6GHz, 1.5GB RAM, 60GB 7200rpm

plazma247
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Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#9 Post by plazma247 » Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:24 am

The TP in questions is not running Thinkvantage System Update, the system came to me with an OS and now its running Win 7 :)

Many people like myself wouldnt run something like Thinkvantage, which although im sure is a very good idea for a number of users can in some cases cause issues, for example i think one of the TP had a problem with the latest bios flash and non ibm hard disk and many uses had to go back to older bois revsions to cure this.

However if you were auto pushed the latest ECP update through thinkvantage, it must mean IBM did a winflash possibly for the latest ECS, lol would have saved me some time if they had put in on their website.

The 3.23 bios brings these fixes:

- (Fix) ThinkPad will not resume after undock from a docking station
while a system is in hibernation mode.
- (New) USB storage drive letter handling modified.
- (New) Support for a new video memory for certain AMD video chips.

Ogg
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Location: Ontario

Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#10 Post by Ogg » Tue Oct 04, 2011 10:02 pm

plazma247 wrote:The 3.23 bios brings these fixes:

- (Fix) ThinkPad will not resume after undock from a docking station
while a system is in hibernation mode.
- (New) USB storage drive letter handling modified.
- (New) Support for a new video memory for certain AMD video chips.
Do you know what spcifically the "drive letter handling" is all about? I haven't really noticed a problem with that.

The other "fixes" wouldn't really concern my usage of my TP. I don't use a dock and I don't have AMD chips.
T60 2008-CTO - 1.83GHz, 2.5GB RAM, 250GB
T40p 2373-AU4/G3U - 1.6GHz, 1.5GB RAM, 60GB 7200rpm

ajkula66
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Re: Problem with Bios T41p 2373GGU

#11 Post by ajkula66 » Tue Oct 04, 2011 10:09 pm

Ogg wrote:
I don't have AMD chips.
Oh yes, you do.

AMD = ATi

The former has acquired the latter a while ago...
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

AARP club members:A31p, T43pSF

Abused daily: T61p

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