Force Upgrade a T20 to T21(orT22) BIOS

[micl9]

Hey All,
After getting all the bugs worked out of my T20 1/2 I started wondering if;
1) It is possible to force upgrade the BIOS to a different model?
2) There is any benefit?

I have done this in the past on an AOpen XC CUBE. Enabling the SATA connectors on the mobo. As AOpen uses the same Mobo in 2 units, one with and one without SATA capability. But both physically having the connectors - so a pretty obvious benefit.

Stumbled across this Force Upgrade a Thinkpad T20 to latest Thinkpad T22 BIOS over at Thinkwiki (not sure if linking to other sites is OK or not - Apologies if it is, and mods please delete reference.)

Out of either boldness or stupidity I gave it a try
Did not work going T20 to T21 latest BIOS or exactly as written T20 to T22 v1.06.
Both give error "File Open Failed on PLATFORM.BIN" - not one of the files created in the explanation.

The link only mentions 2 of the 3 BIOS files "$0179000.fl1 (renamed to BIOS.BIN) and $0179000.fl3 (renamed to PLATFORM.IMG)"
Would changing $0179000.fl2 to PLATFORM.BIN?
Doing this one without some expert opinion would be stupid.
Any thoughts?

And as for the benefits of doing this?
The post mentions faster booting. Is this advantage only on T22s or both T21 and T22?
As well as support for 1400x1050 resolution.
Would faster T22 CPUs, 1.0 GHz, also be possible? Seems I read somewhere that a T20 cannot use a 1.0 GHz CPU.

Well that's my hacking and rambling for the night.

[ajkula66]

Forcing the BIOS update - apart from being dangerous and possibly turning your T20 into a door stopper -won't get you where you'd like to be.

Your planar won't take a stronger CPU, or a higher resolution LCD, that's all there is to it. I very much doubt that any BIOS update or hack will get you across that bridge.

Good luck.

[TTA]

done a ton of them, never broke one. do a search for the battery less BIOS update, you have to rename some files and run the update manually but once you're done the machine will take a 1GHz CPU I just did one not even 6 months ago. When I used to own a store we would buy lots of low end machines (cheap) upgrade them and resell them.
If you want to be safe try a T20 BIOS first I'm pretty sure you have to use a T21 tho. I MIGHT have an image of the update floppy I used but it's on another computer upstairs. give me a few and I'll check.
pretty sure I just re made the disk whenever I needed tho.


edit
PS
I owened 3 used computer stores and still own my website. I am not exagerating when I say I bet I've owned and sold over 1000 thinkpads over the past 11 years. trust me it works.

[TTA]

oh a 700MHz T20 can take a 1GHz CPU (if I recall) it was the 650MHz ones we had to force. This I'm sorta fuzzy on, it's 2:00am and I just got out of bed LOL

[TTA]

ok, yes I did save a copy of the T20 to T21 upgrade disk. I just reformatted my T61p and loaded win7 so unfortunately I have not installed a new FTP program yet. (I'm on a spare computer in my basement office so none of that stuff is it.
Come the AM (to me that's about 1:00pm est LOL) I'll get it up as well as all the maintenance disks I have (as long as that's not against forum rules) and post a link.

[micl9]

Thanks for the input guys!

@George - I know its risky, but the hacker in me enjoys the thrill of the chase! I can't help myself!

@Jim - Please do post your disk image. Only other benefit besides 1Ghz CPU that I would be interested in is the faster load speed. Do you know if the comment that a T22 posts quicker than a T20/21 is true?
On the same page I linked to they talk about a battery less BIOS upgrade.

Now to find a 1GHz CPU...

[Neil]

Now to find a 1GHz CPU...

I should have one or two laying around here, that I doubt I will ever use. PM for details.

[TTA]

Thanks for the input guys!

@George - I know its risky, but the hacker in me enjoys the thrill of the chase! I can't help myself!

@Jim - Please do post your disk image. Only other benefit besides 1Ghz CPU that I would be interested in is the faster load speed. Do you know if the comment that a T22 posts quicker than a T20/21 is true?
On the same page I linked to they talk about a battery less BIOS upgrade.

Now to find a 1GHz CPU...

no, not really we just fixed em and sold them (hate to be blunt but it's the truth) many Mondays we would ship 70+ machines. I probably have a 1Ghz CPU laying around too if he can't find one.
still not up (sorta just checking email) but I will have that link today.

[Harryc]

TTA, as far as posting links to maintenance disks, please do not do that if we're talking about images of the Thinkpad Hardware Maintenance Diskette.

[TTA]

here
http://rapidshare.com/files/350577962/I ... e.exe.html

my Old as dirt FTP program will not work in win7
if you look at this disk it should give you a pretty good clue as to how to do a T22 disk BUT I never tried that so be careful.
This is just a BIOS upgrade diisk from a T21 modded to work in a T20
I will not post maintenance disks.
Sorry

[micl9]

Thanks Jim!
Works like a charm
My instructions on how to use Jim's image (Jim please correct me if I have given bad instructions)
DISCLAIMER - PERFORM AT YOUR OWN RISK
1) run the self extractor and dump to a floppy
2) put floppy in your T20 and boot
3) after date and time inputs type "PHLASH.EXE"
You now have a T20 with T21 BIOS - enjoy

And I just had to try it - flashing with T22 BIOS also works.
But looks identical to T21 so I am not sure there is any benefit over just using T21 BIOS.

I would imagine that this method would also work for downgrading to an earlier version.

My T21 is a T21 again!

[TTA]

looks about right to me.
maybe I'll write an autoexec.bat and make a new image but not today
feel free to post this disk anyplace, I don't care and hey it's not like I wrote the bios or anything LOL
I also have the images to turn Pentium 770's and 380XD's into machines that coudl take a PII probably not too usefull anymore but I have them.

[RistoE]

Thanks,

This was an easy and interesting upgrade. I have T20 with Error 189 (RFID mismatch), I flashed it into T21 in order to see if that would help. The update went ok, but the error 189 still stays. Does anybody know how to reset the UUID from T21 (now), since my UUID has been empty and I would try rewriting it if that would help?

Another thing I still could try is flashing this (t20) T21 into T22 if that would help?

[RealBlackStuff]

For the UUID you need the not-to-be-discussed Hardware Maintenance Diskette.

[omarz]

Can anybody tell me how to downgrade the embedded controller version on thinkpad t20? I upgraded a t20 to bios version 1.22, ec firmware version 1.06 and the fan is not starting when the cpu is hot. The problem of fan not starting on thinkpad t20-21-22 and others is well known and nobody seems to know a fix http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/177167-28-problem I upgraded(run ibm bios update utility) to old version 1.12 with ec version 1.0 but the ec version remains the same, 1.22. I think the problem is the embedded controller firmware that doesn't start the fan. Thank you in advance for any help!