T4x (T40-43) Update BIOS ohne Akku

[ccc]

Hallo

Wie kann ich BIOS bei einem IBM Thinkpad T42 ohne Akku updaten?

 

[ATh]

Brauchst mindestens einen elektrisch kompatiblen Akku; mechanische Inkompatibilität kannst Du umgehen, entweder mit selbst gebasteltem Adapterkabel oder mit Zerlegen bis runter aufs nackte Mainboard, dann passt jeder elektrisch kompatible Akku an den Anschluß.

ATh.

 

[l0n3ly]

So hab ichs bei einem T60 gemacht, wird denke ich mal bei einem T4x auch klappen. Wichtig ist, dass man den Neustart unterbricht und gleich den EC mitflasht. Sonst kann es sein, dass das TP nicht mehr startet:

For the t61 lenovo I renamed the $01af000.fl1 to bios.rom and I renamed the $01af000.fl2 to platform.bin. Then use the winphlash tool that is apart of the bios update download from lenovo (it is in the folder you download). I browsed to the bios.rom file and ran the update with out problems. the system rebooted and came up normaly. I had the same problem with a battery error and this got around it.

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I flashed the middleton BIOS for an R61i (14.1" model 7732 with firewire): battery is also dead, so I used WinPlash.exe directly, skipping WINUPTP.EXE. (As the latter insists on a charged battery.)

I renamed the image files as well, but I guess it’s of no importance. – Initially I thought `platform.bin` is linked to from `bios.rom`, but no. It turned out that the embedded controller did not got flashed! I was lucky the new BIOS worked with the old controller.
Once rebooted into Windows, I restarted the tool and selected platform.bin, flashed it (I got a warning, see below), then canceled the reboot (be quick!), then selected bios.rom and flashed it again. – And I ended up with a working system with both BIOS and EC updated.
How did I know the tool can do multiple flashes in a row without reboot?

• I actually flashed bios.rom twice in the beginning, just to see the behaviour of the tool without risking too much.

How did I know platform.bin will not get flashed over the BIOS instead of updating the Embedded Controller?

• Before flashing I tried the “Backup BIOS only” option a couple of times. WinPlash reads the image file in any case and checks compatibility according to the screen messages. This gave me a hint that platform.bin has to contain instructions on what to do, because the EC would never ever pass as proper system BIOS. I also tried doing backup with a random file as image, which crashed WinPhlash. So I was pretty sure the image is read for backup and it does make sense for the tool. – I also noticed that the backup file is ~4MB for a BIOS backup, but only ~2MB for the EC (e.g. backup started with platform.bin instead of bios.rom).

Did I get any surprises?

• Yes, the platform.bin backup-and-flash gave me a warning. "... The System Platform may be different from the Image file." WinPhlash also mentioned the version string of the (new) BIOS (e.g. 7LETC7WW and something like 7KHTR0K0, which looks like the version string of a virgin Embedded Controller). Proceed Yes/No? I thought: if it overwrites the EC now, it is exactly what I want. If it overwrites the BIOS, well, I plan to flash the BIOS again anyway, so maybe it works. (And it did!)

Anything on the timing?

• The BIOS flash took like 1-2 minutes, doing 21 blocks. The EC was only 2 blocks, so it was faster. I kept an eye on the screen, because you have only 10 seconds to cancel the reboot after flashing finishes.

 

[ccc]

Danke, irgendwie hat es ohne Akku mit dem externem floppy usb drive (lohnt sich wirklich die alte Sachen manchmal zu behalten) funktioniert:
1.) Ich musste von http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm WIN98 setup floppy erstellen.
2.) Bootbare floppy mit dem BIOS update erstellen.
3.) Zuerst mit dem WIN98 setup floppy den Laptop starten
4.) Nacher zu Bios Update floppy wechseln
5.) QKFLASH.exe gestartet, bekamm aber diese Fehlermeldung "Cannot flash if Memory Managers (e.g. HIMEM) present"
6.) zurück zu WIN98 setup floppy und habe die Datei HIMEM.sys gelöscht
7.) wieder mal der Laptop mit dem WIN98 setup floppy gestartet
8.) zu Bios Update floppy wechseln
9.) QKFLASH gestartet und ein Erfolg, diesmal wird das Bios Update ohne Fehlermeldung gestaret
10.) Tee trinken gehen und abwarten bis geupdatet wird.