BIOS Upgrade success failure

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Lot's of people reported success/failure with BIOS_Upgrade#Booting_from_a_CD. If you managed, please, tell us about success, if failed, please, document the problems you've encountered, so people could avoid your same troubles.

Booting from CD

Here document your progress with BIOS_Upgrade#Booting_from_a_CD method.

Successful tests

Model Tested by, and comments
600E 2645-4AU
  • George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the cd image I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
600E 2645-5bU
  • Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
600X 2645
  • Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
600X 2645
  • Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
A20p 2629-6VU
A21e 2628-JXU
  • Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
A31p 2653
  • Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
A31 2652
  • Aaron Denney, BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. The cabextract/CD method also worked for BIOS 1.10.
R30
  • Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
R31
R40
  • Matthew Lambie, http://lambie.org
  • Antti S. Lankila, update to 1.27 via direct use of phlash16.exe against a BIOS image. Normal method did not work because the battery is dead.
R50 1836-3SU
  • jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
R50e 1834-PTG
  • item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
  • Christos Nouskas <nouskas at gmail dot com>: upgraded to BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10) and EC version 1VHT28WW (1.04) using GRUB (BIOS first / EC second)
R51 1829
  • Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
R51 1830-RM7
  • Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
R51 2883-ELU
  • quaternion, BIOS upgrade from 1VET64WW (1.22 ) to 1VET71WW (1.29). ECP version was already up-to-date at the time (1VHT28WW-1.04). Cabextract didn't work with disk exe, so used nondisk 1vuj25us.exe and upgraded successfully with cabextract/genisoimage/k3b burn to CD-RW.
R51 2887
  • Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
R52 1858
  • Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
T20
  • Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
T22
  • Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
  • Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --Mathiasb 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
  • Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
  • Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
T23
  • Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS first and the Embedded Controller second.
  • Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
  • Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
  • Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
  • Myron Getman: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 9/10/08 via cabextract --> k3b --> CD-boot. Worked like a charm. First BIOS update with Linux!
  • Leo Butler: BIOS 1.13 / EC 1.04 to 1.20/1.06a via cabextract and syslinux/memdisk boot through grub. Worked like a charm and no wasted CD.
T30
  • Martin Gühring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs in the directory the exe was extracted to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
T40
T40p
  • Lukas Krähenbühl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
  • Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
  • paper, BIOS 3.23 (1RETDRWW) flashed fine with cabextract/genisoimage method.
T41
  • Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
  • Ernesto Hernández-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
  • James Ballantine (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
  • Vladimir Pycha (to Bios 3.23 / EC 3.04, from Bios 3.20 / EC 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW. Booted with external USB optical drive (I have internal drive broken) - at the beginning of the boot sequence press PAUSE, then wait several seconds, then ENTER, then F12 and select the drive. Without pressing PAUSE I am not able to boot from USB optical/hard drive as the drive does not show in the F12 boot list menu.
T41p
  • Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
T42 2373-JXG
  • magarzo <mdr.magarzo at gmail.com> (BIOS v.3.23 / Embedded Controller v.3.04 / both with cabextract to non-diskette v. plus Bootable CD)
T42
  • Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
  • Hirosh Dabui <hirosh@dabui.de>
T42p
  • Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>, Hirosh Dabui <hirosh@dabui.de>
T43 1871-W34
  • Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
T43 1871-4AG
  • Martin McDowell 28-Feb-2010
  • BIOS 70ET62WW (1.22) to 70ET69WW (1.29),
  • ECP 70HT26WW (1.03) to 70HT28WW (1.05)

Both successfully upgraded from CD Image made from the instructions on this website.

T43 2687-D4U
  • Charles (BIOS 1.05 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
T43 2886
  • Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
T43
  • Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
  • Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
T60
  • 1951 Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
  • 8744-HCG Konstantin Khorenko <horenko at mail dot ru> (Bios 1.06 to 1.18) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
  • 1951 Juan Miguel Jiménez <bodypheo (at) gmail dot com> (Bios 1.07 to 2.14) Copy CD content into Dos usb bootable and run lcreflsh.bat. After updating I got error of PXE corrupted: here
  • Stefan Monnier successfully upgraded 14" 4/3 T60 via Grub using method 10A
T61
  • Kai Weber <kai.weber at glorybox dot org> (Bios 1.06 to 1.26) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
T410
  • Pablo Zometa (BIOS 1.35)
W530
  • Frank Bicknell <fbicknel at nc dot rr dot com>

Used geteltorito (wget http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/geteltorito) to extract the image from the .iso file downloaded from the Thinkpad website: geteltorito -o bios.img Downloads/g5uj18us.iso Next just copy the image to the flash drive: sudo dd if=bios.img of=/dev/sdb boot and enjoy.

X1 Carbon
  • Daniil Satsura <dsatsura at tut dot by>, (BIOS 1.06->1.16 / EC ->1.15) via use external USB CD-drive/burn Booable CD image gruj12us.iso
X20
  • Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
X21
  • Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
X22
  • David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
X23
  • Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
X30
  • Hella Breitkopf, www (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
  • William Roe <willroe at gmail dot com> (Embedded Controller 1.06, BIOS 1.09 - cabextract/mkisofs/wodim)
X31
  • Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
X31
  • Paul Litwack <paullitwack at gmail dot com> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.02 with cabextract/unetbootin method)

cabextract & unetbootin are staight foward(toggle floppy image instead of iso image in unetbootin dialog) No problems with update software. x31 has to be cajoled into booting from usb. Boot hangs when pendrive is present. Hit the key to bring up the boot menu. Unplug the pendrive. Let the boot menu come up. Plug in the pendrive. Select the pendrive in the boot menu and it boots.

X40
  • Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
  • Andy Shevchenko <andy.shevchenko@gmail.com> (Fine by cabextract/CD method)
Z60m
  • Morle 01:09, 17 Nov 2007 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.18 and Bios 1.24 with cabextract/CD method)

Unsuccessful tests

Model Tested by, and comments


GRUB2: Booting floppy Image

Successful tests

Model BIOS ECP Tested by Notes
T510 4349-5KG 6muj27uc.iso: BIOS 6MET88WW (1.48 ) EC 6MHT46WW-1.21 Marc Burkhardt Gentoo: sys-boot/grub-1.99-r2, sys-boot/syslinux-4.05
R30 2656-64G v.1.40 Yuri Spirin
R40 2723 1OHJ11WW.IMG 1PUJ25US.IMG Qunying memdisk from syslinux 3.70 (slackware 12.1)
R50e 1834NV1 1WUJ25US.IMG Jidanni memdisk from syslinux-common 2:3.84+dfsg-1 (Debian), grub2 (1.96+20080724-16)
R51 2888
T23 2647 1AUJ20US.IMG 1AHJ06US.IMG cthon memdisk from syslinux 4.02-1 (arch linux)
T40 2373 1RUJ37US.IMG 1RHJ10U2.IMG Euphoria memdisk from syslinux 1:3.31-4 (Debian package version)
T40 2373 1RHJ10U2.IMG
(3.04, 2004-11-15)		 1RUJ37US.IMG
(3.23, 2007-07-03)		 Morphics cabextract and memdisk from syslinux 3:1.36-4ubuntu5
T41 2373 1RUJ37US.IMG
(3.23, 2007-07-03)		 Tonko Fedora 12
T41p 2373 1RUJ37US.IMG
(3.23, 2007-07-03)		 Deggel cabextract and memdisk from syslinux 3.71 on gentoo
T41p 2373 James Lee
T42 2373 1RUJ37US.IMG Simon Csaba Endre Ubuntu 10.04 Pre-update versions: BIOS v3.21 / ECP v3.04 After-update versions: BIOS v3.23 / ECP v3.04
T42p 2374 1RUJ37US.IMG 1RHJ10U2.IMG Achim Derigs Debian GNU/Linux sid, works with `linux16 ...' and `initrd16 ...' only
X31 2673-CBU Jan Topinski
X31 2672-CXU TheAnarcat
X31 2672-JBU 3.02 1QUJ19US.IMG 1.08 1QUJ08US.IMG twbxf4 worked flawlessly
X31 2673-58G FaUl
X31 2672-PG9 Starox a big moment between starting update and the updating window
X31 2672-PG9 v3.02 1QUJ19US.IMG v1.08 1QHJ08US.IMG TeeLittle Apr 10, 2010: Using Debian 5.0 "Lenny" + package syslinux-common (Version: 2:3.71+dfsg-5). Pre-update versions: BIOS v2.11 / ECP v1.03
X40 2371 2.07 1uuj21us.exe 1.62 1uhj10us.exe Jakob Truelsen Worked on two X40-2371
X40 2386 2.08 1uuj22us.exe 1.62 1uhj10us.exe Galen Seitz memdisk from syslinux 3.61

(More successful grub tests are scattered in the previous table too.)

Unsuccessful tests

Model BIOS ECP Tested by Notes
R32 2658-NWU 2.16 1MUD23US.IMG n/a Mike Millman Boots into the BIOS flashing program just fine, but when it comes time to start the update process, the system hangs completely. Luckily, it hangs before it actually modifies anything... A hard reboot got me back into a working system. I would not recommend this route!
Template:R52e 1846-CGL 1.29
76UJ28UD.IMG		 1.01 Laszlo Takacs Boots into BIOS flashing program but it hangs up before the upgrade process. I used memdisk from syslinux-4.01.
T43 2668-F7G 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG Maus3273 I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.
X41 2525-FAG 2.09 74UJ15US Uwe Kleine-König booted fine (Debian syslinux 2:3.71+dfsg-5), but didn't succeed to write, just hang at "Don't restart or remove diskette etc. pp" (not bricked). Worked fine via CD method.
X41 2525-F8G 2.06 74UJ12US.IMG
2.07 74UJ13US.IMG
2.09 74UJ15US.IMG		 Lauri Koponen hangs while initializing the actual BIOS flashing process
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG works

GRUB2: Booting CD Image

Here document you progress with

Successful tests

Model BIOS ECP Tested by Notes
X100e 2876-55G 6xuj05uc.iso User:nikel
Template:Edge 1.17 6yuj04uc.iso User:theBro Current memdisk from syslinux worked (5/2010), the one provided by Ubuntu 9.10 did not.
X200s 1.13 6duj40uc.iso User:theBro Current memdisk from syslinux worked (5/2010), the one provided by Ubuntu 9.10 did not.
X200s 3.14 6duj41uc.iso 1.06 Dag Wieers Using memdisk from syslinux 4.01
X201 3626-A14 1.15 6quj05uc.iso 1.09 6quj05uc.iso Alexander List memdisk from syslinux 3.86
Edge 13" 0197-6GG 1.18 6yuj05uc.iso User:fethio Current memdisk from syslinux worked (5/2010), the one provided by Ubuntu 9.10 did not.
Edge 13" 0197-34Q 1.21 6yuj08uc.iso User:Kapil Current memdisk from syslinux debian version 2:4.02+dfsg-7
Edge 13" 0197-34Q 1.18 6yuj05uc.iso User:Kapil Current memdisk from syslinux debian version 2:4.01+dfsg-1
X200s 3.15 6duj42uc.iso User:lawnjam Memdisk 4.02 worked, the one provided by Ubuntu 10.04 did not.
X201 1.22 6quj08uc.iso 1.11 Dag Wieers Using memdisk from syslinux 4.03
T400 3.24 7uuj49uc.iso 1.06 David Douard Ubuntu Trusty + grub-imageboot (memdisk from syslinux 4.05)
T410s 1.41 6uuj12uc.iso 1.12 regatus Gentoo + memdisk (syslinux 4.0.3)
X201 1.40 6quj19us.iso 1.15 User:TomGoBravo Sep 14 2013; ubuntu 13.10 saucy daily release with included memdisk

Unuccessful tests

Model BIOS ECP Tested by Notes
T61 6466-55G 2.27 7luj26uc.iso 1.08 User:mgedmin Grub2 + memdisk (2:4.01+dfsg-3ubuntu1) booted the DOS image on the CD, which then tried to load a DOS CD-ROM driver, which then could not find the CD, and ended up with the infamous Abort, Retry, Fail.
X1 Carbon 20A7 1.16 gruj12us.iso 1.15 User:danix Grub2 + memdisk (syslinux-4.07) could not boot DOS image on the CD. After start booting shows error message:
...start booting
Lenovo Group Limited
Invalid system disk.
Replace the disk and press any key
X220 4291-35G 1.39 1.24 User:helge Boots successfully but freezes when I select Upgrade system program (Arch Linux, grub=1:2.02.beta2-4, syslinux=6.03pre12-3, grub-imageboot=0.6-2) - Booting from a USB Flash drive using the manual Linux-method based on geteltorito.pl worked for me.
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