Failed BIOS update

I downloaded the latest BIOS update and burned it to a CD as an ISO since I'm running an x64 system. Rebooted and the BIOS utility started up. Beeped two times in the middle of the update, which I knew was a bad sign, but then displayed a message saying it had finished anyway. A window showed up saying to go ahead and remove the CD and reboot, which it won't do now.

All I get now when I try to turn it on is the AC plug light and circled Z light. Hd spins for like 1 second, screen doesn't come on at all.

Guess I have to send it in. Just sucks that it's jacked for now, since I can't send it in for another 2 months or so.

 

All modern mobos have backup bios chips. This is failure on Lenovo's part.

 

Mwok, that's not true.

Only desktop boards have backup BIOS chips and not all of them have that feature.

NO laptop motherboard has a backup BIOS chip. Most newer laptop motherboards have a "Boot Block" feature that allows the user to initiate a "recovery boot" mode but thats about it.

 

hated when these bios updates do that, which is one reasons i put off bios updates. Also many of the new updates seem to keep the fan speed running low, even when there is extremely high temperature, which i hate.

 

One of my biggest qualms. It was the hottest I've ever felt it right after the update I did today.

I realize now what I did wrong though and why the update failed. Although it's valuable information which could potentially help others avoid a similar crisis, at the same it's very embarrassing, and so will remain secret

 

Just out of curiosity, what did you do wrong so that we may learn from this thread?

 

i had to install TPFancontrol on all my thinkpads that had the recent update, to make sure that the temperature was alright and not getting too overtly hot. In some cases i have to ramp the fan speed up to make sure that the CPU don't cook the rest of the laptop or me if i use them on the lap.

 

Awwww, common don't be a secret keeper. We won't judge. It's not like you're coming on here saying "I installed 4GB Ram but my notebook only sees 3".

 

Ready to share with the class what you did?

 

Maybe he blocked the vents and it overheated?

 

Yes I think you should tell others we so we can avoid the same mistakes.

 

Don't newer BIOS chips have a boot block in them to allow for a recovery in case of a failed BIOS flash?

 

I think you should be a man and spill the beans—since you started the thread. I just updated my BIOS to the latest with zero issues—and no temperature changes either.

 

I had no idea my manhood was at stake.

I left the BIOS password on, and according to Lenovo BIOS update instructions, that is supposed to be removed before attempting an update.

Was it everything you all hoped for and more?

 

well that's not too bad...

that said i left my bios password on, and it updated fine

 

Well that's interesting, because I actually remember doing a BIOS update in the past with the password on and it worked fine then for me, too.

I guess it could have been something else, but really nothing else comes to mind and my Thinkpad was in perfect working order before that. It even looks brand spankin new a year later.

I even double checked the cd I burned, before and after all of this, and checked to make sure I had downloaded the correct BIOS package.

 

same thing happened to me. I had no idea if it was the password issue or what. I just sent my thinkpad in and the turnaround time was 3 days. Not bad since Lenovo has super crazy warranty service

 

There should be a BIOS Crisis recovery method if its a phoenix BIOS.

 

yes there should be.

Usually you have to hold a button while turning it on.

Could be ~, TAB, | and FN. But you just have to play around and you will find it. Then I think you have to put a usb floppy in with the BIOS files, it should work.

 

Bravo!!!! +1 for your rep dude.

Seriously though, I never would of thought about turning the bios password off. I've never attempted a bios upgrade though, too scary.

 

^Thanks haha...

I'm probably going to have to send it in. Just curious if anyone has had any experience with Lenovo warranty repair centers in the UK, as that's probably where I'll get it taken care of.

BTW, do I have to go through an authorized warranty repair center, which as far as I can tell is not run or owned by Lenovo, or somehow actually send it in to Lenovo?

Haven't done this before, hope it's the first and last time. I've heard the horror stories of some of the authorized warranty centers and really don't want my thinkpad coming back looking like trash. It's in mint condition right now, you know, minus the whole doesn't-even-turn-on thing.

 

What's the boot of your computer looking like ? Is everything black or do you get some led powering up ?

 

It goes a little something like this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2145362/11062009.mp4


And then right at the end it does its special epic fail move.

The screen stays off the whole time which is why I didn't bother showing it. By staying off I mean absolutely nothing on the screen, not a single sign of it being on or lit.

Edit: The dvd drive spins for a bit and does its thing, but that's because that BIOS fail CD I used is still in there.

 

Do the LED light up ? Basically I read about BIOS recovery if the LED are still working, but none if the computer has no light whatsoever.

I don't know if you want to bother about it or just send it to Lenovo, but there are some recovery procedures you could try. You may want to read this post : http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=2105

The procedure is not completely valid for Lenovo though, as there was a report that only booting with the Crysis Recovery Disk is needed, and not the keys combination.

Just my 2 cents.

EDIT : Haha, I just saw your edit, maybe there's hope then . Good luck

 

Yikes. These are the stories that draw me away from touching the BIOS on my systems. I have never updated any of my computers' BIOS, because 1.- there was never a pressing need to do so, and 2.- because I did not want to risk bricking my computer.

But to upgrade to Win7, it seems that some issues are resolved by updating the BIOS? Nervous

 

Definitely. I had an issue with my X200s with windows 7, and a BIOS update fixed it last week.

 

Thanks, I'll definitely check out that thread. The LEDs are turning on, so maybe there's still a chance that I can fix it myself.

If you want to upgrade to Win 7 and also update your BIOS with zero threat to your system, you could install a 32 bit OS, use the lenovo BIOS upgrade utility for 32 bit OS instead of the CD ISO and then proceed to install the 64 bit OS (if you use a 64 bit OS). The BIOS is completely the same for both, it's simply the install method that changes. The 'zero threat' tactic would def take a while longer though.

Or, just follow the instructions to the letter, and don't worry about it. Like I said, I left out a key step, removing the pw. I figured it had gone smoothly once before therefore I could probably pull it off in a haste the second time around. As we can all see, that did not happen.

It really isn't as bad as it sounds, and this is more likely an anomalous case rather than a common one.


Edit: MidnightSun, I just saw that you have your ram listed as 2gb in your sig. If you're using a 32bit OS, then you shouldn't have any trouble upgrading the BIOS as the CD ISO method is only for x64 operating systems. The lenovo bios update utility works perfectly.

 

out of curiosity, what was your issue?

 

There was a significant lag, when the screen was lit up after being dimmed black to save energy. Sometimes the screen would freeze for quite long (I'm talking 10+minutes here). I explained that in your thread a few days ago : http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428365&page=2

 

Guys if I dual boot with WinXP x86 and Win7 x64, is it safe to use the BIOS update utility from within WinXP?

 

Yes it is.

 

I have 2GB of RAM, but I am running Vista Business 64-bit, with the intention of upgrading to 4GB of RAM and an SSD, and then moving to Win7 64-bit.

But I have heard there is a new version of the inside-Windows BIOS upgrader for Windows 64-bit. I will wait until winter break when everything settles down some, and then get the guts to upgrade my BIOS and hardware... can't risk not having my Thinkpad perfectly functional before then.

 

win7 x64 bios updater works find on my t400s

 

hahahahaha. man, paranoia is hard to get rid of! it seems mine went away with win7 upgrade, but i'm still keeping close eye.

 

Is the Windows BIOS update utility really safer than using the CD ISO? I would have thought the opposite...

 

Well, according to MidnightSun, there will soon be a utility for the x64 version of Win 7, so I'd recommend you just go with that.

But yes, I think the utility has less chance of messing up.

 

I've long assumed that updating BIOS from DOS would be safer than from Windows, because the DOS BIOS updater is doing only that one thing, and not trying to simultaneously run (say) Windows Update, networking, other apps (yikes!), disk indexing, or other background processes as when in Windows. A quick Google search came up with three pages that agree with that assessment:

Demystifying BIOS updates - The DOs and DO NOTs

http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-update-howto.htm

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/254455-29-update-bios-windows
Everyone who responded recommended DOS over Windows.

So I think that, despite your bad experience this time, the DOS boot BIOS update is the safer way to go. (Not to mention the only way for those of us who don't run Windows on our ThinkPads. )

 

I have long stood by this rule. I flash the BIOS from bootable disks only. I have not FUBAR'd one yet. Knock on wood!

 

Thanks for the tip, didn't know the discs were actually safer.

 

+1, And I burn the disc's at the lowest speed. Not sure if that makes a difference or not, but I haven't had a failure yet.

 

I'm not quite that anal, LOL!, but it's true that the slower burn produces a more accurate copy.

 

Just resurrecting this thread as I tried a bios update on T400 Vista sp1 yesterday, and being very careful tried the ISO version for all the reasons pointed out earlier. But it wouldn't work. It would spin up the disk for a few seconds twice and then stop spinning and nothing would happen. I tried burning the image to two different cds thinking the first one had a problem. I also then tried a dvd. No luck. With significant fear , I tried the windows bios update. Lo and behold, it worked perfectly. What a relief. Anyone have similar problem? I'm wondering if I have a problem with my burner. Not sure why else it wouldn't work. Any thoughts?

 

Hi masmusic,

ISO files need to be burned to CD using a "Burn Disc Image to Disc" function (what Roxio Creator calls it), not just dragged over like you might do to burn individual files to CD.

Checking that a CD has been burned properly is harder than it has to be in Windows: I haven't found a direct way to get a checksum of an entire CD. Here's a work-around: Use your CD software to "Create Disc Image" (what Roxio Creator calls it) from the CD you just burned; save the disc image on your hard drive under a different filename (say: burned.iso) than the iso file you used to burn the CD (let's call it original.iso). Then use HashTab or similar to calculate the checksums of original.iso and burned.iso; they should be identical.

Best regards,
Frank

 

"Yikes. These are the stories that draw me away from touching the BIOS on my systems. I have never updated any of my computers' BIOS, because 1.- there was never a pressing need to do so, and 2.- because I did not want to risk bricking my computer.

But to upgrade to Win7, it seems that some issues are resolved by updating the BIOS? Nervous"

Midnight Sun,

I've done it both ways and I've never had any problem either way. I knew it was dangerous to the system and after a while, I got tired of the "danger".

Renee

 

Thanks, Frank.

I understand it is not drag and drop and am using Roxio creator loaded on the t400. By clicking the ISO image, it goes directly to the burn image to disc. That is why I was suspecting the burner or roxio. Some others have suggested a different burn image software, but at this point, I'll probably look into it for a future effort.

You also peaked my interest and I will check the discs I burned. I'm curious. In windows, of course, it shows up blank and says it has 0 bytes on it.

Marty

 

Hi Marty,

That was a surprise to me! I just looked at a BIOS update CD in Windows and you're right, Explorer doesn't show any files. Neither does opening a command prompt window and doing "dir /ah". Back in Explorer, right-clicking the CD icon and selecting Properties, does show 23.3 MB used.

-Frank

 

Unless you use a very specific software utility to read the burned files, extracted files from ISO 9660 El torito formats are basically always invisible to Windows. That's Pheonix's format of choice I believe, and that's different than most ISO formats you would find for games or software etc.

(Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.)