From: Bruce Markowitz (scosgt_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: Thu Jul 18 2002 - 13:34:35 EDT
First of all, the problems you had originally were not BIOS related, you
didn't have the proper drivers installed from the IBM web site.
I suspect the BIOS is now toast, I think someone like Nortek couple probably
install a new BIOS, but the cost would be more than the price of a new
system board, which you can find on ebay for under $100.00
----- Original Message -----
From: "alex" <ace_at_roadfly.org>
To: <THINKPAD_at_cs.utk.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2002 12:22 PM
Subject: TP600 BIOS lost ?? (new subscriber)
> Greetings all. My name is alex, and I'm new to the list.
>
> I just picked up/pieced together this used TP600/266 recently, and I
afraid I
> made a nonrepairable mistake with the BIOS.
>
> After piecing together the TP600 (had core but no periferals), I
lowleveled a
> HD and installed litestep over win98se. I was seeing the characteristic
> errors associated with an outdated BIOS under win98 (modem not detecting
> properly, bus mastering, etc), so I decided to update the BIOS to the
current
> version on ibm's support site. Sounds fine so far, right?
>
> Well, here's where I made the mistake. I only had a Zip and CDRom, no
floppy
> or PCMCIA storage, so I attempted to make a bootable CD image of the BIOS
> updater disk. The TP600 wouldn't recognize the cd properly, and after
several
> attempts, both burning and loading, I figured that was not going to work.
I
> loaded the information from the BIOS updater onto my HD and rebooted to
DOS
> using a Win98 bootable cd. From there (idiotically), I ran the
command.com
> for the updater and proceeded to "update" my BIOS. I guess the updater
must
> use absolute memory addressing or something, and having DOS running scewed
the
> pointers a bit.
>
> After the "update" I was instructed to power down the machine and reboot
while
> pressing F1 to enter the BIOS menu, but nothing happened. The power light
and
> the light all the way to the right light up (HDD activity light??) and the
fan
> spins, but nothing else happens. There is nothing displayed on the
screen,
> and no audible HDD activity.
>
> Judging from the ibm TP service manual, I have badly corrupted my BIOS and
> need a new system board.
>
> This computer is basically a project computer that I do some coding and
> small-scale compiling on, but I would like to find out if there is an
> inexpensive fix before I scrap the guts and attempt to wire the TFT in my
> truck.
> Can the BIOS IC be removed and a new one reinstalled?? Do I really need
an
> entire new main system board (I have to check the TFT size, as the par #'s
are
> different for different TFT's)?
>
> Anyone have a TP600 BIOS that they want to part with?? Is there any way
to
> recover from this mistake??
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> -ace
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>
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