- stalled bios update on x24; partition id on ibm_service?
- Posted by ivo welch on August 17th, 2003
can someone please describe to me exactly what the bios update (no
floppy) does? after the "click next" to presumably start flashing,
the computer immediately starts shutting down (I never see the bars
anymore), the mouse ptr eventually disappears, and the x24 requires a
hard reset. no bios update :-( same problem with the embedded
controller update.
I can only think of one item that is different on my x24 from the
stock. I ran e2fs which is an access program under winXP, which
allows me to mount ext2fs partitions. this works fine. however, e2fs
had an odd side effect, in that it did reveal the previously hidden
partition ibm_service.
does anyone know whether this different partition id could cause the
BIOS update problem? how exactly does the no-floppy bios update
utility function? does it do the update after a reboot, or before?
can a flash card play floppy disk? anything I can do?
advice appreciated...the ibm gsupport uys are unfindable.
/iaw
- Posted by Peter T. Breuer on August 17th, 2003
In comp.sys.laptops ivo welch <ivo.welch@anderson.ucla.edu> wrote:
It flashes your bios. read the docs that come with it for exact details
as to what the new code contains in the way of changes.
Why are you applying a bios update?
You generally should only run a bios flash from plain msdos, not
windows, with no buffer or memory extender TSRs present. It needs
real mode access.
Sounds like you have a virus.
I have an x24 (I am typing on it) and no bios update. What's it
supposed to do?
Nothing on the computer disk can influence a bios update.
Yes. No. Nothing on the disk is any business of the bios update.
How are you running it? I thought these things needed to be run from
floppy (aka plain msdos, no highmem.sys), and the XP has no floppy.
You tell me - you're the one with it in your hot litlle hand. I would
have thought it makes a ramdisk and runs off that.
No, you can use a cd, but the XP24 has no cd ...
They're generally always at work. But you will first have to specify:
a) what update precisely you are applying
b) how you are applying it
c) why you are applying it
Peter
- Posted by BillW on August 18th, 2003
If I remember right it creates a bootable partition on your hard drive and
when it restarts it boots dos and the BIOS program from there. When finished
it removes the partition and sets the bootable partition back. This is the
automatic upgrade using Update Connector. Most of this is explained in
Access Thinkpad. It sounds like the partition software you loaded is
blocking the update from running. You can try turning all startup programs
off and then try the update...
"Peter T. Breuer" <ptb@oboe.it.uc3m.es> wrote in message
news:f7vohb.tgv.ln@news.it.uc3m.es...
- Posted by sek on August 18th, 2003
"ivo welch" <ivo.welch@anderson.ucla.edu> wrote in message
news:5159bba2.0308180550.52d46618@posting.google.c om...
Are you sure about this? IBM has a three year warranty on their machines.
I have a much older X20 and it still has a little more than a month left on
warranty.
Sven
- Posted by ivo welch on August 18th, 2003
yes, it was a refurb. I did not realize that software support also
stops. I thought only free hardware repair stopped. Grrr....
