[Thinkpad] Hardware Maintenance Diskette

Discussion:

Anthony R. Gold

2011-08-11 00:57:08 UTC

All of my Thinkpad Hardware Maintenance Manuals claim that the Hardware
Maintenance Diskettes can be downloaded from http://www.lenovo.com/spm but
that link goes nowhere. Does anyone know whether the diskette can be found
anywhere? Does anyone have one from which they could email me an image? I
need the T60 in particular but the task I have to do - correct the machine
model number in the BIOS - may well be performed by diskettes for
different models.

David Ross

2011-08-11 01:59:57 UTC

Permalink

You don't say which version you need; a few versions can be found here:

http://www.os2site.com/sw/hardware/ibm/thinkpad/index.html

Others are available at some of the network of Chinese user sites (such as
http://www.51nb.com/), which are hard to navigate if you don't speak the
language but not so bad if you're looking for a specific disk or driver.

David

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Anthony R. Gold" <***@ahjg.co.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 2:57 PM
To: <***@stderr.org>
Subject: [Thinkpad] Hardware Maintenance Diskette

Post by Anthony R. Gold
All of my Thinkpad Hardware Maintenance Manuals claim that the Hardware
Maintenance Diskettes can be downloaded from http://www.lenovo.com/spm but
that link goes nowhere. Does anyone know whether the diskette can be found
anywhere? Does anyone have one from which they could email me an image? I
need the T60 in particular but the task I have to do - correct the machine
model number in the BIOS - may well be performed by diskettes for
different models.
_______________________________________________
Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad

Anthony R. Gold

2011-08-11 08:21:57 UTC

Permalink

Thanks for that. The latest one there is v1.69 and that is not working.
Gives errors and thinks the machine is a 570. I have seen mention of a
v1.79 and maybe that would help if I can find it. But maybe someone here
knows what I need for a T60.

Post by David Ross
http://www.os2site.com/sw/hardware/ibm/thinkpad/index.html
Others are available at some of the network of Chinese user sites (such as
http://www.51nb.com/), which are hard to navigate if you don't speak the
language but not so bad if you're looking for a specific disk or driver.
David
--------------------------------------------------
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 2:57 PM
Subject: [Thinkpad] Hardware Maintenance Diskette

David Ross

2011-08-11 09:36:47 UTC

Permalink

This might be 1.77:
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/i7tm25us.exe

Here is a discussion:
http://richlang.home.pipeline.com/TP-HWMD.html

and here is another that suggests that 1.73 and newer should be OK for you:
http://forums.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=90175

Good luck.

David

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Anthony R. Gold" <***@ahjg.co.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 10:21 PM
To: <***@stderr.org>
Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] Hardware Maintenance Diskette

Post by Anthony R. Gold
Thanks for that. The latest one there is v1.69 and that is not working.
Gives errors and thinks the machine is a 570. I have seen mention of a
v1.79 and maybe that would help if I can find it. But maybe someone here
knows what I need for a T60.

_______________________________________________
Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad

Anthony R. Gold

2011-08-11 13:25:27 UTC

Permalink

That is fantastic - many thanks.

I see that URL is on the Lenovo server. Having spent so much time looking
for the diskette for myself I am curious how you did find it. Is there a
path you could describe that should have navigated me there? Even putting
i7tm25us.exe in the search box brings 0 results. Teach a man to fish etc.

Post by David Ross
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/i7tm25us.exe
http://richlang.home.pipeline.com/TP-HWMD.html
http://forums.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=90175
Good luck.
David
--------------------------------------------------
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 10:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] Hardware Maintenance Diskette

_______________________________________________
Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad

David Ross

2011-08-11 20:35:03 UTC

Permalink

Post by Anthony R. Gold
I see that URL is on the Lenovo server. Having spent so much time looking
for the diskette for myself I am curious how you did find it.

Honestly, I can't remember. When I'm doing this kind of web search I kind
of zone out and let my fingers do the searching. It is usually faster for
me than trying to think things through consciously.

Post by Anthony R. Gold
Is there a
path you could describe that should have navigated me there? Even putting
i7tm25us.exe in the search box brings 0 results. Teach a man to fish etc.

I didn't bother looking on the Lenovo website, since the maintenance
diskette is not supposed to be for end users. I used a general search
engine (duckduckgo and/or google) on the file name i7tm23us.exe, found that
there were newer versions, and then merged the old ibm pcbbs website path to
the newest version with the Lenovo path
download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs... that seems to have replaced it
for most files.

David

Paul A. Pennington

2011-08-11 21:24:55 UTC

Permalink

David said:

...When I'm doing this kind of web search I kind
of zone out and let my fingers do the searching. It is usually faster for
me than trying to think things through consciously...

Ah, it's a Zen thing: you must become one with the ThinkPad, grasshopper.

Paul Pennington
Augusta, Georgia

Anthony R. Gold

2011-08-12 12:20:53 UTC

Permalink

Post by David Ross

Post by Anthony R. Gold
I see that URL is on the Lenovo server. Having spent so much time looking
for the diskette for myself I am curious how you did find it.

Honestly, I can't remember. When I'm doing this kind of web search I kind
of zone out and let my fingers do the searching. It is usually faster for
me than trying to think things through consciously.

Post by Anthony R. Gold
Is there a
path you could describe that should have navigated me there? Even putting
i7tm25us.exe in the search box brings 0 results. Teach a man to fish etc.

I had not heard of duckduckgo before, so thanks for that, and the magic
ingredient seems to be already knowing the file name of the part I had
been chasing.

Bernard Chan

2011-08-12 00:25:23 UTC

Permalink

Hello David, thanks for pointing out how to get this file; for the benefit
for those of us that are less well-informed, what are the things that the
maintenance diskette can do?

The other thing that I cannot understand, is why this program has to be run
from a floppy drive. The latter is getting rare these days and if the
program can be run say from a memory stick then it would be much more
convenient.

http://download.lenovo.com/**ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/**i7tm25us.exe<http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/i7tm25us.exe>
http://richlang.home.pipeline.**com/TP-HWMD.html<http://richlang.home.pipeline.com/TP-HWMD.html>
http://forums.thinkpads.com/**viewtopic.php?f=29&t=90175<http://forums.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=90175>
Good luck.
David
------------------------------**--------------------
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 10:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] Hardware Maintenance Diskette
Thanks for that. The latest one there is v1.69 and that is not working.

Post by Anthony R. Gold
Gives errors and thinks the machine is a 570. I have seen mention of a
v1.79 and maybe that would help if I can find it. But maybe someone here
knows what I need for a T60.

http://www.os2site.com/sw/**hardware/ibm/thinkpad/index.**html<http://www.os2site.com/sw/hardware/ibm/thinkpad/index.html>
Others are available at some of the network of Chinese user sites (such as
http://www.51nb.com/), which are hard to navigate if you don't speak the
language but not so bad if you're looking for a specific disk or driver.
David
------------------------------**--------------------
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 2:57 PM
Subject: [Thinkpad] Hardware Maintenance Diskette
All of my Thinkpad Hardware Maintenance Manuals claim that the Hardware

Maintenance Diskettes can be downloaded from http://www.lenovo.com/spmbut
that link goes nowhere. Does anyone know whether the diskette can be found
anywhere? Does anyone have one from which they could email me an image? I
need the T60 in particular but the task I have to do - correct the machine
model number in the BIOS - may well be performed by diskettes for
different models.
______________________________**_________________
Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/**mailman/listinfo/thinkpad<http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad>

______________________________**_________________

Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/**mailman/listinfo/thinkpad<http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad>

______________________________**_________________
Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/**mailman/listinfo/thinkpad<http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad>

--
Kind regards,

Bernard Chan

Anthony R. Gold

2011-08-12 13:40:17 UTC

Permalink

Bernard,

Around the time floppies went out of style (I guess Apple "led" the way on
that move) IBM added USB booting to their BIOSs and every certified old
fogies (blush) got one of these: http://cgi.ebay.com/290540127161.

After I fiddled a bit with David's link I found version 1.78 at:
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/i7tm26us.exe
and you will be thrilled to learn that it includes both the diskette
creator and also a program to make a self-booting USB drive that works
fine. I'm now hoping it can become the basis of a more generally useful
self-booting USB for stuff like Ultimate Boot CD etc. Please let's share.

Post by Bernard Chan
Hello David, thanks for pointing out how to get this file; for the benefit
for those of us that are less well-informed, what are the things that the
maintenance diskette can do?
The other thing that I cannot understand, is why this program has to be run
from a floppy drive. The latter is getting rare these days and if the
program can be run say from a memory stick then it would be much more
convenient.

Post by Anthony R. Gold
Gives errors and thinks the machine is a 570. I have seen mention of a
v1.79 and maybe that would help if I can find it. But maybe someone here
knows what I need for a T60.

______________________________**_________________

Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/**mailman/listinfo/thinkpad<http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad>

______________________________**_________________
Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/**mailman/listinfo/thinkpad<http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad>

--
Kind regards,
Bernard Chan
_______________________________________________
Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad

Anthony R. Gold

2011-08-12 14:12:40 UTC

Permalink

Post by Anthony R. Gold
I'm now hoping it can become the basis of a more generally useful
self-booting USB for stuff like Ultimate Boot CD etc. Please let's share.

At first blush it looks like COMMAND.COM is hard coded to looking for any
of this list of programs to start on a first found basis:

VPDCALL.EXE
CMDLLF.COM (This is the one they use for the Maintenance Diskette)
UUIDCALL.EXE
ADMIN.EXE
ECAINF.EXE
AUDCALL.EXE
KEYB.COM
LD850.COM

and if none is found then it executes userint.exe to stop. So it may be as
simple as renaming our own startup program to a name in that list.

Alex Austin

2011-08-12 14:15:42 UTC

Permalink

Otherwise, add install=myapp.exe to config.sys

Post by Anthony R. Gold

Post by Anthony R. Gold
I'm now hoping it can become the basis of a more generally useful
self-booting USB for stuff like Ultimate Boot CD etc. Please let's share.

At first blush it looks like COMMAND.COM is hard coded to looking for any
VPDCALL.EXE
CMDLLF.COM (This is the one they use for the Maintenance Diskette)
UUIDCALL.EXE
ADMIN.EXE
ECAINF.EXE
AUDCALL.EXE
KEYB.COM
LD850.COM
and if none is found then it executes userint.exe to stop. So it may be as
simple as renaming our own startup program to a name in that list.
_______________________________________________
Thinkpad mailing list
http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad

David Ross

2011-08-12 18:57:47 UTC

Permalink

For the benefit
for those of us that are less well-informed, what are the things that the
maintenance diskette can do?

Mainly change a few administrative BIOS settings (like system ID), and do
low-level drive formatting. Not normally important tasks for end users.

The other thing that I cannot understand, is why this program has to be run
from a floppy drive. The latter is getting rare these days and if the
program can be run say from a memory stick then it would be much more
convenient.

Since the program is intended for IBM technicians, convenience isn't an
issue - it is perfectly convenient for them. Floppy drives are still
manufactured and are widely available for under $15, so this is not a real
hardship. Plus, many older Thinkpads older won't boot from a memory stick.

Michael Geary

2011-08-11 05:18:47 UTC

Permalink

What about the downloadable BIOS update that runs in Windows (no diskette)?
Whenever I run it, it gives me two options, update bios and change model
number. I've never tried the second option, but maybe it's what you want?

http://www.google.com/search?q=thinkpad+t60+bios+update

-Mike

Anthony R. Gold

2011-08-11 08:17:18 UTC

Permalink

Thanks and I did try that. There is an offer with two boxes, perhaps needs
xxxx-yyy but the cursor is only allowed to modify the yyy - maybe because
there junk in the xxxx part.

Post by Michael Geary
What about the downloadable BIOS update that runs in Windows (no diskette)?
Whenever I run it, it gives me two options, update bios and change model
number. I've never tried the second option, but maybe it's what you want?
http://www.google.com/search?q=thinkpad+t60+bios+update
-Mike