My Half Hour Old X60 Tablet BRICKED!

Well anyways I just received my X60 Tablet this morning at 9:30 AM. Was configuring Vista and all, running updates then....

When updating the BIOS via Thinkvantage software suite, it froze in the middle of installation! I held the power button until it turned off, pressed the power button a few seconds later and all I got was a repeated beep. Turned it off again and then on again and nothing, the X60 powers on but no screen image, no HDD activity and no BIOS boot screen.

Called IBM support, they're sending me a box tomorrow and hopefully I will have it back next week.

Anyone else experience a bricking Thinkpad during BIOS update - and was it repaired in a timely manner, and finally what did they replace/fix?

So far my interactions with IBM support have been great, nobody picked up the phone named Gupta (no offense) and I could understand the english language perfectly unlike some companies (Outsourcing FTW!)

My config of the Laptop was as follows:

L7400
2Gb RAM
12.1 SXGA+ Multiview (AMAZING)
Vista Business F*** Me - Ultimately the cause of the freeze
100gb 7200RPM Drive
X6 Ultra Base w/ DL DVD Burner

One last handful of questions:

I understand that I can purchase Recovery CDs for WIndows XP Tablet PC Edition for the X60 tablet, is that correct?

What exactly do they do for me - are drivers already on them or do I have to download all of them from Lenovo.com?

Finally, I just put the Recovery CDs in the drive and it recreates the hidden AND the boot partition, correct?

Will they work even with a formatted HD because at the depot I am having them reformat the drive?

All in all, my 15mins of Tablet PC experience has been a dream and I don't know how I'll ever go back to traditional computing.

Lastly, my motivation for purchasing the Recovery CDs is:

1) Cheaper than actually buying Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

2) XP Rocks and Vista Blows

Really finally this time, is there any benefit to keeping Vista over XP Tablet PC edition as far as handwriting recognition or any other Tablet features?

BTW I have Office 2007 Enterprise on the way for $20 through Home Use program @ my summer internship - already checked, XP is not available.

Sorry for the long read but appreciate any responses!

-Will

 

As a general rule of thumb...even if a BIOS update appears to freeze...you do not power down the machine. Because of that, you literally only have a fraction of all the BIOS code needed (it erases everything before writing new BIOS).

 

Too late now I guess, the entire laptop was frozen for an hour. An hour is an hour too long as I have done BIOS updates on my T60p and it has never frozen.

Anyway, do I need an entirely new Motherboard?

 

do you have usb floppy maybe try recover bios from floppy disk flash

save youself send it back

 

That's what I got the 3 year depot warranty and accidental protection plan for.

 

Could I use these,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=130134021464&rd=1&rd=1

and use that to change OS's, what about a validation key?

Thanks again!

 

Froze for an HOUR? That's probably bad in and of itself...

You shouldn't need a new mobo...they ought to have the tools necessary to connect with some pins on the motherboard to force reprogram the BIOS for you. I've done similar recoveries with bricked code before at work (I don't work with laptops at work though...I work with other devices that use microprocessors and stuff).

 

Possibly it was because Windows Vista had finished updating and wanted a reboot, I decieded to reboot after the BIOS flash which could have been a mistake....

 

Eskimo, how many Thinkpads have you purchased since you joined NBR?

 

3, returned one.

T61 15.4 WSXGA+ Everything maxed except RAM - returned

T60p Everything maxed except RAM - kept

X60 Tablet - Above - kept

I love it here BTW

 

My friend got an X60 a while ago - during the memorial day holiday - he loves it. I personally love seeing it because of its size and the full size keyboard, but once that screen comes on I can't handle the 1280x1024 or whatever resolution its at... because I"ve become so used to the WSXGA+ 1680x1050 on my 21" and my T60 that anything lower just feels too big. If / when i buy my next laptop, which probably wont be for a few years, I want a WUXGA 15.4" like the new Dell Inspiron M4300

 

I'm also curious about this, I want to nuke the entire drive with Linux and install a clean version of Vista since I don't have a retail Vista disc. I don't remember any specific answers about what the restore disks do without the wasted.. errr... hidden partitions.

I also have to say that the bloatware is just awful, Lenovo should be ashamed of themselves for putting so much on a business notebook.

 

The resolution on my tablet is 1400x1050, and actually has 1 less DPI than WUXGA on a 15.4" so the resolution is SUPER high for a 12"

 

Wow... really? I've never seen 1400x1050 on a 12"... didn't know it'd be that high. I've had 1400x1050 on a 15" 4:3... lol

 

Well I learned today that the System Board would not ship from China until the 27th of July. I said f that and that they can mail me my system back so that I can return it for a different model from CDW. I plan on getting CDW# 1240784.

X61 Tablet with 120gb HD, 2gb ram, Vista Business, X6 Base w/ DVD Burner. Any idea if it has Turbo Memory, it doesnt say.. the Lenovo Part number is 776796U, if anyone could confirm that it would be great.

Lastly, which logo will I have? If I get the ugly Thinkpad logo ill buy an IBM logo off ebay.

 

same thing happened to me...So they said that they would have to change out the motherboard Damn....I thought there would be a simpler way to reflash the correct bios

 

On a desktop motherboard, the company could switch out the BIOS chip and get the motherboard back to normal. I do not know much about notebook motherboards.

Never ever take a BIOS flash lightly. Flashing BIOS from Windows can be very risky as the manufacturer could make a mistake in the computer code that render the computer inoperable. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

IBM (Lenovo) don't do actual flash from windows. It just places the image at the right place (not sure where, could be service partition) or something similar. Then you reboot NB and it launches the flash program. It never comes to windows boot. Right after the flash the NB powers off (If I remember right).