[PLUG] Ancient Thinkpad T61 BIOS

Bryan Linton plug at shoshoni.info
Tue Jun 23 10:31:42 UTC 2020


On 2020-06-22 16:42:05, John Jason Jordan <johnxj at gmx.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 21 Jun 2020 16:14:44 -0700
> Tomas Kuchta <tomas.kuchta.lists at gmail.com> dijo:
> 
> >32b/64b should matter when you are using existing windows installation.
> >When you are booting the media it is all matching the booted OS or BIOS
> >update application.
> 
> I'm having problems, but I'm not sure if the BIOS is the culprit.
> 
> To back up and clarify where I am: I had three ISO files in the
> download, and two of them seemed to be (from the scant instructions)
> for updating to the Middleton BIOS from within Windows, so I ignored
> them and burned the third one to a DVD. I used the DVD to update the
> BIOS, which finished without error. I had no working hard drive to test
> with, so I used an Xubuntu 20.04 live USB drive, which booted and
> performed well for the 5-10 minutes that I poked around in it.
> 
> Amazingly, although I ordered the 1TB WD Blue SSD on Saturday, it
> arrived a few hours ago. I didn't have the adapter for it yet, but I
> discovered that the T61 has a caddy to hold the drive, so the adapter
> was unnecessary. I inastalled the drive and booted to the 20.04 USB
> drive, then used Gparted to create an 80GB partition for / and the
> remainder for ~/, and completed the installation. When it finished
> there were a few updates, so I installed them.
> 
> Now the problems: It always boots finr, but within 5-15 minutes of
> working it hangs. There is no recovery other than the power button;
> everything is frozen, that is, I can still move the mouse around, but I
> can't click on anything.
> 
> I'm fiddling with settings, so just about everything involves a slight
> disk activity. But maybe not everything - recently I minimized a window
> to the tray, and then changed my mind and clicked to restore it, but
> the desktop was frozen again. I don't know if minimizing a window
> involves a disk activity, but this might be an example where it froze
> without involving the disk.
> 
> Of course, haviung just flashed the BIOS, disk activity is at the top
> of my suspect list. But there is a pretty endless list of other
> possibilities.
> 
> I could use some suggestions for things to poke at. Any ideas?
> 

Hello,

My first thoughts are that there are a lot of variables here, so I
would try to narrow them down one-by-one.

Namely,
	- The BIOS
	- The new SSD
	- The operating system
	- The CPU/heat issues

As suggested by another poster, the first thing I would try is a
different OS.  Either a version downgrade, or a different distro
entirely.

If it still hangs, then I would try putting the SSD into a
known-working system to rule out any problems with the SSD itself.
Many modern systems can boot an OS from a USB connection, so you
may be able to boot from it by simply putting it in a USB caddy
and plugging it in.  Some fiddling in the BIOS boot-order may be
necessary though.

Failing that, reflashing the BIOS with the latest official Lenovo
version is what I'd try.

One other thing to consider is thermal issues.  The T61 series is
quite old, so I'm wondering if maybe the thermal paste on the CPU
has dried up.  There should be some utilities that can monitor the
various thermal zones of the laptop via ACPI.

If it looks like the temperature is high, it's possible the hangs
may be due to the laptop overheating.  Cleaning off and re-applying
fresh thermal paste may fix this issue.

One final thing, I'm not sure about the T61, but the T60 used
thermal *pads* on the GPU and chipset, not thermal *paste*.
Thermal *paste* was only used on the CPU.

It might not be a bad idea to purchase new thermal pads (of the
correct thickness, since they can be trimmed with scissors if
they're too large in length or width) in advance if you're already
going to be disassembling it to apply new thermal paste.

If you decide to do this, the HMM (Hardware Maintenance Manual) is
quite detailed and should provide enough instructions and figures
to guide you through disassembling everything piece-by-piece.

https://thinkpads.com/support/hmm/thinkpad-hmm.html
https://thinkpads.com/support/hmm/hmm_pdf/42x3546_04.pdf

I'd also make sure to blow out any dust that's accumulated in the
fan and heatsink too.

Please report back any success or failure!

-- 
Bryan




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