I'm going to have to use the disk utilities to put the serial number in my T41 after a motherboard replacement. I don't have a USB floppy and my son told me about an alternative. I took my '9 IN 1' memory card reader and writer and put in a MMC card. I used the IBM utility to make a Flash diskette.

1.69 WILL NOT work with any ThinkPad above a T30! Version 1.69 is available FREE from IBM's FTP site (if it is still there). What the link above could point to is V 1.72 made to look like it is 1.69!!! If the image is in ZIP format, you have to unzip the file and run the exe; this will prompt you to create a DISKETTE. You need a Floppy and a floppy drive before you can run the utility. If this is really version 1.69 it will let you get to all the steps, but when it writes to the EEPROM with the new information it will error out. Also there are prefixes that must be entered for the data to be valid.

Draco2527 wrote:1.69 WILL NOT work with any ThinkPad above a T30! Version 1.69 is available FREE from IBM's FTP site (if it is still there). If you look at the thread I posted above, the OP Christian was able to use 1.69 successfully on a T40.

He gives the procedure in the link. He wrote: 'you have to type S1 in front of the type/serial number'. I also posted a link to 1.69 above. Yes, I read the posting! I guess we will see what happens when he runs it, it should come up with a red box stating that an error occured.

I'm going to have to use the disk utilities to put the serial number in my T41 after a motherboard replacement. I don't have a USB floppy and my son told me about an alternative. I took my '9 IN 1' memory card reader and writer and put in a MMC card. I used the IBM utility to make a Flash diskette. Then I copied all the files to my desktop except the 3 DOS system files: Command.com and IBMIO.com and IBMDOS.com. Then I made a DOS boot diskette under XP. Then I used this program: to format the MMC card and make it into a DOS bootable drive.

You refer to the floppy you just formatted to get the DOS system files. Then I copied all the IBM files except the DOS system ones to the MMC card. Then I tried it out on my thinkpad and it booted perfectly. This should work for a Flash Diskette and a Maintenance Diskette. KillaByte wrote:@draco2527: The HMD v1.69 *will* work with T42 ThinkPads if all you want to do is to update the serial number.

I would however not try the testing routines etc. Amiga workbench 31 adf download. I guess the error message you were referring to is the one that pops up if you forgot to disable the write-protection of the EEPROM by pressing the ESC key at boot-time when you see the IBM logo on the screen.

I've posted about the whole serial update process a while ago here: I am aware of the ESC issue! Problem solved! I have version 1.62!!!!!FK.another sign that I am getting OLD!

Sorry for any confusion I caused. I just looked at the media, I have version 1.62 ( I obtained this from IBM, when I used to repair ThinkPads), since I could not get the thing to work on the T4X series I busted my a*s to get version 1.72 So I have V 1.62 and V 1.72 NOT version 1.69!!!! Anyways, up to what version of the HMD are they now? I made a boot 'disk' with the Thinkpad Hardware Maintenance Diskette version 1.74. There are a whole bunch of utilities on it with the latest date being 3/30/2005.

I'm guessing the SERUPDT.EXE (and not the older SERUPDT2.EXE) is the one to update the serial number. ATUUIDAL.EXE, UUIDCALL.EXE, AUTOUUID.EXE must deal with UUID. Does one calculate the UUID and one enter it into the EEPROM? IDCSUMAL.EXE & SCIACSUM.COM seem to refer to check sums, has anybody any idea when and if they need to be used?

I've read on the forums that you have to press ESC while the 'IBM Access' screen is on to allow EEPROM writes. Is this correct? Also I've seen two opinions on what to enter before the serial number: either 1S or S1. Any ideas on which is right? Also I upgraded my systemboard from a (dead) Radeon 9000 (T41) to FireGL 128 T2. If I enter in the old serial number will the IBM upgrade software assume my thinkpad has the 9000 or will it detect the FireGL? Sorry for all the questions but maybe any answers will help others too.