I have an l412 with a defective system board- would not POST. So I replaced the system board (it's a year out of warranty) and booted up, only to be met with an error code about a system serial number mismatch. Boots OK, but system update does not work (because of the serial number mismatch).
The instructions for WHAT to do about this are in the online service manual http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 635_02.pdf
You need the LENOVO ThinkPad Hardware Maintenance Diskette to do this. This floppy disk is only available to certified Lenovo service centers. Or those who know how to use Google. Version 1.83 is the one I used.http://www.elvikom.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?p=40478When the computer was manufactured, the EEPROM on the system board was loaded with the serial numbers of the system and all major components. These numbers need to remain the same throughout the life of the computer.
If you replace the system board, you must restore the serial number of the system unit to its original value.
You read that correctly- DISKETTE. As in floppy disk. How many laptops have one of these? Now you see the problem.
The real trick is HOW to do this- without a USB floppy drive. If you have one of these, stop, you don't need to know this.
For the rest of us....
First, find a computer with a floppy drive. Any computer.
Extract the HMD 1.83 archive onto it. Follow the instructions in the file to make an HMD floppy disk.
Use this program http://www.boodaa.de/index.php/download ... ainmenu-44 to make an image of the floppy. Be sure to save it as a .img type, not .bin
Use this program http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1814 to create a bootable CD image using the floppy .img file you just made.
Burn the ISO to a CD and boot from it.
At least on my l412, it works!
Now the problem. I updated my system serial OK (using #20 in the menu and the sticker on the bottom of the laptop), but my motherboard serial is blank in the BIOS. Using #40 I can change this, but to what? There are 3 stickers on the motherboard (the FRU PN:75y4088, the MAC address, and one that I think is the serial #...) but what part of the sticker number do I enter? If I enter the whole thing HMD says the string is too long. The number is
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11875y4089z1 zn k30c30j8 01c