Hard drive firmware update utility for T43p

[goretsky Community Moderator]

Hello,

I have a ThinkPad T43p (FRU 2668-H7U), which is one of the models that checks to see if the the hard disk drive's firmware supports certain features at boot-up.  Unfortunately, I have replaced the factory hard disk drive with a larger one from Seagate and now myT43p beeps and displays a warning when started. 

I was wondering if there were any plans to update the Hard drive firmware update utility (Bootable CD ISO) - ThinkPad to include support for 160GB 2.5" PATA hard disk drives, like the Seagate Momentus 5400.3 model ST9160821A or the equivalent models from Hitachi or Samsung?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[carbon_unit]

Have you updated the BIOS? The newer versions of the BIOS allow you to turn off the 2010 message.
From the release notes:

<1.24 (1YET59WW)>
Note:
 This BIOS version will only work with Embedded Controller Program 
 Version 1.03 (or higher).

- (New) A new BIOS setup option, that allows system startup without 
        pressing the ESC key on POST 2010 warning message.
        Its location is 'BIOS Setup menu'->'Startup'->'Boot after 
        message for Hard drive...'.
     Note: The cause of the 2010 message is using unsupported hard 
           drive firmware version.  Please use supported version.



Version 1.29 is the latest. Get it here.

[goretsky Community Moderator]

Hello,

I believe that is set in the ThinkPad T43p's BIOS--at least, the error message and accompanying beep still occur, I just no longer have to press a key for the system to continue booting.

I will verify this the next time I have the unit set up and can check the BIOS settings.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[Tglerge2]

Hello,

As I recall there is a very long discussion about this problem on the Thinkpads.com forum.  There does not seem to be a proper fix.  In my experience, I just let my T43p beep, I have set the BIOS to continue during boot instead of halting at the beep, and other than they annoying sound, the drive seems to work just fine with no problems.

mike goodric