How to make this "Diskette" work:
Note: If you don't have a legacy floppy drive A:\ in your ThinkPad, you WILL need to obtain and use a USB floppy drive.
First, you need to extract the contents of the "Diskette" file onto a 1.44 MB 3½" floppy disk, which must be inserted into drive A:\. I'd advise formatting the floppy disk before you do this in order to make sure it's error free. Run the downloaded "Diskette" file. You will have to press Enter several times as you read through 15 successive license agreement screens. Don't go too fast because, at the final screen, you must type "Y" before pressing Enter.
Then, you have to boot your ThinkPad from the floppy disk you've just created. Make sure your BIOS boot-up sequence is set up to allow you to boot from a USB floppy drive.
DO NOT write-protect the floppy disk - this won't work if the floppy disk is write protected.
Shut down your ThinkPad. Plug in the USB floppy drive. Insert the floppy disk you've just created into the floppy drive. IMMEDIATELY upon booting the computer, press "Esc" several times to make sure it takes. Pressing "Esc" removes the computer's write protection, permitting you to change serial numbers, etc. Once you get past the splash screen, you will come to one of the following menus, with the following main menu and sub-menu choices:
Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.75:
1. Set system identification
3. Format the hard disk
4. Assign UUID
5. Erase Predesktop Area
6. Set ECA information
For Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.75, on ThinkPad T42, for menu item 1. "Set system identification" > 2. "Read S/N data from EEPROM," the only three serial numbers that appear are:
For the T42 (and probably for other models also), when inserting the 14 digit system unit TypeModelSerialNumber into code 20, you must immediately precede the TypeModelSerialNumber with "1S", making it a 16 digit string. Do not enter dashes or spaces.
Note: If you don't have a legacy floppy drive A:\ in your ThinkPad, you WILL need to obtain and use a USB floppy drive.
First, you need to extract the contents of the "Diskette" file onto a 1.44 MB 3½" floppy disk, which must be inserted into drive A:\. I'd advise formatting the floppy disk before you do this in order to make sure it's error free. Run the downloaded "Diskette" file. You will have to press Enter several times as you read through 15 successive license agreement screens. Don't go too fast because, at the final screen, you must type "Y" before pressing Enter.
Then, you have to boot your ThinkPad from the floppy disk you've just created. Make sure your BIOS boot-up sequence is set up to allow you to boot from a USB floppy drive.
DO NOT write-protect the floppy disk - this won't work if the floppy disk is write protected.
Shut down your ThinkPad. Plug in the USB floppy drive. Insert the floppy disk you've just created into the floppy drive. IMMEDIATELY upon booting the computer, press "Esc" several times to make sure it takes. Pressing "Esc" removes the computer's write protection, permitting you to change serial numbers, etc. Once you get past the splash screen, you will come to one of the following menus, with the following main menu and sub-menu choices:
Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.75:
1. Set system identification
- Add S/N data to EEPROM
- Read S/N data from EEPROM
- Delete S/N data from EEPROM
3. Format the hard disk
4. Assign UUID
5. Erase Predesktop Area
6. Set ECA information
- Write ECA/rework number to EEPROM
- Read ECA/rework number from EEPROM
- Delete ECA/rework number from EEPROM
- Write box build date to EEPROM
- Read box build date from EEPROM
- Delete box build date from EEPROM
For Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.75, on ThinkPad T42, for menu item 1. "Set system identification" > 2. "Read S/N data from EEPROM," the only three serial numbers that appear are:
- code "40" ("system board")
- code "20" ("system unit")
- code "08" ("CPU card", I'm told).
For the T42 (and probably for other models also), when inserting the 14 digit system unit TypeModelSerialNumber into code 20, you must immediately precede the TypeModelSerialNumber with "1S", making it a 16 digit string. Do not enter dashes or spaces.
