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BIOS update on a Thinkpad X130e, thinkpad freezing up

Hello hello hello everyone! I'm trying to figure out how to update the BIOS in this little 11.6 inch thinkpad I bought, it appears to freeze up the odd time whenever I'm in the BIOS or even if I'm just typing in my power-on password.

Is there a way to safely update the BIOS without bricking this thing on Linux? I would prefer to do it from Linux if possible, although I still have the old harddrive with Windows 10 on it & am keeping it on there for at least another -30 days in case something is defective & it needs to be returned.

I have noticed, twice now, that my screen will go partially blue, like... how do I explain how it looks... well, it looks like part of the screen is glowing blue, the OS seems to freeze & theres this blue fuzziness... it doesn't take up the whole screen, or even half of the screen, its fuzzy blue kind of spread out... I've never seen anything like it.. (I doubt this, but) Could it be a bad '40-pin'(I think) screen cord? I think it more likely has something to do with the BIOS, I noticed a date on boot-up also,  Build Time 11/15/2011 so I think the BIOS is out of date...

But, I'm afraid if I update my BIOS it may reject the 5G+Bluetooth network card I have in it. Currently it gives me error 1802, but instead of halting the system like I think it would do on Windows, it instead just goes right into the GRUB.... I think that this may change if I do a BIOS update, so I'm unsure of what I should do.
Update: Error 1802 doesn't halt the system when using Windows, 1802 is the error you get when you try to use a network card that isn't on Lenovo's whitelist.

"driver update failed, the utility cannot proceed" is what I get when I pop my windows harddrive in & try to use the .exe for the bios firmware update... -.-

Thank you all for your time reading my post & replying, its greatly appreciated!

Re: BIOS update on a Thinkpad X130e, thinkpad freezing up

Reply #1 –
Hello,
when i was fixing my BIOS in Lenovo (4 year ago ?) i used some CD / USB iso with DOS or something like that

If it will brick your custom HW configuration, who knows it can do it, you know they want to force you to buy new one.

Re: BIOS update on a Thinkpad X130e, thinkpad freezing up

Reply #2 –
Quote from: SGOrava – on
Hello,
when i was fixing my BIOS in Lenovo (4 year ago ?) i used some CD / USB iso with DOS or something like that

If it will brick your custom HW configuration, who knows it can do it, you know they want to force you to buy new one.

I tried the .ISO for the BIOS update provided on the Lenovo website but it fails, if I try to use Rufus on Windows to make the USB it will tell me somethings wrong with the package & that 300kb is missing.... If I burn the ISO on Linux with mediawriter it just won't work -_- .... I'm gonna try using Etcher to see if that makes a difference although I doubt it.

I also really don't think they would deliberately brick their computers, 1. I still have 30-day warranty on this computer & 2. I think I would see lots of outrage on forums when I try to search up x130e bios update. I can't make it update the BIOS on windows, it gives me some stupid error & doesn't tell me ANYTHING about the error. I HATE Windows! And the people who refurbished this laptop were total morons! It has a Windows 10 sticker ontop of a Windows 8 sticker, the Windows 10 on the original harddrive doesn't even work properly with the video driver! It can only do 1024x768 in Windows 10, but if I were to use Windows 8, or Linux(which obviously I am already using) it goes to 1366x768.
Why would they obstruct the Windows 8 sticker like that? So I can't find out that this laptop is older than it actually is? The person who refurbished this is a serious moron! I'm very happy with this computer but I'm concerned about the BIOS bugging out the operating system while its running, which I think is what has happened, but its only ever happened twice that I've seen, although I've only had it for 3-4 days, if the problem occurs more than I might have to take this computer back.... I'm really hoping I never see this weird blue stuff on my screen ever again, or if I do I hope its once in a blue moon, as I really like thinkpads & this is a perfect size thinkpad for what I need it for.

It may also be possible that the weird blue stuff on my screen had something to do with the battery in this computer, as I think it froze up at or at least around 68%, which is where the battery would stop charging for the first few full discharges + recharges... Or, maybe, this weird blue thing is coming from the BIOS like I think it is, maybe it wouldn't happen if Artix was installed via BIOS instead of UEFI, but when I tried installing Artix on BIOS it kept saying "operating system not found" which is weird considering before I reformatted my SSD it had 32-bit Devuan on it booting up just fine via BIOS...

Sorry I know this is a lot to read, I'm still trying to figure out this computer. I'll give it another 2-3 weeks & if it gives me any serious problems I'll have to return it.

Re: BIOS update on a Thinkpad X130e, thinkpad freezing up

Reply #3 –
Yes, it is a lot of text to read.

If you have warranty, use it.

As i think about your problem it could be anything > broken cable, BIOS, GPU, drivers, microcode, also old age....

If you are experiencing these errors only on Linux i would say try to change / add some kernel options (acpi maybe ?)
Or linux driver are misbehaving with your HW.

If you are unable to use the provided BIOS contact manufacturer.

So as i read another part of your novel:
Year 2011, is the CPU Intel SandyBridge ?
Windows 10 don't have working drivers for integrated GPU in these chips.

BIOS out of date... don't be surprised a lot of machines will not get newer BIOS, for example i was "forced" to downgrade my BIOS because there were bugs in new version.

Re: BIOS update on a Thinkpad X130e, thinkpad freezing up

Reply #4 –
I'm gonna see how it goes over the next week or two. It seems OK, I've only ever seen this happen twice. Maybe it was a fluke, maybe it'll never happen again, but if I do see it happen again I'm probably going to take it back.... I only get an in-store warranty at the place I bought it, so if something is wrong I have to take another chance with another possibly damaged computer.... So I'll take it back at the end of the month if its no good for me. I really hope its OK, I love thinkpads, its also in great condition, its like new minus the old red keyboard nipple being worn to hell, which I'm replacing for $1

I noticed something strange earlier, I thought I was seeing things.... screenfetch & neofetch both usually say the PC is 1.65GHz, but earlier it was saying 1.32GHz.... Strangest thing I ever saw, maybe it was reading something wrong, I don't know. Over-all it has functioned pretty well for me, I'd like to keep it, but if I get any more problems I'll take it back. My first laptop was a thinkpad, I've always loved thinkpads.  I have til the 10th of next month, so I think that's lots of time to determine whether or not this is worth keeping.

And no, its an AMD E-450 APU with Radeon Graphics, dual-core at 1.65GHz.... Its not an old computer, it originally came out with windows 8, I don't think that's old... It does what I need it to do- I can go youtube/etc & search stuff online & it runs smoothly, its got 8GB of DDR3 RAM rated at 1600MHz, I checked with dmidecode & was surprised it was running at 1600 - I thought it would top out at 1333 or 1060(I think those are the numbers).

I just need a small carry-around PC I can play emulator games on with a PS3 controller or 2, so I can play games while I'm on-the-go or at an appointment/etc or for videos when I go out for a smoke, I was using an old 32-bit Dell Mini 1011 before & believe it or not, it did what I needed it to do - except it would mess up if I tried to play games, still though, it played videos, it did its job & lasted me quite a while, if it didn't mess up randomly while playing games I'd still be using it!

The way I see it, is if it only freezes up once in a blue moon, then thats OK.. My other computers freeze up once in a blue moon, so I figure its alright. Radeon isn't the best driver on Linux I can tell you that for sure owning 4 of them, 1 won't even do Linux!

Thank you for reading all of this stuff btw.
 

Re: BIOS update on a Thinkpad X130e, thinkpad freezing up

Reply #5 –
That blue fuzzy screen may mean that the monitor is not getting a signal anymore

If it is under warranty take it back   it is faulty

Re: BIOS update on a Thinkpad X130e, thinkpad freezing up

Reply #6 –
Quote from: fungalnet – on
That blue fuzzy screen may mean that the monitor is not getting a signal anymore

If it is under warranty take it back   it is faulty

Why is the forum not working    periods commas question marks are all replaced by other characters     
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weirddddd.........

If it happens again I'm gonna take it back for sure. I have til April 10th.
Haven't seen any of that happen again, it seems to run just fine... The problem is that when I take it back, I have to pick another used PC as they won't do cash-back... I'm gonna just call the first two times a hiccup, if it doesn't happen before the end of march then I'll probably keep it. I am still gonna buy a Pinebook 11.6 inch when I can, they're only $89 USD.

If the monitor isn't getting a signal, could it perhaps just be a loose/faulty wire? If it happens within the next 2 weeks I'll take it back, as I've had quite a few good days with it & it hasn't messed up again since.... Plus when it happened I just had to power it off & reboot it & then it was totally fine again.

I'm thinking of doing a BIOS install instead of UEFI, if the BIOS is freezing it up, maybe it'll only affect the operating system while its in UEFI...

Why would Screenfetch & Neofetch report my CPU as 2x 1.32GHz sometimes? Its usually  2x 1.65GHz, could this perhaps be a battery-saving function? I think it happens when its booted on at low battery power. I could be wrong but it appears to only happen when the battery is below 50%
Doesn't seem to be any slower or anything.... appears to be working OK when it goes down to 1.32GHz
It would appear I'm wrong about the 25% battery thing, perhaps 50% but idk. it kept booting up at 1.32ghz, I turned off the CPU power management setting in the BIOS & it booted back up as 1.65ghz, I'm gonna keep testing it.

Re: BIOS update on a Thinkpad X130e, thinkpad freezing up

Reply #7 –
I took it back yesterday night, I'm now with an HP Elitebook 8440p, a bit bigger than I'd like but I made an exception because I can attach a secondary battery to this thing, and its hard as a rock & very powerful with an intel i5.