Help resolving USB problem with Lenovo 3000 N100?

[stokeyblokey]

Hi everyone,

I have recently acquired a Lenovo 3000 N100 768-BXG and like many people with the N100 have massive USB problems.

Now I have read up and discovered that this is a problem with the BIOS which seems to affect all the available BIOS except the 1.08 version for machines preloaded with Vista - well I have the 2.06 BIOS for machines preloaded for XP.

I have read that I can flash the BIOS to an earlier version designed for the C200 (specifically that contained in the 63af02us.exe update, DL20102A.WPH) which is I think the 1.02 BIOS - then I can reboot and it will then allow me to flash to the fixed (ie: USB working properly!) 1.08 BIOS.

Now for the meat of the question: I have installed Win7 on the laptop as it came with no HDD thus no recovery partition etc. Do I have to wipe this install and install WinXP Pro in order to perform the BIOS flash? Can it be done from Win7 safely or at all?

I have never flashed any BIOS except my router although I am fairly confident that I have read and understood everything required. My problem is that I don't really understand the detail of BIOS and am only able to post this due to scouring other people's posts on this and other forums.

Can anyone out there confirm that I have the process correct, and answer my questions?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me

Stokey

EDIT: The laptop has no battery at all - I know it is recommended to have a charged battery before BIOS flashing but is it essential or just a precaution in case of power failure from the AC? Can anyone tell me how to create a BIOS repair boot disk in case it all goes horribly wrong? Since there is a USB problem with the existing BIOS I would have to use a disk not a flash drive as using the keyboard currently disconnects any USB device so I couldn't run anything in DOS from a USB....

 

[Tmagic650]

If there is a downloadable Windows based bios flashing utility from Lenovo for your model laptop you should be able to use it to flash the bios without much trouble, regardless of the Windows version installed. Don't worry about having no battery installed. Bios flashing should never be done on battery power alone. If the laptop can boot from the CD/DVD you could flash the bios using a CD/DVD image. You will also have an option to back up the current bios to a file. If the bios flashing fails, the laptop may be rendered useless, so no recovery can be attempted

 

[stokeyblokey]

Thanks for the reply Tmagic650, I think I may have come up with a less risky alterntive "work around" (not a fix!) for now - buy a PCMCIA 2 port USB card which will provide 100mA without additional power lead running from the original USB - since this will not be running off the same USB ports I am hoping that it will not disconnect when the standard ports do when keyboard is in use.

Now for the next question - will this run through the same USB host controller or does it access the motherboard solely using the PCMCIA interface using some clever coding?

In other words, if it is the USB Host that is knackered due to the BIOS issue will this work or will it just act the same as the inbuilt USB ports?

Regards,

Stokey

 

[Tmagic650]

I think the PCMCIA USB adapter will work fine... without any issues

 

[stokeyblokey]

Spot on

Thanks once again for the advice Tmagic650, received my PCMCIA 2 port USB card this morning and it works perfectly, no disconnects and I can now use a mouse & keyboard at the same time - much more comfortable doing that than messing with potentially incorrect BIOS updates/downgrades etc.

Cheers!