Thinkpads Forum

Posted: **Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:12 pm**

Cruising ebay looking for a cheap T430 to supplement my existing T430 (my daily driver) for use as a test machine and came across this warning on one ad:

Very Important Notice!!

There is a known issue by Lenovo on the internet that by flashing / updating the BIOS using Lenovo's own update software on ANY T430 laptop can cause severe damage to the motherboard (system board). We advise you NOT to update or flash the BIOS as you WILL damage the system board causing the laptop to stop functioning. The outcome will be 5 beeps on start up then a blank screen. There is no way around this issue as of yet apart from replacing the system board itself.

If you decide to carry out this proceedure, we will NOT refund you. You will be doing this at your own risk and we strongly advise you not to do it. It has no impact on the operating of the laptop that you will see any benefits from. You have been warned!

Not that I'm about to update the BIOS on any of the thinkpads I've got. Really??

Posted: **Sat Jul 07, 2018 9:59 pm**

And if you go into BIOS to switch off the Security chip, the beeping stops.

Please give us the link where you find this saga.

Posted: **Sun Jul 08, 2018 4:35 pm**

Well, I spent at least 30 mins looking thro' the T430 ads on ebay and failed, couldn't find it. There's a lot of them.

Posted: **Mon Jul 09, 2018 2:52 am**

It's a load of bull, end of story.

Any BIOS update has a chance of bricking the laptop if somehow the update locks up / loses power in the middle of the critical flash process. But you really think that there would exist a laptop model out there for which every BIOS update is guaranteed to brick the machine, and no one knows of it except some idiot eBay seller?

Maybe they are trying to sell already bricked laptops and write this horsecrap so that they can later blame the buyer for bricking them? Who knows.

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