IBM ThinkPad
Hardware Maintenance Diskette
& CE Utility Diskette

If you are replacing any of the hardware components in your IBM ThinkPad laptop, you might need IBM's ThinkPad CE Utility Diskette or Hardware Maintenance Diskette. The following discusses

1. whether you will need the CE Utility Diskette or the Hardware Maintenance Diskette, and, if so,
2. which one you'll need, and
3. where to go to download them, and
4. what you need to do in order to get them to function for you.

Will you need the ThinkPad CE Utility Diskette or the ThinkPad Hardware Maintenance Diskette?

The answer to this question will be found in the Hardware Maintenance Manual for your particular ThinkPad laptop. However the Hardware Maintenance Manual will only be able to answer the question "Yes" or "No". If the answer is "Yes," you'll have to read the next following section to determine which one of these files you'll need, because sometimes, on this latter point, the Hardware Maintenance Manual lies.

If you don't already have the Hardware Maintenance Manual for your particular ThinkPad laptop, download it from Lenovo:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/homeLenovo.do?country=us (Note: Clicking the link will open into a new browser window. To return to this website, simply close or minimize that window.)

1. Fill in your "product number" (i.e., the 7-digit machine "Type"+"Model")
2. Click "Go"
3. Click "User's guides and manuals"
4. Click "Hardware Maintenance Manual" to be taken to the download page for your particular ThinkPad laptop's Hardware Maintenance Manual.

The following discussion is based upon observations of the ThinkPad T40-42, R30-31, and R32 Hardware Maintenance Manuals. Your manual may differ.

Once you've got the Hardware Maintenance Manual, open up the .pdf file. Expand the bookmarks at the left. The answer to whether or not you will need either the ThinkPad CE Utility Diskette or the ThinkPad Hardware Maintenance Diskette will be found in the "FRU replacement notices" sub-section under the "ThinkPad <your particular model>" main heading.

In the T42 Hardware Maintenance Manual, in the "FRU replacement notices" sub-section is found the statement: "When the computer was manufactured, the EEPROM on the system board was loaded with the serial numbers of the system and all major components. These numbers need to remain the same throughout the life of the computer." I'm not sure what IBM means by the word "all," but using ThinkPad Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.75, I see only three serial numbers in the EEPROM of my T42—for the system unit, the system board, and (I'm told) the CPU card.

Which one will you need? – the ThinkPad CE Utility Diskette or the ThinkPad Hardware Maintenance Diskette?

The problem here is that there's no guarantee that the Hardware Maintenance Manual will accurately tell you which one of these files you'll need. So I offer the following to help you decide.

It appears that the "CE Utility Diskette" is needed for older ThinkPads, while the "Hardware Maintenance Diskette" is needed for newer ThinkPads. In the Hardware Maintenance Manual, these "Diskettes" are discussed in the "FRU replacement notices" sub-section. They are also named as the last item in the "Tools" section of the "Common parts list" sub-section of each "Parts List."

It appears that the name of the needed file changed sometime around the time of the production of the R32. The R30-31 Manual calls it the "CE Utility Diskette" in the "FRU replacement notices" sub-section, but calls it the "Hardware Maintenance Diskette" in the Parts List. The R32 Manual calls it the "Hardware Maintenance Diskette" in both the "FRU replacement notices" sub-section and in the Parts List, but you really need the CE Utility Diskette. (Compare the functions described in the "FRU replacement notices" sub-section of your respective Hardware Maintenance Manual with the functions offered by the main menu headings of the respective Diskettes (see below).)

In the Tools sub-sub-section of the Parts List, the R30-31 Manual refers to version 1.10 of the "Hardware Maintenance Diskette", while the R32 Manual refers to version 1.07. Whether such versions of the Hardware Maintenance Diskette ever existed seems to be a matter lost in antiquity, since such versions of the Hardware Maintenance Diskette are nowhere to be found. It's pretty clear that, at the present time, the following versions of the CE Utility Diskette are what you need.

As of this writing (September 2009), as far as I can determine, one can download the following CE Utility Diskette files from Lenovo:

Otherwise, use the Hardware Maintenance Diskette. The latest version of which, as of this writing, is version 1.75 (i7tm23us.exe).

Where to Download these "Diskette" files?

Currently (September, 2009), the above CE Utility Diskette files and ONLY the current version 1.75 of the Hardware Maintenance Diskette (i7tm23us.exe, dated 6/26/2007) can be downloaded from:

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/[add filename]

Each of the CE Utility Diskettes has a related ReadMe.txt file which can also be downloaded (e.g. for ceutil1m.exe, also download ceutil1m.txt). If there's an associated ReadMe.txt for the Hardware Maintenance Diskette, I am not aware of it.

As of this writing, prior versions 1.50, 1.60, and 1.69 of the Hardware Maintenance Diskette (maint150.exe, maint160.exe, maint169.exe) can be downloaded from:

http://www.os2site.com/sw/hardware/ibm/thinkpad/index.html (Note: Clicking the link will open into a new browser window. To return to this website, simply close or minimize that window.)

It seems that the download location of these IBM/Lenovo files moves around from time to time. Prior download locations posted on the web (but no longer working) have been:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/ta_support/maint160.exe
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/bp_thinkpad/i7tm22us.exe (12/05-7/07)
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/i7tm23us.exe (7/07-5/09)

How to make these "Diskettes" work

Note: If you don't have a legacy floppy drive A:\ in your ThinkPad (and how many of us have that?), you WILL need to obtain and use a USB floppy drive. Make your life easy. Go get one.

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 several 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.

Shut down your ThinkPad. Plug in the USB floppy drive. DO NOT write-protect the floppy disk. This won't work if the floppy disk is write protected. 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:

CE Utility Diskette (for R32):

1. UUID Data Utility
2. VPD Utility
3. 1394 Utility
4. Thermal Utility
5. Panel Utility
6. First_Use_Date Utility
7. RFID Error Correction
8. License Message
9. Quit

Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.50:

1. Set system identification
   1. Set system identification
   2. View system identification
2. Test the audio feature
3. Format the hard disk

Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.60:

adds to the ver 1.50 menu:
4. Assign UUID

Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.69:

1. Set system identification
   1. Add S/N data to EEPROM
   2. Read S/N data from EEPROM
   3. Delete S/N data from EEPROM
2. Test the audio feature
3. Format the hard disk
4. Assign UUID
5. Erase Predesktop Area

Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.75:

1. Set system identification
   1. Add S/N data to EEPROM
   2. Read S/N data from EEPROM
   3. Delete S/N data from EEPROM
2. Test the audio feature
3. Format the hard disk
4. Assign UUID
5. Erase Predesktop Area
6. Set ECA information
   1. Write ECA/rework number to EEPROM
   2. Read ECA/rework number from EEPROM
   3. Delete ECA/rework number from EEPROM
   4. Write box build date to EEPROM
   5. Read box build date from EEPROM
   6. Delete box build date from EEPROM

For Hardware Maintenance Diskette, ver 1.75, on my 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"), and 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, one must immediately precede the TypeModelSerialNumber with "1S", making it a 16 digit string. Do not enter dashes or spaces. When using the CE Utility Diskettes, the individual ReadMe.txt files describe how the serial numbers should be entered.

I also note that, in the T42 Manual, at least, a number of the named menu sub-headings contain quite a few typographical errors, not accurately reflecting the actual menu choices per the Diskette.

In closing, I would like to say a special "Thank You" to Niklas Therning, who first alerted me to these issues. If it were not for the initial direction he gave regarding these Diskette files, I would never have been able to come up with all of the above answers. "Thanks, Niklas!"

http://therning.org/niklas/2009/05/fixing-a-bad-backlight-on-an-ibm-thinkpad-r32/ (Note: Clicking the link will open into a new browser window. To return to this website, simply close or minimize that window.)

— Rich Lang
    September 2009