Updating BIOS on Lenovo e420s without battery?

Hello Everyone,

I'd like to know if it would be possible to update BIOS on a Lenovo E420s without a battery? Here's what I have so far:

First, I extracted the BIOS exe file (see link below) from Lenovo where I found winflash.exe, winuptp.exe and a .fl1 file ( $0A8J000.FL1 ) inside 8JET42WW folder. Assumptions that I have:

• $0A8J000.FL1 is the only file I need to upload onto my BIOS chip.
• I believe winuptp is the lenovo flash program that requires for the battery to be installed before a flash can be initiated. It is also the program that converts $0A8J000.FL1 into an uploadable file (rom, wph...) to winflash.
• To bypass the battery requirement, don't use winuptp and use winflash directly.

Are these assumptions correct? If it is, how would I manually convert $0A8J000.FL1 into a rom or wph so that I could upload it directly onto winflash? Lastly, in winflash do I check any of the options under "advanced".

I would appreciate any input or alternatives. Thanks in advance.

Link to extracted BIOS exe file: sendspace (dot) com/file/1gn3gu

 

Thanks, I've never use ph161700 before. Would it take $0A8J000.FL1 without being converted into ROM or WPH?

 

I changed the name and I tried flashing using just winflash but I get an error saying "Invalid BIOS Image!". I checked the winflash log file, towards the end it says " Fail: Regions of flash map header from ROM and image are different! ".

I also noticed a couple of things. I went into BIOS and the version currently installed onto my system is 0.17 (8JET17WW). Except according to Lenovo, the initial BIOS release for my system is 1.05 (8JET23WW). I don't even get a result when I try to google "8JET17WW" - Weird?