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2008-01-09

ERROR: Expansion ROM not initialized - PCI on Motherboard

by circle at 11:43
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Starting from yesterday I got the following messages when I boot up my Thinkpad T60:

Initializing Intel(R) Boot Agent GE v1.2.31

PXE-E05: The LAN adapter's configuation is corrupted or has not been initialized. The Boot Agent cannot continue.

After a while I got this:
ERROR
Expansion ROM not initialized - PCI on Motherboard
Bus:00, Device:00, Function:00

Press [ESC] to continue

After I pressed ESC, everything looks normal, but there must be something goes wrong.

Having a search in Google, someone suggested to disable the internal network option ROM option in the BIOS, but this is obviously only a workaround. There is a discussion thread related to the issue, haven't read it yet.

Quite busy now, let me deal with it later.

2008-01-21 Updates:
Forget to mention, I have followed the instructions here: disabling the "Read Network ROM on Startup" under "Config/Networking" in the BIOS. Saved the settings and restarted, the message was gone, and the Ethernet card is still working. This should be just a workaround as I *thought* (yes, thought only) this setting was enabled since I get this notebook and got no problem. Has anyone contacted Lenovo support? What's their official explanation to the problem?

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24 comments:

  1. Anonymous02 March, 2008 16:17

    hi,
    I also have T60 and starting from yesterday i am getting the same error message. so i would be also interested to hear what is real solution of this problem is.
    george

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11 March, 2008 20:42

    Solution
    Download the file PROBoot.exe from the Intel(R) website using the link below.
    http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?strState=LIVE&ProductID=412&DwnldID=8242&lang=eng

    Perform the following steps to reset the configuration of the Boot Agent.

    1. The following operation requires use of a DOS-bootable floppy disk containing an executable image of the IBAUTIL.EXE utility. If you do not have a floppy disk drive, You can boot your machine with a DOS bootable CD and them launch IBAUTIL.EXE directly from your HDD.
    IBAUTIL.EXE will be located in your chosen location when you launch PROBoot.exe.

    2. Using your DOS bootable FDD/CD, boot your computer to a DOS prompt.

    CAUTION: The next several steps require that your computer be booted only to DOS, and not from a Windows "DOS box". These steps cannot be performed from a DOS Command Prompt window or sing a DOS task within Windows .

    NOTE: Remember to alter the startup sequence in BIOS to ensure that the machine will boot from FDD or CD, alternatively press F12 and manually choose your boot device.

    3. Type "IBAUTIL -DEFCFG" at the command line.
    This Resets Configuration and Control words in the EEPROM to default settings. Specifically, word 30h in the EEPROM is set to 0100h and word 31h is set to 4000h. The checksum in the EEPROM is updated to account for these new values. No other words in the EEPROM are modified.

    Problem solved.

    ReplyDelete
  3. circle11 March, 2008 23:55

    Thanks for your detailed procedures! But unfortunately I don't have a floppy drive nor a DOS CD here so I cannot verify them.

    And I guess there are some ways to overwrite those words in Windows?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous20 March, 2008 22:47

    This worked for me!!! I had a USB floppy drive (~$10-20 online). I formatted the floppy disc in Windows XP, and then copied the files over from the download.

    Here are steps to make a MS-DOS floppy for Windows XP:

    1. Insert floppy disc into computer
    2. Right-click on 3 1/2 Floppy in My Computer.
    3. Click Format.
    4. Check Create an MS-DOS startup disk.
    5. Click Start
    6. Copy files from the Intel download to the floppy disk.
    7. Reboot the PC from floppy.
    8. At the A: prompt, type: ibautil -defcfg

    Thanks for the info!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. aikmo15 September, 2008 02:55

    Thank you very much!

    It works!

    By this day ProBoot can be downloaded using this link; link from Anonymous message doesn't work.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous16 October, 2008 22:54

    You can find a Expansion_ROM_not_utilized_fix.iso at
    http://www.adx-us.com/wordpress

    it's posted on a computer blog I just started.....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous24 October, 2008 01:22

    Awesome! I had this problem as well. I booted to a bootable flash drive and ran the utility. It works like a charm. thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous29 October, 2008 19:02

    Hi guys

    quick question , does this article apply strictly to the LAN adapter issue or is it a generic PCI slot error.
    Reason why I ask is because I'm getting a similar error on a server hosted on a unisys es7000 hardware platform.

    EXPANSION ROM NOT INITIALIZED - PCI SERIAL BUS CONTROLLER

    F1 To Resume , F2 to setup.

    Do you think this fix will sort out the error I'm receiving ???

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous13 January, 2009 22:10

    I did it and it worked!! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Jason21 January, 2009 23:02

    According to Intel this utility is NOT for on-board controllers and the T60's controller is indeed onboard. Am I guessing you all ignored the warning and did it anywway?
    WARNING: This utility must not be used to program built-in network connections, also known as LAN-on-motherboard. This utility only supports Intel® network adapters. Using this utility on built-in network connections may make your network connection unusable.

    ReplyDelete
  11. circle23 January, 2009 01:29

    Thanks all for the info! I just didn't think that the thread can be still active after an year :D

    I didn't really try out the solutions mentioned above, instead I only disabled the setting in BIOS. If there is such a warning message, I think you guys should consider using the workaround instead to minimize the risk. It doesn't really affect anything after you boot up to your OS - at least I didn't notice any.

    P.S. Although I am not an expert in this and can't help much, I am really glad to see here become one of the platforms for you guys to discuss the issue. At least this post helped someone :D

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous25 March, 2009 20:59

    Thanks! That worked.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Unknown27 May, 2009 20:31

    Thanh you for the information.It worked even now !!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous27 July, 2009 20:18

    thx, worked!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous20 August, 2009 19:46

    Thx. I ignored the warning as well and it worked flawlessly on my Lenovo T60

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous12 October, 2009 13:42

    On my machine the "Expansion ROM not initialized" error seems to be related to the SATA SiI3132 card that is inserted into the PCIe slot of the Advanced Dock that I use with my T500. Hope the various ideas suggested here can be applied in my case.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous11 November, 2009 18:20

    Thx! It worked for me too

    ReplyDelete
  18. Unknown24 November, 2009 20:58

    ERROR: Expansion ROM not initialized - PCI on Motherboard

    load into bios pressing f1
    config --network---internal network option rom disable setting

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous14 January, 2010 00:47

    Basically your disabling the network boot attempt as a work around, while that's fine I'm too anal retentive to allow a problem to exist whether it affects me or not. I ran the ibautil from a bootable USB key using the info on this page and it fixes the problem properly. Thanks to all!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous14 January, 2010 20:39

    This helped me
    http://www.upgrades-and-options.com/2009/02/t60p-expansion-rom-not-initialized.html

    ReplyDelete
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