[TP370] Bios upgrade without battery?

[Evert Jan Meijer <ejmeijer@mendelevium.chem.vu.nl>]

To introduce: I have a thinkpad 370C. It has a 10.4" TFT LCD, (4+16)MB RAM,
and a 340MB HD. I run Linux, and there is a small portion of the HD for DOS.
I'm in the process of upgrading the HD to a HITACHI DK225A-21 2.1GB, that
I just got for HFL600,- (US$300). 

However, I got a problem installing the Hitachi HD. After switching on
the notebook, the BIOS reported an error message related to the disk
and the machine stopped booting.

My first idea was to update the BIOS. I got the update (sytpw140) downloaded
from the net. 

When I entered the BIOS installation menu I got the message that a
charged battery pack is required, and the installation program
stopped.  Unfortunately my battery pack died, and I do not want to buy
an new one (I just use my thinkpad as a moveable desktop).

Does anyone know of a way to install a new BIOS without a charged battery?

Thanks,

evert jan
---
                   Evert Jan  Meijer
     Department of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
               Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  De Boelelaan 1083, NL-1081 HV AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands

  Tel.    +31-20-444.76.20/444.76.44   Fax.  +31-20-444.76.43
  e-mail  ejmeijer@chem.vu.nl          URL   http://tc.chem.vu.nl/~ejmeijer/