Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

ThinkPad BIOS whitelist (error 1802/1804) *READ 1st MSG*

T60/T61 Series
Message
Author
maimbourg
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:20 pm
Location: Austin, Texas

#31 Post by maimbourg » Mon Feb 04, 2008 5:48 pm

Zender,

I have a T60 and a Sierra Wireless MC5725 card available for testing. This card has been confirmed to result in the 1804 error during post.

I will be more than happy to model this BIOS under the conditions mentioned in your previous post.

maimbourg
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:20 pm
Location: Austin, Texas

#32 Post by maimbourg » Mon Feb 04, 2008 5:53 pm

In addition to, the bios file that is currently resident on my T60 is 79ETEQWW (2.20) with a release date of 2007/12/07.

Switchcorp
Freshman Member
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:36 pm
Location: Tilly, Brabant Wallon, Belgium

#33 Post by Switchcorp » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:07 am

Simple question, if we enable the card like an official, will it be detect by the connection manager and can be disable with (Fn + F5 - on my X61T) ?

If it's a MC8775 (in x61T) it's like the original lenovo one so it should work ... but i suppose that if we put another card it's different.

When the bios will be tested on T60,... could the user try what i suggest and report the results please ?

Zender
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 315
Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Contact:

#34 Post by Zender » Tue Feb 05, 2008 3:39 am

I think the answer is also simple. It won't work that way, cannot be disabled by F5 or wireless switch, WWAN led will not blink and cannot be used by AccessConnections. Unless you load it with the Lenovo-branded firmware, which is responsible for all this.

short101
Freshman Member
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2007 6:28 am
Location: Perth Australia

#35 Post by short101 » Tue Feb 05, 2008 4:56 am

I would love to see your notes on this, as I tried a multitude of tools and could not get a t60 bios to recompress myself. If you have also identified the procedure that runs the check, can you see in the old bioses where it checked the bit in nvram, and does it still do it in the newer bioses? Its great news that someone has at least cracked recompressing a modern thinkpad bios, but finding if it still has a cmos bit that can disable the check would be even better, as its way less risky and can be implemented as a live cd like no1802.

Zender
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 315
Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Contact:

#36 Post by Zender » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:36 am

I've tried to follow the code, but can't tell. The main problem is that there are references to F000 memory segment, which I was unable to locate in the BIOS modules. Maybe I'll try to understand the code better in the future, but disassembling and seeing what it does takes quite a lot of time, at least for me who has no experience with machine code/assembler.

As for recompressing, I'm definitely not doing whole BIOS recomposition, that's too dangerous. In the beginning I've enlarged one module in the BIOS file, but even then it was done manually. I looked at what happens when a module grows and did only necessary changes to the BIOS file (move modules before the grown one back, put the grown one in place and correct offsets of modules in the block).

But that was when I wanted to change the device/subsystem IDs, which are eight bytes long and usually repeat many times, so modifying it was likely to alter the compressed size. Now when we only change one instruction for the processor (return success instead of failure), the compressed size stays and it can be just replaced in-place, checksummed and that's done.

short101
Freshman Member
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2007 6:28 am
Location: Perth Australia

#37 Post by short101 » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:51 am

Can you tell me where you are changing the id's as I have been trying to do this for a wan card, and there is only one file (bioscod5.rom) that has the id's for my card and it also has the wireless card id's in it at an offset just before the WAN card ones. Are you changing the id's or disabling the check? You say your are uncompressing manually? I am a bit confused as to what your actually doing. Heres a link that might help with the F000 explanation a bit. Its all quite over my head, but I'm as keen as you are in working around this whitelist.
http://www.geocities.com/mamanzip/Artic ... guide.html

Jumme
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:05 pm
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

#38 Post by Jumme » Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:31 am

Holmsteen wrote:Hi. I have the X60s, i tried to fit it with this AR5008E 802.11 a/b/g/n XSPAN 300Mbps but no luck, must remove and restart... can i use this new bios fix?.

Kind regards

Michael
Zender.. If you'd make the BIOS mod for the X60s, and Holmsteen is willing to try the BIOS -
I'd be willing to both help him do the flash AND exchange his motherboard, if need be. Not pay for it, though.

But I must admit I really have high thoughts about your work, Zender. So I too think the risk is as close to zero as can be.

i'll write him a BP on Danish (we live in the same town, I think).
X200 - P8800 2.66 MHz - 8 GB RAM - Samsung 500gb 860 SSD - WLAN - Bluetooth - WWAN - FP*reader

Switchcorp
Freshman Member
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:36 pm
Location: Tilly, Brabant Wallon, Belgium

#39 Post by Switchcorp » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:39 pm

Zender wrote:I think the answer is also simple. It won't work that way, cannot be disabled by F5 or wireless switch, WWAN led will not blink and cannot be used by AccessConnections. Unless you load it with the Lenovo-branded firmware, which is responsible for all this.
darn XXXX... bad news for me because i want the feature ...

Is there another way to quickly enable/disable the wwan ? (like a shortcut)

Can we add wathever wwan we want ? If so i would like to try with my option card (after the first tests on T60)

MOD EDIT: Please keep your language clean, thank you.

maimbourg
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:20 pm
Location: Austin, Texas

#40 Post by maimbourg » Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:58 pm

Zender,

Check you private messages when you have a chance. I have left some feedback for you.

maimbourg
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:20 pm
Location: Austin, Texas

#41 Post by maimbourg » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:26 pm

Zender,

Check your private messages in reference to Mod 3.

Thanks,
Mike M

Jumme
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:05 pm
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

#42 Post by Jumme » Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:43 am

Switchcorp wrote:
Zender wrote:I think the answer is also simple. It won't work that way, cannot be disabled by F5 or wireless switch, WWAN led will not blink and cannot be used by AccessConnections. Unless you load it with the Lenovo-branded firmware, which is responsible for all this.
Is there another way to quickly enable/disable the wwan ? (like a shortcut)

Can we add wathever wwan we want ? If so i would like to try with my option card (after the first tests on T60)
I remember something with short cutting 2 pins on the Wlan card..
or maybe removing a pin with a razor...
wasnt relevant to me, though, so didnt keep the link.

Please do a google search on the topic.
EDIT: or in this forum. :lol:
X200 - P8800 2.66 MHz - 8 GB RAM - Samsung 500gb 860 SSD - WLAN - Bluetooth - WWAN - FP*reader

Zender
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 315
Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Contact:

T60 progress

#43 Post by Zender » Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:04 pm

Just to post an update for everyone. I would like to thank maimbourg for cooperating with me, as it seemed to be a neverending story of unbootable CDs and bad BIOS file checksums.

Yet finally, it appears that he has booted the machine with a Novatel EV620 miniPCIe card, which definitely is not approved and used to trigger the 1804 error. Yay. Though he couldn't test if the card actually works, as it seems there are no freely available drivers for it (but Windows see the card).

For all others who volunteered to try the BIOS, please be patient, I don't want to brick more computers at once :)

dzenc
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:34 pm
Location: Piscataway, NJ

#44 Post by dzenc » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:47 pm

Google says that the Novatel card is supposed to show up as a USB device.

http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-usb-d ... 51872.html
Add an ID to recognise the Novatel EV620 wireless adapter.

http://www.novatelwireless.com/products ... ev620.html

It looks like a mini PCI-Express adapter. The mPCIE connector includes USB pins... the card shows up to the system as a USB device, and powers itself from the PCI bus.

dzenc
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:34 pm
Location: Piscataway, NJ

#45 Post by dzenc » Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:46 pm


Jumme
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:05 pm
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

#46 Post by Jumme » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:01 am

Nice job, Zender. Keep up the good work!!

BTW; I definitely think you should make all BIOS mod versions (R32, T60,...) widely available on the internet, as many ppl who have this problem are not users on this forum.

AFAIK IBM would not be able to object to this, nor take any legal steps towards this.
X200 - P8800 2.66 MHz - 8 GB RAM - Samsung 500gb 860 SSD - WLAN - Bluetooth - WWAN - FP*reader

Zender
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 315
Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Contact:

#47 Post by Zender » Thu Feb 07, 2008 11:07 am

Anyone here with T60 and access to a 875U modem or a generic (non-Lenovo branded) Sierra Wireless MC8775 miniPCIe card?

Edit: not needed anymore
Last edited by Zender on Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Switchcorp
Freshman Member
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:36 pm
Location: Tilly, Brabant Wallon, Belgium

#48 Post by Switchcorp » Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:53 pm

Your mod doesn't work with another supplier ?

Zender
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 315
Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Contact:

#49 Post by Zender » Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:07 pm

It does, but the point is different. Short101 has the said modem and when he takes the miniPCIe card out of it and puts it into his T60, the machine will boot even when no BIOS modifications are present - but it will not work. The WWAN LED lights up, after few seconds goes dark and the OS does not see it at all.

jayanthd
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:05 am
Location: Harrisburg, PA

another T 60 P anxiety

#50 Post by jayanthd » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:37 pm

Im trying to upgrade my ABG card to AGN - both Intel and I get that Bios boot error. Waiting anxiously for your fix. One question re: with future bios updates and future continued compatibility remains.

Jay

maimbourg
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:20 pm
Location: Austin, Texas

#51 Post by maimbourg » Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:40 pm

Zender,

I have the modified 2.20 bios and the Sierra Wireless MC5725 Rev A card installed in my T60.

The laptop boots through POST and loads the OS perfectly.

I loaded the MC5725 driver from Lenovo (the one listed for the T61 machines), installed the Verizon Wireless software application intended for the embedded MC5725 card and have successfully connected with EV-DO rev A to the Verizon network.

The FN-F5 key combination works just find and allows me to turn off the WWAN, WIFI, BlueTooth devices via this key combination.

I will keep the forum posted if there are any issues in that surface in the coming days.

Once again thank you for your hard work and devotion to making this work for so many of us...Excellent Job!

Maimbourg

Switchcorp
Freshman Member
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:36 pm
Location: Tilly, Brabant Wallon, Belgium

#52 Post by Switchcorp » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:11 pm

I suppose that your MC5725 is a lenovo one but that it was note made for T60 ? and that's not locked ?

If it's correct then it's normal that the FN + F5 works because the card is from lenovo ... if it's a generic card it's a great news !

maimbourg
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:20 pm
Location: Austin, Texas

#53 Post by maimbourg » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:50 pm

It is a Lenovo one so that's why the FN+F5 keys work - Yes.

All I really needed was for the Rev A EV-DO embedded card to work in my T60 (replacing the Rev 0 EV-DO one) so I would have the faster speeds when accessing the internet. Upload speed is been sped up and the downloads speeds push 1.5 MBs which is nice compared to the Rev 0 transmit/receive rates.

Getting non-Lenovo cards to react to the FN-F5 key combination would be nice and maybe someone will provide a work around in the near future.

Switchcorp
Freshman Member
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:36 pm
Location: Tilly, Brabant Wallon, Belgium

#54 Post by Switchcorp » Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:04 am

Zender wrote:It does, but the point is different. Short101 has the said modem and when he takes the miniPCIe card out of it and puts it into his T60, the machine will boot even when no BIOS modifications are present - but it will not work. The WWAN LED lights up, after few seconds goes dark and the OS does not see it at all.
Ah yes I remember the problem of Short101 ! It's strange because with other modem like mine there are no problems on booting and being detected by Windows.

I have finally found x64 drivers for my option card so I can test one of your firmware mod's on a X61T (i assume that it's not very different of T60 firmware) ;) What's the procedure ? what do you need ?

(and i've also found that my problem after hibernating were not due to Lenovo -and some kind of incompatibility with Option wwan - but it was due to the option card drivers!)

Zender
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 315
Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Contact:

Almost there.

#55 Post by Zender » Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:41 am

So it seems we're almost there :)

As for the question about future BIOS updates. The modification is always done to a particular version of particular machine BIOS. Even though I'm probably going to make a tool which will, when given the correct set of tools (phcomp, phnxdeco, prepare), search for the right patterns and modify them, independant of a particular BIOS/version, I'll have to implement some "1804 error" :twisted: in it, so that it's not used on new BIOSes without proper testing. We don't want people mass-destruct their ThinkPads, do we :)

Next: beta-testing. We need to be sure there are no side-effects, so I'll PM people from this thread one by one and send them BIOS mod for their machine. Anyone wanting to jump the queue, please PM.
Last edited by Zender on Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

efrant
Sophomore Member
Posts: 199
Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

#56 Post by efrant » Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:01 am

Zender,

Just want to say a quick thanks for all your work. It is very much appreciated by all of us!

Thank you! :thumbs-UP:

May I humbly suggest that we forum members who benefit from Zender's excellent work, PayPal him a little donation in appreciation?
T60p: T7400, 4GB, 15" UXGA Flexview, V5200, Seagate XT 500GB 7200rpm hybrid, DVD-RW, Atheros AGN, BT, Win7 Ultimate x64
X200s: SL9400, 4GB, WXGA+ LED, 160GB Intel X25-M G2, WiMax/WiFi Link 5350, MC8781 WWAN, BT, Win7 Ultimate x64

diomark
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:08 pm
Location: san francisco, ca

#57 Post by diomark » Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:16 pm

Zender,

Tried to PM you this - but for some reason it's not going through PM -

OK - here's what I had to do to get the modified BIOS working -

The bios upgrade didn't work out of the box because I already had the latest version of the BIOS loaded on my thinkpad..

I was originally going to try and downgrade the BIOS first, then re-upgrade.. but I was feeling lazy.. During the startup of the ISO CDROM, I pressed control-c (during the loading mscdex portion) - then manually loaded the mscdex component to load the cdrom drive (type autoexec.bat and do the highload mscdex.exe /(whatever options were in autoexec.bat))

After experimenting for a while, found that flash2.exe /U (from the d: cdrom drive) upgraded the bios without the 'bios upgrade not required' check..

It allowed me to bootup and install the drivers for my Gigabyte GN-WI106N (mini) PCI Expres WLAN Card (GN-WI06N-RH) - but it is telling me hardware disabled:( (The hardware WLAN switch is on..) - I've also checked the BIOS settings and the WLAN/WAN (everything really) is enabled...

I'll write back if I'm able to get this working, but so far.. although the card is visible to the OS now and I'm able to load drivers for it, it thinks that the hardware switch is off and is disabled:( (the actual messsage from the Gigabyte client utility is "Radio Status: Hardware Disabled"

In the BIOS, there's two options for WLAN - enabled, or hidden.. If hidden, then the OS just doesn't see it.. If enabled, then the driver comes back with "Radio status: hardware disabled"

:(

-mark

Zender
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 315
Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Contact:

#58 Post by Zender » Fri Feb 08, 2008 2:08 pm

Mhm. If you had the old wireless card disabled before removing it (not neccessarily by the switch, power off in AC is enough), please try putting it back, powering it on, then switching the computer off and going for the new card. Seems you're not the only one who has such problem, because searching for gigabyte "hardware disabled" yields a few results...

diomark
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:08 pm
Location: san francisco, ca

#59 Post by diomark » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:13 pm

So putting in old card/turning on/powerng on/removing/putting in new card didn't work..

BUT I got this working!

Here was the fix on the old mini-pci specification/cards - basically taping over pin 13..

http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/MiniPCI

A similar fix worked on this mini-pci express - except that I had to figure out that it's pin 20 that needs to be taped over -
http://www.pcisig.com/specifications/pc ... es_ECN.pdf

(Pin 20 is on the underside, 2 pins away form the key.. the numbering works from the left side, top 1, bottom 2, etc...)

The gigabyte utility keeps crashing, but disabling that and using the windows client to manage my wireless means that I'm now online at 300mbps:)
-mark

short101
Freshman Member
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2007 6:28 am
Location: Perth Australia

#60 Post by short101 » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:17 pm

Good pickup diomark! This was exactly the problem with my mc8775 that was taken out of a 875U modem. Unfortunately, it now appears that the card cannot be turned off, even with the hardware switch. Many thanks to Zender for his great work in making the bios workaround.

Locked
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “ThinkPad T60/T61 Series”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 52 guests