T420s custom Bios

[positive]

Hi All,

Can someone please let me know the link to a recommended BIOS with whitelist removed, so that I can install an Intel 7260.

Thanks!

[br0adband]

The one that I'm using since I got my T420s a few days ago is the 1.41 modified BIOS as noted here:

https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread- ... er-changes

I know that the latest BIOS is 1.45 and it was released just after 1.44 because of the Meltdown/Spectre issues but there only seems to be one person that modified the 1.45 BIOS and he/she/it is attempting to sell it instead of just offering it people so, I guess I won't be getting that one anytime soon unless someone else decides to offer a modded BIOS.

Note that for this 1.41 modified BIOS you must install the Lenovo supplied stock 1.41 first and once that's done you can then flash the modified 1.41 on top of it. The T420s I just got actually had the 1.28 BIOS from many years ago on it so yeah, installing a whitelist free BIOS was important to me. I replaced the Intel 6205 Wi-Fi card with an Intel 6300 (Dell PN on it from my Latitude E6400) and now make use of the 3 antennas and get better throughput. I do intend to get an 11ac card at some point when I can find a good one. I read somewhere a few days ago that it is or might be possible to use a 7260 in the T420s just by taping or covering one of the card connectors (they're not pins but people call them that anyway).

Will have to do more research but, as stated, the 1.41 works for me so far, no issues noted, don't really care all that much about the Meltdown/Spectre situation to be perfectly honest. Since this is a much older laptop every little bit of performance matters so I'm not willing to lose a chunk of it just for that issue.

[br0adband]

I was using the latest 1.45 direct from Lenovo but then I realized I couldn't make use of the Intel 6300 Wi-Fi card I've got. The 6205 is 2 antenna and since this T420s I have has 3 antennas well, I went looking and found a WL modded 1.43 and that's what I'm using now. The whole Meltdown/Spectre fiasco is not something I care about all that much, I doubt I'll ever have any issues with it and I'm not interested in sacrificing a chunk of potential performance just to protect myself and this laptop from something that in all likelihood will never actually be a problem for me at all.

So unless I find a 1.44 or 1.45 (and there will more than likely be a 1.46 or something very soon since Lenovo is currently working on new patches for the Spectre offshoots) that has at the bare minimum the whitelist removal I'll stick with this 1.43 for the future.

I'm tempted to get into learning how to mod the BIOS myself actually, the removal of the WL, the removal of the RAM speed lock (didn't even know about that till recently), and unlocking some kind of AES-NI support as well and some other mods too are all potentially useful I suppose.

We'll see what happens... and if anyone requires or wants the 1.43 WL removed BIOS for the T420s drop me a PM.

EDIT: Of course 30 seconds after I made this post I did find a 1.44 WL removed BIOS but as stated I'll pass on it 'cause I'm not interested in losing performance for a bug that won't more than likely ever matter to me at all.

[RealBlackStuff]

Here's some reading about modding a BIOS: http://www.endeer.cz/bios.tools/bios.html

[TonyJZX]

I have a 420 and a 420s that have a very similar spec... 8Gb i5-2540 ssds etc.

My 420 upgraded fine to the latest as it has the OEM wifi card.

My 420s cant because it came with that rubbish Thinkpad Wireless II single band rubbish so I replaced it with a 6300.

The thing is, performance is still about the same, of course. I'm not using an VM s/w on it and the 2540 cpu has enough grunt to absorb the impact.

I would like the 420/420s WL bios for completeness however its not 100% necessary for most people.