Thinkpads Forum

How to upgrade bios in x60 and t60 to clear whitelist so to install new wifi card. i need to replace it because my ISP provided me with faster internet speed. Where to find any helpful info?
thx

You must flash Zender's modded BIOS on both machines first. Hopefully someone around here will be able to PM you a link to these files.

Good luck.

If the X60 and X60s use the same bios, I'm pretty sure I have a copy of the whitelist mod bios from the mydigital life forum. Bios version 2.19 I think (it was the last one released for this laptop).

I have that BIOS from that website as well; the filename is "Lenovo ThinkPad_X60 1706 BW5_2.19_7buj28us_Lenovo21__WL.zip" and is has SLIC 2.1 + Whitelist check removed.

Shredder11 wrote:I have that BIOS from that website as well; the filename is "Lenovo ThinkPad_X60 1706 BW5_2.19_7buj28us_Lenovo21__WL.zip" and is has SLIC 2.1 + Whitelist check removed.

Hi there, in your post to Serg008 @ MDL forum on 14th Sep 2012 you said in particular "I currently have BIOS 2.19 7BETD8WW (31st March 2011)":
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/printt ... &page=1155

Do you happen to remember if you installed the modded 7buj28us from Serg008 right over it? Looking at 7buj28us.txt I can see two revisions of v2.19, interestingly neither one dated 31st March 2011, and am wondering if either of them is good enough for flashing the modded one atop:
Package BIOS (BIOS ID) ECP (ECP ID) Rev. Issue Date
------------- ---------------- ---------------- ---- ----------
2.19 2.19 (7BETD8WW) 1.13 02 2011/04/26
2.19 2.19 (7BETD8WW) 1.13 01 2011/04/20

You seem to have asked Serg008 that very question later on that day (and in the middle of the same page @ MDL forum) but his response doesn't answer it precisely: "Yes. Original, then after reboot - modified".

I've flashed the BIOS of most of my Thinkpads but not my X60s yet, as I decided for the time being I would carry on using Win XP Pro SP3. Yes Serg008 did not seem to answer my question in detail, but he seems to be one of the knowledgeable and experienced regulars on that site, so I trusted his response I suppose.

Shredder11:

Thanks for your reply. I'm now trying to find exact steps to flash his BIOS from under MS-DOS (which afaik is the safest method): his instructions accompanying that BIOS say "Flash from Windows with Included Flash Utility" and no phlash16.exe is included. Just want to be 100% sure before I start.

Just in case: if you roam around www.bios-mods.com, be EXTREMELY wary of what they concoct there, UNLESS it was made by TTAV134.
Most of their downloads are amateur-junk, AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!.

RealBlackStuff wrote:Just in case: if you roam around www.bios-mods.com, be EXTREMELY wary of what they concoct there, UNLESS it was made by TTAV134.
Most of their downloads are amateur-junk, AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!.

Thanks for the alert. I haven't come across any modded X60(s) BIOSes from TTAV134 though. Hope the one from Serg008 @ MDL that is referred to earlier in this thread is OK too.. (it's reportedly been tested successfully a long time ago).

Serg008 stuff is fine, no problem.

Just flashed my X60s 1702-W96 with "Lenovo ThinkPad_X60 1706 BW5_2.19_7buj28us_Lenovo21__WL.zip" from under Windows XP as instructed. All good: Intel 6205 WiFi card didn't cause error 1802 and is working fine.

Brilliant news and thank you for letting us all know.

Oh and a few years ago I also had a look around http://www.bios-mods.com and thought better of it. I'm no expert but it just had that feel and vibe of a scam site, or just something inferior and an unknown quantity.

Even some mods and supermods on bios-mods.com are bleedin' amateurs.
MDL always had the best BIOS versions of them all!
Their main problem: where to store them 'legally', pity.

I would advise to regularly check for modded BIOSes for any laptop you have now or might buy in the future.
Although the fun has gone out of it since they started with UEFI (short for: Useless Effin' Flippin' Idiocy).

I am still running older desktops and laptops, and I had become a little bored with computers for a few years until I got into the Thinkpads, so I have yet to encounter my first UEFI BIOS. My main desktop computer is based on a ASUS P5Q SE PLUS from 2009 which I modified last year, so I could install a Intel Xeon X5492 CPU. I had to cut the CPU socket plastic orientation lugs, then flash the BIOS along with new CPU microcodes. I then attached a conductive sticker over the pin connection pads and then rotate the Xeon in the slot. It all worked like a dream and so for a mere £49 I had a nice cheap upgrade, which doubled the performance from the Intel Quad Q6600 I had before. It's not often it makes economic sense to upgrade an old machine, but on this occasion it definitely was; it was either £49 or pay out hundreds, e.g. £800 on replacing everything due to older components being incompatible.

My PC is a mongrel with varying age.
Home-built Lian-Li alu tower from ca. 2004, mobo and CPU updated in 2010.
Motherboard ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 with an AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Label (unlocked) 3.2GHz CPU.
Never bothered to update the BIOS.
Runs like a champ with 8GB RAM on W7-Pro/SP1 64-bit and a 120GB Samsung 830 SSD.
I could put in 32GB but who needs it?

The X60 is the ONLY laptop which can use the open-source bios Coreboot. Libreboot, a repackaged Coreboot, can be installed from Debian without physically connecting wires to the eeprom. Here it is in action, booting to a browser in 10 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKdLhbmjrDI&t=2m45s

RealBlackStuff wrote:Serg008 stuff is fine, no problem.

Yesterday I installed one of his bioses for a T420s 1.39 (post 7801 http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... ad/page781 )and, after installing, the machine was sending illicit packets to a handful of amazon ip addresses and my webbrowser-based administrative control panel for my wifi router had been hacked.

I have used several of Serg008 BIOSes in different machines, but not in a T420s.
So far I never had any problems with them.
I'll have to check my downloads.

For the T420s I noticed the download was throwing an infected file, some kind of Trojan, I went back and re-downloaded week or so later, and there were no infected files found.

So it could have been a compromised download.

dandreye wrote:Just flashed my X60s 1702-W96 with "Lenovo ThinkPad_X60 1706 BW5_2.19_7buj28us_Lenovo21__WL.zip" from under Windows XP as instructed. All good: Intel 6205 WiFi card didn't cause error 1802 and is working fine.

Is there any chance you can point me in the right direction to do as you have done? This is exactly what I'm after but I am very weary of bricking my x60s!

Flash the original, same version BIOS from Lenovo first, then flash the modded BIOS over it.

cdmciver:

Sure. Here's the beginning of my communication with Serg008, the author of this BIOS mod and/or the one who makes it available )
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... ost1217713
, and its continuation:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... ost1218678

After burning official v2.19 BIOS (which appears to be a prerequisite unless you're at it already) I was hoping to burn his modded BIOS from under DOS (reportedly safest). Because of the wording in his initial responses I wasn't 100% sure how to adapt that BIOS (which IIRC is targeted for flashing from under Windows XP) to burning it from under DOS and ended up burning it from under Windows XP before his clarifications along with a ready .iso with DOS version of that very BIOS arrived. Both ways should be equally reliable, so if you dare try the DOS way you can let us all know how it went )

The original (Windows XP) version of the modded BIOS that I successfully burnt is published here:
https://www.sendspace.com/file/s19w8b

, which is mentioned as a mirror here:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... post458357

DOS version of the same BIOS made available by Serg008 on my request is published here:
https://www.sendspace.com/file/iv2t5v

, which is mentioned here:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... ost1218766