In January this year my old laptop died and I decided to buy a new laptop. I went for LENOVO Y520-15IKBN Model 80WK00YARI. After I got it I checked the bios settings. It was version 4KCN28WW. I enabled backflash, Intel VT-x, and set System password as 18912, but I disabled it. After that I installed the OS (Win10) and checked if there was a new version of BIOS available. It was available version 4KCN40WW and i downloaded it. After that I decided to encrypt my HDD with Symantec Encryption Desktop v 10.4.1. During the encryption that estimted it woud take 2 or 3 days to finish I decided to update the BIOS to latest version. Did the update from Windows with the file downloaded from
this link. Everything went ok and rebooted the laptop to finish HDD encryption. I also installed VMWare and wanted to create a new virtual machine when I got the error "This host supports Intel VT-x, but Intel VT-x is disabled.After that I wanted to enter BIOS setuo to enable Intel VT-x, but was prompted with "System password" request. Tried to enter 18912 but didn't work. I thought maybe is asking for HDD encryption password and tried that too, but also did not worked, so I skiped entering bios and booted OS normaly. Since the I tried to update the bios again since I found a new version 4KCN41WW and checked the flags to see if I can force flash a blank password by modifing variables in file platform.ini that was in the same folder where BIOS was ([ForceFlash] Password=1).BIOS update went OK, but I am still prompted to enter System Password when I try to enter BIOS Setup. I also managed to downgrade back to version 4KCN40WW with same ForceFlash variable, but the password remains.
I contacted the seller to see if they can help me, but they said this is not a warranty case. Also contacted LENOVO Support that said they can't reset or recover my password, but they can replace my laptop mainboard, but the price is too high and the laptop is working normaly.
I decided to try to find a solution. I found some replacement Main BIOS and EC chips on e-bay, but I know those chips have other identificatin details like MAC address, SN, UUID, GUID and other details.
I made a full dump of Main BIOS and EC chips with a SPI Programmer (CH341A), but I don't know how to extract my original details from BIOS dump and restore them to those new chips. For now I decided not to buy those chips. I want to find a way to extract my original details from BIOS dumps or to remove BIOS password from dump and reflash the dumps via SPI programmer with SIOC8 clip if it's possible without desoldering the chips.
So, I am asking for your help if you can remove the password or if you can extract the original details from BIOS dumps and I also would like to know if there is any way to enable Advanced settings in BIOS and remove the Whitelist for RAM and M.2 SSD and any other whitelist that may be there.
I have all the papers and receipts to prove I bought this laptop if there is any issues.
I will also make a resonable donation if I get any help.
Link to Model
link to current BIOS version