[Request] Help removing whitelist from AMI BIOS for Toshiba P855-33D

[itsmeciao]

Hi. I haven't found a modded BIOS for this laptop so I started following this guide. The problem is that, modifying the BIOS in AMIBCP, I am not sure of what entry I should give user access to in order to bypass the whitelist. I have found an entry "Detect Non-Compliance Device" (see attached picture for directory), but what is confusing me is that the default state for this entry is "Disabled". Will enabling this entry allow me to bypass the whitelist? Or is this usually done in other ways/with other means?

   

Note that I have NO experience in BIOS modding; I am attempting to bypass the whitelist so I can replace the damaged PCIe wlan card that came with the laptop, a RTL8723AE, with a Broadcom one. As stated in the title, the laptop is a Toshiba Satellite P855-33D, BIOS Aptio (haven't managed to find version) by American Megatrends, v.6.90. Here the link to the BIOS, or attached you find the image saved from the computer itself with AFUWIN.

Thank you for the help, I really appreciate it.

[genius239]

Hi~~
I think it is not a whitelist issue ,it should be a compatible problem.
If it's a whitelist limitation ,you should see a error message like "104 unsupported wireless network device detected " ,this's hp laptop's error message.
It can detected new device but block it.

Now your problem is that your machine can't detect the new wireless device ,so you can try set "Detect Non-Compliance Device" disable to enable to test.

Optimal and failsafe item both you can set disable to enable to try.
Save rom then re-flash to test.

Optimal=currecnt setting value
failsafe=default setting value(It mean when you load bios default)

[itsmeciao]

Hi genius239, thank you for your quick reply.

I have already had trouble with PCIe whitelists on my HP laptop. As you described, it would report an error and fail to boot. However, this laptop behaves differently. The machine recognizes every card that I mount in (I only have Broadcom cards to test), but they are hard-blocked, in the sense that it asks to press the key combination to enable it or turn on an eventual hardware switch; there is no such switch, and the key has no effects. Also, the block is OS agnostic, under Linux it behaves just the same.

I had originally posted a question on Superuser (see there for details and what has been tried), and an user there suggested that the issue might be caused by a BIOS whitelist. In fact, the damaged card still works just fine (only has very unstable connection due to one of the cables missing).

I will try to mod the BIOS later today. If I have understood correctly, these are the changes that should be made to the entry "Detect Non-Compliance Device":
Access/Use: USER
Failsafe: Enabled
Optimal: Enabled

Then save the new BIOS and flash it. Hope everything goes well. Thank you for your help :)

[itsmeciao]

I have just flashed the modified BIOS for the second time, and unluckily it has had no effects on the behavior of the machine. The BIOS menu is identical, and foreign network cards are still hard-blocked. On the second flash I have tried to set failsafe and optimal values to "Disabled".

Does anyone know how to work with this BIOS? I tried to look around online but I still cannot figure out how to remove this whitelist by myself, with the very limited knowledge I have about the BIOS.

I really appreciate your help :)

[genius239]

This is not a whitelist limitation ,it's a hardware compatibility.
I don't think there are whitelists inside ami bios.

Real whitelist limit like your HP laptop's tip error message.

[itsmeciao]

This is not a whitelist limitation ,it's a hardware compatibility.
I don't think there are whitelists inside ami bios.

Real whitelist limit like your HP laptop's tip error message.

Yes you are right. I have just found this thread where they explain that pin 20 of mPCIe handles the hardware switch, and I followed their suggestion to cover that pin with electrical tape. The pin doesn't receive power so it cannot block the switch.

The machine is working now, but I still don't understand why it would attempt to hard-block the card. If you have any idea it would be nice to understand, if not I thank you for your time and help.