05-06-2020, 10:44 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-06-2020, 11:28 AM by soeryobadja.)
Hello all,
I want to seek help regarding Lenovo Thinkcentre M930 Tiny Desktop. I would like to remove whitelist for WiFi card, but before I am able to do that, I have problem in downloading the BIOS image. Here is what I have been doing without any positive result.
1. I have CH341a programmer with SOIC clip, both the green and black board.
2. Based on my study on the following page (https://www.reddit.com/r/Lenovo/comments...ice_in_my/), I understand M93p has two BIOS chip, which I can confirm is the case on my machine. My M93p is using MX25L6473E and MX25L3273E.
3. I first tried to dump BIOS using CH341a black board with standard CH31a programmer software, but I never able to get two consistent BIOS dump (two subsequent BIOS read result in non-identical BIOS image). The CH341a programmer seems not able to auto detect the chip, especially the MX25L3273E chip. The 6473E chip can be auto detected, but the result is never identical.
4. Having read the page on #2, I concatenate both BIOS image and start do a deviceID_vendorID search, but can never find any matching IDs. For example, searching 8680b108 for Intel WiFi card results nothing using UEFITool.
5. As a comparison, I once use the CH341a and the programmer software to dump BIOS of my Thinkpad T440 and it works. Submitting the BIOS dump in this forum for WiFi whitelist request was successful and I can use other WiFi card in the T440.
5. Reading further into this forum, the recommendation is to use Flashrom to dump the BIOS, and I install flahsrom in my macOS Mojave.
6. Trying to use the CH341a green board using Flashrom on my old unused Z68 motherboard with dual BIOS using MX25L3206E, and reading both BIOS chip twice runs smoothly. I have not check whether both read are identical, but everything runs smoothly, no error from Flashrom.
7. Then I try to read the BIOS on M93p using the green CH341a, but the result is "Couldn't open device 1a85:5512. Error: Programmer Initialization failed". However, when I remove the SOIC clip from the BIOS chip and run flashrom, programmer successfully initialized but Flashrom detect no chip, which I assume the CH341a and flashrom works.
8. I tried using CH341a black board, and seems like the programmer is detected by flashrom, but it cannot auto detect the BIOS chip. I tried to reattach the clip, but result still same. After multiple time of reattaching, it is then automatically detecting when reading the MX25L6473E. However, when reading, it starts with "Block protection could not be disabled" but then it reads the BIOS until finish. However, when I tried to do reading the 2nd time, flashrom cannot auto detect the 6473E chip.
9. I tried with the next chip, 3273E, but generally the result more less the same. Even if it is successfully auto read the chip, it does not read correctly read the chip i.e. showing as MX25L6406E/MX25L6408E of 8192kB, in another instance showint as MX25L6405D of 8192kB while actually the chip is MX25L3273E of 4096kB that is available and supported with PREW function on the flashrom list.
As much as I want to progress and expand my knowledge and learning on BIOS modification, I will not be able to do the learning before I am successfully dump the BIOS. Thus I really need some help.
I already bought the WiFi card for this machine, therefore I really want to install it on this machine.
Thank you in advance for looking at my case and give some advise/guidance.
EDIT: tried to open the resulting BIOS dump from the 6473E using UEFI Tool, result in "parse: not a single Volume Top File is found, the image may be corrupted". This is the one that when reading, comes out with "Block protection could not be disabled" but keep on reading anyway.
I want to seek help regarding Lenovo Thinkcentre M930 Tiny Desktop. I would like to remove whitelist for WiFi card, but before I am able to do that, I have problem in downloading the BIOS image. Here is what I have been doing without any positive result.
1. I have CH341a programmer with SOIC clip, both the green and black board.
2. Based on my study on the following page (https://www.reddit.com/r/Lenovo/comments...ice_in_my/), I understand M93p has two BIOS chip, which I can confirm is the case on my machine. My M93p is using MX25L6473E and MX25L3273E.
3. I first tried to dump BIOS using CH341a black board with standard CH31a programmer software, but I never able to get two consistent BIOS dump (two subsequent BIOS read result in non-identical BIOS image). The CH341a programmer seems not able to auto detect the chip, especially the MX25L3273E chip. The 6473E chip can be auto detected, but the result is never identical.
4. Having read the page on #2, I concatenate both BIOS image and start do a deviceID_vendorID search, but can never find any matching IDs. For example, searching 8680b108 for Intel WiFi card results nothing using UEFITool.
5. As a comparison, I once use the CH341a and the programmer software to dump BIOS of my Thinkpad T440 and it works. Submitting the BIOS dump in this forum for WiFi whitelist request was successful and I can use other WiFi card in the T440.
5. Reading further into this forum, the recommendation is to use Flashrom to dump the BIOS, and I install flahsrom in my macOS Mojave.
6. Trying to use the CH341a green board using Flashrom on my old unused Z68 motherboard with dual BIOS using MX25L3206E, and reading both BIOS chip twice runs smoothly. I have not check whether both read are identical, but everything runs smoothly, no error from Flashrom.
7. Then I try to read the BIOS on M93p using the green CH341a, but the result is "Couldn't open device 1a85:5512. Error: Programmer Initialization failed". However, when I remove the SOIC clip from the BIOS chip and run flashrom, programmer successfully initialized but Flashrom detect no chip, which I assume the CH341a and flashrom works.
8. I tried using CH341a black board, and seems like the programmer is detected by flashrom, but it cannot auto detect the BIOS chip. I tried to reattach the clip, but result still same. After multiple time of reattaching, it is then automatically detecting when reading the MX25L6473E. However, when reading, it starts with "Block protection could not be disabled" but then it reads the BIOS until finish. However, when I tried to do reading the 2nd time, flashrom cannot auto detect the 6473E chip.
9. I tried with the next chip, 3273E, but generally the result more less the same. Even if it is successfully auto read the chip, it does not read correctly read the chip i.e. showing as MX25L6406E/MX25L6408E of 8192kB, in another instance showint as MX25L6405D of 8192kB while actually the chip is MX25L3273E of 4096kB that is available and supported with PREW function on the flashrom list.
As much as I want to progress and expand my knowledge and learning on BIOS modification, I will not be able to do the learning before I am successfully dump the BIOS. Thus I really need some help.
I already bought the WiFi card for this machine, therefore I really want to install it on this machine.
Thank you in advance for looking at my case and give some advise/guidance.
EDIT: tried to open the resulting BIOS dump from the 6473E using UEFI Tool, result in "parse: not a single Volume Top File is found, the image may be corrupted". This is the one that when reading, comes out with "Block protection could not be disabled" but keep on reading anyway.