Whitelist removal request for Aspire 1410 - USB3.0 card

[davesems]

Hello,

I have an AAspire 1410 Timeline for which I have now attempted to add a Comell USB 3.0 Card (http://www.globalamericaninc.com/commell-mpx-7202.html), but no go. There is no 104 message as some other bioses so I am not sure it is a whitelist problem.

product name: Acer Aspire Timeline 1410 (ZH7)
Bios version: 3314
CPU type: Intel Celeron SU2300

Looking to add this card:
hardware ids
PCI\VEN_1033&DEV_0194&SUBSYS_01941033&REV_03
PCI\VEN_1033&DEV_0194&SUBSYS_01941033
PCI\VEN_1033&DEV_0194&CC_0C0330
PCI\VEN_1033&DEV_0194&CC_0C03

A Wifi card currently working is this (Intel Wifi 1000):
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0083&SUBSYS_13058086&REV_00
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0083&SUBSYS_13058086
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0083&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0083&CC_0280

Can this be patched to work, as I dont need the wifi card?
Can the HWid of the Comell mpx7202 card?

Thanks a Bundle.
Dave

---

sorry...
the link to the 3314 BIOS on the acer site is here.

Acer Aspire 1410 11.6" BIOS 3314

Thanks,
Dave

[camiloml]

Which is exactly your problem?

"but no go" is a bit information, but i guess is not enough

[davesems]

Which is exactly your problem?

"but no go" is a bit information, but i guess is not enough

Hi Camiloml,

First, many thanks for your immediate acknowledgement. I wasn't even sure if this was in the correct place as the USB 3.0 mini pci is looking like a first.

Please allow me some background as I have been working on this for several weeks and didn't just come to the whitelist problem by chance.

Ok, so I have modded the Acer 1410 mainboard and added a mini Pci-ex slot to the headers which were available. There are now two slots on the mainboard, the first was used/populated for the Intel Wifi 1000, and the second was unused and didnt even have a socket on it. since I wasnt sure at the time if the pciex lanes existed, I soldered a mini pci-ex socket to the missing one, jumped the resistor pinout as stated on other forums, and eventually - what a pain - I now have two mini pci-ex slots. However, after sufficient testing, but have the same behavior when the USb 3.0 card is added. I know both slots work perfectly because I placed the Intel Wifi card in each slot and it is completely operational (drivers loaded). So the USB 3.0 mini pci express card is also working perfectly on another laptop I placed it in, which has a confirmed no whitelist problem. I know from the Intel Wifi card that, it, and the USB 3.0 card, both use the mini Pci-ex lines and NOT the usb or mStata lines - the mini pci-ex standard is iffy - see wiki. So both the mini Pci/ex slots are working.

Fine, so when I install the USB 3.0 card, the computer does not even post. Blank screen. The bios doesn't appear, the power/on lights remain on, then turn off, then back on in a cycle about every 20 seconds. It has apparently been confirmed that this Acer Aspire 1410 with Su2300 CPU has a bios white list on some forums, but details are not available why. The sites were "the notebook review forums" for which I can place or pm a link if you wish.

At the moment I am stuck with trying to "patch" or un-whitelist my BIOS V3314. I have the tools, Winhex, EZH20, but I am unable to finds guides or links that work with this specific model, bios, and of course my USB 3.0 card.

I know this is something quite new for most (using a USB 3.0 card in a laptop which didn't originally come with it) but I think it would be a great addition to the laptop market as USB 3.0 has many "nice" options for expandability.

Is it possible to help out with patching, or please guide me on how this can be done?


Many Thanks in advance,
Dave

[camiloml]

The ID of your working card is not present in the bios.

Try another wifi card to see if it hangs your lappy.

If it works then i would forget about whitelist and would start thinking in maybe lack of enough current on the PCIe to the USB3 card, for example.

[davesems]

Well, alright,

I don't have many other cards to test with besides the below two WiFi cards below, one already was in device. Both these cards are allow start up and Boot into OS. OS detected, and drivers installed, however, the 6200N I think needs a core 2 cpu to work? I can try others once I get my hands on some, if you wish. However, WiFi cards and some 3G cards which use PCIex are not really using the power requirements that USB 3.0 requires/provides?or so? See edit below.


Original CARD Intel® WiFi Link 1000 BGN
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0083&SUBSYS_13058086&REV_00
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0083&SUBSYS_13058086
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0083&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0083&CC_0280

New Card tested Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200 AGN
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4239&SUBSYS_13118086&REV_3E
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4239&SUBSYS_13118086
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4239&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4239&CC_0280
(this card cant be enabled under hardware but driver installed - error cant start?- I am not sure but Centrino doesnt work on Celerons? my CPU is a SU2300?)


Edit: I have attached an external power source to the USB 3.0 card. Using the 5.0V usb line and a rect to convert to 3.3V. Tested the output, plugged into the laptop where the pciex USB was already working prior, and it still works well, with a connected USB 3.0 had disk - 75MB/sec xfer speeds. Then connected the pciex USB with the new power addon into the Acer 1410, and again no startup, blank screen and loop - no change from before?

Am I missing something here?
Is there other mini Pci-ex signal lines needed?
This card works perfectly in a cheap Acer Aspire One D255E ,where I checked the pinouts on the board going to the mini pci-ex slot and they are exactly the same as the 1410?
Would you like some pictures?

Thanks,
Dave

[camiloml]

hmmm, i'm out of ideas then I personally doubt there's any kind of whitelist, but hey, i'm human and can be wrong

[davesems]

hmmm, i'm out of ideas then I personally doubt there's any kind of whitelist, but hey, i'm human and can be wrong

Hi Camiloml,

Are none of the Intel Wifi IDs or partial IDs in the BIOS? Is it possible to make the menus of the Bios (in an easy way) visible so that one can check if options in there are inhibiting the card from starting the computer up? Is there really nothing that can be done...? I have come so far with this lappy that I don't want to just give up... is there anything (even far fetched) that can be done?

I really appreciate your (and anyone else's) time and help on this.

thanks,
dave

[davesems]

! Finally solved and working ! First I must convey my sincere respect for Camilo, he guided me in the right direction to solving this issue. Instead of beating that dead mule of Bios white listing that was said in the other threads...

The problem had (as he said) nothing to do with the BIOS.

The issue was the 1.5V lines on BOTH mini pciexpress sockets were inactive. In looking into details I found that most Intel mini pci-ex cards do not use the 1.5V lines! The USB 3.0 mini pciexpress card however does. Without it, the unit doesn't even power up, and of course this explains why putting it on any socket didn't work. I searched for this power on the mainboard and found to "missing" patch lines.

So for others, the Acer Aspire One 1410/1810 has 2 mini pciexpress slots both conforming to the full mini pciexpress standard, but Acer chose to not patch R191 and R172 which provide 1.5V to the sockets. Once these are shorted, the 1.5V lines are brought to each of the 3 points/pins 6,48, and 26 on the mini pciexpress sockets and any card should work (all WiFi should work without the mod, but Broadcom HD decoder cards should too)... and my comell mpx 7202 USB 3.0 card now works perfectly!

Thanks a bundle Camiloml !

Dave

[camiloml]

Super!!! Welllllll done

[mrlithium]

! Finally solved and working ! First I must convey my sincere respect for Camilo, he guided me in the right direction to solving this issue. Instead of beating that dead mule of Bios white listing that was said in the other threads...

The problem had (as he said) nothing to do with the BIOS.

The issue was the 1.5V lines on BOTH mini pciexpress sockets were inactive. In looking into details I found that most Intel mini pci-ex cards do not use the 1.5V lines! The USB 3.0 mini pciexpress card however does. Without it, the unit doesn't even power up, and of course this explains why putting it on any socket didn't work. I searched for this power on the mainboard and found to "missing" patch lines.

So for others, the Acer Aspire One 1410/1810 has 2 mini pciexpress slots both conforming to the full mini pciexpress standard, but Acer chose to not patch R191 and R172 which provide 1.5V to the sockets. Once these are shorted, the 1.5V lines are brought to each of the 3 points/pins 6,48, and 26 on the mini pciexpress sockets and any card should work (all WiFi should work without the mod, but Broadcom HD decoder cards should too)... and my comell mpx 7202 USB 3.0 card now works perfectly!

Thanks a bundle Camiloml !

Dave

Thank you, this page was instrumental in helping me get my USB 3 card to work. My USB 3.0 card that I got from ebay was $18 (this one) and uses a Renesas D720202 chipset.
I Soldered the (mini-PCIe socket (part number 2041119-1 on digikey) ) on (was harder than I expected, I had to do each pin individually - for whatever reason the solder kept attaching to multiple pins). I soldered resistors numbers R191, R172 (and R174 to add 3.3v as I was told from the other 3G mod tutorial)). They are located under the keyboard on the front side. Then I removed the motherboard entirely and grabbed 5 volts from here (where I circled there is a large 5V plane, attaching to the IC's and VRM's, so it should be safe)
I used a copper wire out of a Cat5 network cable, attached it to a 4 pin floppy molex to go onto the USB card. (the end had to be filed down by 1mm or so to fit in the chassis' access bay.
What they don't show you is that the actual 19-pin header + 2 ports is about 2 feet long, with 2 wires each as thick as an HDMI cable or desktop computer power supply cable! Theres no way to fit that thing inside a netbook. Also the molex floppy connector AND the 19-pin header on the card is slightly too tall to put the door back on, even having used the 4mm high mini PCI-e socket - the shortest i could find.
I'm using this Patriot 32gb USB 3.0
memory stick (does 180MB/s reads and 80MB/s writes on my desktop) but only does 45MB/s writes on my laptop. And the read performance is not as high on my desktop either, but I havent been able to check that yet. I think its because the laptop slot might not be PCI-E 2.0 compatible. Or maybe the chipset is worse but I have a Renesas in my desktop too (again dont know which one, i will edit this to add missing info later)


Anyway thanks for the help, and I hope this helps anyone else.