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Lenovo Y400 / Y500 - unlocked BIOS / wlan whitelist mod


svl7

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Hi all, quick question: I read through a handful of the pages, and just wanted to clarify something...do I have to flash the ultrabay if I do the 2.04 mod? It says 2.02 only, or is that just the minimum version needed to flash the ultrabay?

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Quick question, is the vBIOS mods for ultrabay from the OP is usable for Windows 8.1?

Nope, but in this thread you can find one made by user Klem, though no voltage control in this one. Alternatively you can request one in this thread.

Hello guys. I am new user in this forum and sorry for my bad english. i have a question. My y500 mount the last official bios, v2.04. Can I install the 2.04mod directly?

Yes, you can.

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just registered so I could post this useful info for anyone else that just wanted to get 120hz on their Lenovo Y500.

I was just about to do this bios unlock which seemed pretty daunting, but then I found this: You guys know you can overclock the lcd Once you create the custom resolution 1920x1080 / 120hz, don't forget to actually select it after you save it.

Just as simple as that. And YES I see a SIGNIFICANT difference. I play LOTS of counterstrike: global offensive (CS:go) and have played countless hours of the older CS's... I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but for CS I think you may need to put "-freq 120" or "-hz 120" to force the game to run at that refreshrate.

Even in windows you can tell a big difference by dragging a file or folder back and forth quickly.

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Have any non-mod options to working around the wifi whitelist been developed at this point? I've been upgrading devices in my home to wireless AC, and am now down to a couple of lenovo laptops (y470, y500). I would be installing a 7260 AC. The y500 is my wife's laptop, and the suggestion that I would "flash her BIOS" in a literal, non-innuendo kind of way was not well received.

As a side rant, this is in addition to general maintenance on the y500 driving me nuts... from trying to get expresscache working (apparently it's been inactive for the last year) to updating broken drivers, etc. I can't believe how much time it's taking to read through and sort out all these piles of tiny, nagging issues.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Just wanted to report back that the BIOS upgrade worked and I now have the 7260.HMWG wifi card working!

Thank you to all whom worked on creating this solution.

Did you use the mod bios as provided in this forum?

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Many thanks to all contributors in this thread. Clearly I am not a professional bios modifier.

Actually I am already getting stuck making a bios back up using the provided tool (both dos and windows version)

Please see attached error message.

C:\Users\User\Desktop>fpt.exe -d BiosBackup.bin -bios

'fpt.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

operable program or batch file.

Any suggestion how to successfully create a bios backup?

Cheers,

EDIT: Problem solved. Checked "run as administrator" for the FPTW64.exe file

[ATTACH=CONFIG]11791[/ATTACH]

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this is great I've been meaning to overclock but more importantly replace the worst wifi card I have ever seen on a labtop makes playing cs:Go a pain thanks for all the hard work man

I'll make sure to make a backup of everything before though

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I'm at a loss here. I got a new wireless card today and found out about the whitelist issue. This site is the only one having a fix for the issue, only I can not download anything until I make 5 posts/comments. WTF am I going to comment or post about until I become part of the modding community by modding? lol

This catch 22 has me at a loss. I would love to contribute, but what do I have to offer prior to modding?

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I really cannot thank you enough for this guide! I found an Y500 whithout the screen, ram and cpu and after stealing some components from work i created "Franken". Unfortunately its original wifi card was not present, and i had to pick a black-listed one. Finally now i can use that card!!

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I apologize in advance for this probably dumb question, but I do not have the energy to go all 168 pages of this thread.

I currently have a Y500 with an i5 3320 and 2 x 650m. I have upgraded to Windows 8.1 Pro; I have upgraded the ram, and the msata SSD to a 240GB Mushkin, which I have installed the operating system on (with the BIOS in legacy boot mode), and Windows 8.1 Pro. Current BIOS version is 1.05, with the updated vBIOS for 8.1.

My question is this: Can I upgrade to the unlocked BIOS, for the purpose of installing an Intel 7260AC wifi card, without encountering any issues with any of the mods I have already done? and if so, do I simply follow the guide on the first page of this thread, or are there any added steps?

Thank you in advance to anyone who can definitively answer this.

Just wanted to inform everyone that it worked flawlessly. My 7260ac card paired with my new Netgear R7000 Nighthawk is blazing fast!

Just a tip, after I flashed the bios it reverted to default settings which includes uefi boot, and since I have my operating system on my mSATA drive, the laptop booted up and told me that it could not find an operating system. Fixed by changing back to legacy.

Thank you svl7!

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Just a tip, after I flashed the bios it reverted to default settings which includes uefi boot, and since I have my operating system on my mSATA drive, the laptop booted up and told me that it could not find an operating system. Fixed by changing back to legacy.

Thanks for the heads up. I also have my Windows OS installed in the M.2 (ngff) slot, I just use the HDD for my hackintosh and games.

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Thanks a ton to svl7 and anyone else that contributed knowledge for this arduous process - I probably would've made a lot of missteps if others hadn't already done it and shared their experience. I spent part of the weekend hunting down flash drives, my windows keys, a good win 7 Pro ISO and finally I have this laptop configured the way I wish it was from the factory. I learned a lot in the process about flashing as well - it is now a lot less scary than when I first started reading about it.

Now I have the 2.04 unlocked bios, an unlocked ultra-bay GT 650M with the custom vBIOS, and a clean Win 7 Pro X64 installation, working SLI with the custom Ultra-Bay vBios, and a working Express Cache for the 16GB mSATA SSD. Well, I guess the only other things I would've wanted would be a free 9 Cell Battery and functional Optimus but I suppose those are a matter of hardware.

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I am still working to get 5 substantial posts so that I can download this whitelist mod. However, I have also just replaced the screen in my Y400 with a 900p matte AOU one. After doing so, I now have a very faded display (looks as if every other line is white) and it was suggested that re-flashing (a modified?) BIOS may be required. I'm curious if anybody familiar with modding these BIOS files has seen any options in regards to the screen resolution? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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Correct, the screen is not an OEM replacement. I'm kind of surprised that there would be a whitelist for the screen but then again I suppose it is needed for other components so sounds feasible to me. Do you know if this modded BIOS file whitelists all hardware or just wireless cards?

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Just purchased an Intel 7260 AC to replace the current stock card, which has been limiting my gigabit internet at home (Thank you Chattanooga for your glorious internet). Plan to do this now.

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