Lenovo Y410p/Y510p BIOS mod to enable Nvidia eGPU support

[High_Voltage 48]

In case you own a Lenovo Y410p or Y510p laptop, you might be interested in upgrading its performance by installing an external graphics card. Ultrabay eGPU adapter designed by @gerald was proven to be a convenient plug-and-play option to do exactly that. However, for a long time only an AMD-branded GPUs could be used due to limitations in the Lenovo's stock BIOS. The purpose of the modified firmware presented here is to expand the range of available GPUs by enabling Nvidia support on Gerald's Ultrabay eGPU adapter.

 

Huge thanks to:

• @MWichni - For efficiently assisting me during the development of this mod. By flashing dozens of BIOS builds over the course of several weeks and thoroughly describing the effects observed (or the lack thereof), he enabled me to fully understand necessary parts in BIOS structure and come up with a final solution.
• @svl7 - Whose unlocked BIOS / Whitelist mod has served as a basis for this modification. His discovery of a security hole in V2.07 BIOS has provided us with a convenient BIOS flashing method that does not require a physical programmer. The Unlocked BIOS and WLAN whitelist mods originally designed by him are also implemented in this BIOS mod.
• @gerald - For designing the aforementioned adapter. Without it, all this work would make very little sense.

 

Key features:

• Resolves the "40-second reboot" issue normally encountered while using Nvidia graphics cards with Ultrabay eGPU adapter, thus allowing all Nvidia cards to be used.
• Based on the latest V3.08 BIOS.
• Includes Svl7's WLAN whitelist removal mod - for the convenience of aftermarket WLAN card users.
• Includes Svl7's BIOS debug menu mod - for the ease of experimentation with newly available features, e.g. attempting to use Nvidia Optimus to pass eGPU video back to laptop's display.

 

NB! Svl7's Debug Menu is not a toy! It contains a lot of options that are either not supported or partially supported by the hardware platform and/or can disturb its normal operation or prevent the PC from booting up at all. Any of the entries not originally present in the stock BIOS should be modified at your own risk!

 

DISCLAIMER:
ANY MODIFICATIONS YOU ARE APPLYING TO YOUR HARDWARE ARE PERFORMED AT YOUR OWN RISK! AUTHOR OF THIS MOD DOES NOT HOLD ANY LIABILITY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE RELATED TO USING THIS SOFTWARE.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Installation instructions:

Spoiler

 

WARNING:

BEFORE INITIATING ANY FLASHING PROCESS, MAKE SURE THAT THE AC POWER IS CONNECTED AND THE BATTERY HAS AT LEAST 20% CHARGE LEFT. AN UNPLANNED POWER-OFF DURING FLASHING PROCESS IS GUARANTEED TO RESULT IN A BRICKED MOTHERBOARD.

 

1. Install fresh, unmodified V3.08 BIOS. The installation file can be found on official Lenovo product support page for your PC.
2. Enter the BIOS settings (by hitting F2 during boot) and enable BIOS Back Flash option.
3. Following the instructions here, download and use Rufus utility to create a bootable USB drive running FreeDOS.
4. Copy the CONTENTS of THIS_GOES_TO_DOS_FLASH_FIRST folder into the root of your FreeDOS flash drive.
5. Download Universal BIOS Backup Toolkit 2.0, then by running program as Administrator, read your BIOS dump and save it as backup.bin.
6. Place a copy of the backup.bin into PATCHERS folder.
7. Depending on whether your system is GT750m-based or GT755m-based, run corresponding patcher.
8. Carefully study patcher's output. If the patcher reports success, MDDED308.bin file will be created in the same folder.
9. Once you've acquired MDDED308.bin, copy it to the root of your FreeDOS flash drive as well.
10. Install stock V2.07 BIOS (Provided). This is a necessary step because later versions of BIOS contain additional flash-protect features.
11. Connect your FreeDOS USB drive to the PC, reboot into BIOS. In BIOS boot settings change Boot mode from UEFI to Legacy Support, and Boot priority to Legacy first. Press F10 to save and exit.
12. Once you have booted into DOS environment, type BIOS and press Enter to flash BIOS.
13. Then, once finished, type EC and hit Enter in order to flash the EC.
14. Once the EC flash is over, the system will reboot. Both BIOS and EC versions should now be V3.08. Svl7's advanced menu should be accessible at this point.
15. Enjoy your modded BIOS!
16. Should you ever decide to revert to Stock BIOS, simply flash the original V3.08 BIOS using the official update file provided by Lenovo.

 

 

 

If things don't go right:

Spoiler

 

In case BIOS flash process was interrupted or didn't go as planned and your computer is unable to boot anymore, don't panic! The DOS flash drive you've created is conveniently supplied with the Crisis Recovery file. Just follow the instructions below in order to perform the Crisis Recovery:

Spoiler

 

• Disconnect both battery and the AC power from your computer.
• Connect your flash drive to the USB3 port closest to the HDMI port.
• Reconnect the AC power cable while holding Win+R key combination.
• While continuing to hold the keys, turn on the PC.
• After some time, the access indicator on your flash drive will start blinking. At this point you can release the keys.
• Your PC will spin the fans and beep occasionally during the course of several minutes.
• After the operation is complete, you should be able to boot again.

 

 

 

 

It has also been observed that very rarely some users experience problems while flashing the EC. The system would report "DOS  memory buffer 2 allocate failed" error. If this is your case, just reboot the system. You will stay at the EC version 2.07 which although is not recommended, doesn't seem to have any negative effect on the PC. If you still want to attempt flashing the EC to the latest version, you could try preparing Svl7's original DOS flash drive instead of Rufus FreeDOS one.

 

 

 

 

Error 43:

If you intend using the GTX10XX-series Nvidia card as the eGPU (which you probably do), you are very likely to encounter the infamous Error 43 in Windows Device Manager. This is a widely known issue in the eGPU community and is not related to this particular mod in any way. Following this guide thoroughly will in most cases resolve the Error 43 issue.

 

Download:

Get your copy here!

 

P.S.:

Version of this mod for Lenovo Y400/Y500 models is coming soon!

 

Edited March 13, 2018 by High_Voltage

[QDIR 3]

In everyones name i just would like to thank you guys

[AllanDavidson 5]

I'm in tears!

 

Thank you all so much!

[balint234 2]

Thank you very much for your hard work.

 

Is there a way with this mod to use the internal display?

 

Also i have a slightly older adapter but i havent used it since amd prices were up in the sky. but i would appreciate it a lot if you can tell me if i can use a GTX 1050 Ti on my older adapter.  I own a 2nd generation adapter as far as i know

Edited March 17, 2018 by balint234

[High_Voltage 48]

1 hour ago, balint234 said:

Thank you very much for your hard work.

 

Is there a way with this mod to use the internal display?

 

There should be. @Swung Huang has reported that his friend got it working with internal screen. It would be great if he explained us all how to do it.

[FLY AWAY 1]

On my side, some netizens have tested lenovo y410p and y400 for N CARDS, without setting, which is directly in the inner screen.

[High_Voltage 48]

43 minutes ago, FLY AWAY said:

On my side, some netizens have tested lenovo y410p and y400 for N CARDS, without setting, which is directly in the inner screen.

 

By that, do you mean it starts working with internal screen straight away, without any set-up?

[FLY AWAY 1]

Just now, High_Voltage said:

 

那么，你的意思是它马上开始与内部屏幕一起工作，没有任何设置？

YES

[High_Voltage 48]

On 3/17/2018 at 6:44 PM, balint234 said:

i would appreciate it a lot if you can tell me if i can use a GTX 1050 Ti on my older adapter.  I own a 2nd generation adapter as far as i know

 

Sorry, didn't notice your edit straight away...

 

As far as I'm aware, the only difference between the two versions of the adapter is the pull-down resistor on #CLKREQ (middle one in the vertical column of three near the ultrabay connector). In the version 3 of the adapter it is changed from 1k to 10k. But let me tell you, removing it completely will have exactly the same effect. Your adapter will work with this BIOS mod afterwards.

[balint234 2]

On 2018. 03. 19. at 3:08 PM, High_Voltage said:

 

Sorry, didn't notice your edit straight away...

 

As far as I'm aware, the only difference between the two versions of the adapter is the pull-down resistor on #CLKREQ (middle one in the vertical column of three near the ultrabay connector). In the version 3 of the adapter it is changed from 1k to 10k. But let me tell you, removing it completely will have exactly the same effect. Your adapter will work with this BIOS mod afterwards.

Do you think i can make it to work without replacing or removing anything?

[High_Voltage 48]

15 minutes ago, balint234 said:

Do you think i can make it to work without replacing or removing anything?

 

There is a very very small chance it would work on modified V2.07 BIOS (which I'd have to make). However, it's so much faster to just cut the track on the pcb with something sharp.

[balint234 2]

17 minutes ago, High_Voltage said:

 

There is a very very small chance it would work on modified V2.07 BIOS (which I'd have to make). However, it's so much faster to just cut the track on the pcb with something sharp.

 

Im not very into these things but if im not mistaken the resistor we are talking about is the thing i circled with orange. But you saying if i cut the adapter where i put a red line it will work just fine?

[High_Voltage 48]

You have correctly identified the resistor, but the track you selected is not connected to the resistor and cutting it would render the adapter unusable. I've marked the correct one for you with an orange cross.

[balint234 2]

13 minutes ago, High_Voltage said:

You have correctly identified the resistor, but the track you selected is not connected to the resistor and cutting it would render the adapter unusable. I've marked the correct one for you with an orange cross.

Alright, thank you for your help and sorry for wasting your time. I have one last question for now: Should i cut at the cross you just showed me or should i ask my IT teacher at school to help me remove the resistor itself. Which one do you recommend?

[AllanDavidson 5]

It's something simple, you can do by yourself, unless you are insecure about it, then you can ask someone with my experience on electronics to do it for you.

 

Thank you all so much!

[High_Voltage 48]

26 minutes ago, balint234 said:

lright, thank you for your help and sorry for wasting your time. I have one last question for now: Should i cut at the cross you just showed me or should i ask my IT teacher at school to help me remove the resistor itself. Which one do you recommend?

 

No problem. You haven't wasted any time of mine (yet). Regarding the modification, I'd strongly recommend you to get the resistor desoldered if your teacher has access to soldering equipment (simply because you can always solder it back later if something goes wrong).

 

Anyway, good luck with the mod and please report back whether it worked.

[balint234 2]

30 minutes ago, High_Voltage said:

 

No problem. You haven't wasted any time of mine (yet). Regarding the modification, I'd strongly recommend you to get the resistor desoldered if your teacher has access to soldering equipment (simply because you can always solder it back later if something goes wrong).

 

Anyway, good luck with the mod and please report back whether it worked.

 

Thank you and sure i will report how things went.

[Tesla 22]

Many thanks.

[Bowser 0]

Much thanks! Can I undervolt my CPU/GPU with this BIOS? Is this an updated version of svI7's BIOS?

[High_Voltage 48]

I don't quite understand what you mean by "updated" (possibly because I didn't read the entire thread related to his mod). This mod uses the version provided by Svl7 in the head of his thread, but manually ported to V3.08 BIOS by me. The Svl7's custom GPU VBIOS is not included with this mod.

[Bowser 0]

6 hours ago, High_Voltage said:

I don't quite understand what you mean by "updated" (possibly because I didn't read the entire thread related to his mod). This mod uses the version provided by Svl7 in the head of his thread, but manually ported to V3.08 BIOS by me. The Svl7's custom GPU VBIOS is not included with this mod.

I see. Thank you.

[AllanDavidson 5]

Did someone managed to send the eGPU signal back to the laptop screen without needing a external display connected to the eGPU?

[YG-Zombies 0]

Update Bios lenovo Y410p Bios 3.08   DC Detect Erro ?

[High_Voltage 48]

8 hours ago, YG-Zombies said:

Update Bios lenovo Y410p Bios 3.08   DC Detect Erro ?

 

Make sure your battery is connected and fully charged.

[Blk6Jeff 3]

Good evening, 

 

I'm unable to achieve step 1. When I install stock 3.08, my pc attempts to restart, turns off, boots again, and returns 

 

'INSYDEH20 - Secure Flash

 

Error : Invalid firmware image!!! 

 

Please press any key to reset system.....' 

 

At which point it reboots just fine with the slv7 modded 2.07

 

I'm not sure what the cause is. Possibly the fact that I have a aftermarket wifi card installed? Any help appreciated. 

 

For reference, I am using a 2nd generation adapter, trying to achieve modded 3.08 with the resistor fix in this topic. 

 

Thanks.