Lenovo Y400 / Y500 - unlocked BIOS / wlan whitelist mod

[SneekyFauker]

If I install the 2.04 then will I be able to overclock my gt650m pass +135? I'm terribly sorry if all of this was mentioned in the thread above but I just wanted to make sure due to the risk of permanent damage.

[nkjmin]

Hello! So I have finished adding everything to my Lenovo y400.

Parts that i have used : 1. HD Caddy with from Ebay: 2nd HDD SSD Hard Drive Caddy for Lenovo IdeaPad Y400N Y410N Y410P with Bezel | eBay, Fits like a charm 2. Intel 7260 AC from amazon 3. Samsung Pro 250 GB SSD.

Finished flashing to bios and installed the wireless card.... and the most horrible thing happened. My screw stripped and i couldnt get it out. So i did a little operation and removed the old card by cutting it extremely carefully, found a replacement screw and and everything is tiptop working order. I put the internal stock 1TB into the HDD Caddy and its great for storage just kinda cuts battery life by a few minutes. SSD Works like a charm and it boots within 30 seconds. before it seemed to take minutes before everything was fully loaded. I overclocked using the clocks from Octiceps tyty. just not 24/7. I underclock it when on battery to save that extra little juice. Thanks everyone at Techinferno =]

[chad2625]

Hey,

Sorry if this has gotten asked already can you overclock the CPU at all, there are alot of options that I don't know, and when I force my ram up to a higher setting wich It can run It stay at the 1600 setting according to CPU-z I also upgraded to a core I7-3610qm. I get good temps, about 86C while intelburn test and Komobuster. If any one has had any luck with this I would like to know what you did and where you found it?

I modifed my cooler by artic silvering (artic silver thermal adhesive ) the GPU heat pipe to the CPU block and two copper shims to both heat pipes.

[eh10]

Run the prr.exe (or in the updated case prr2.exe)... before using fpt.exe. This should get around the Error 28 issues.

- - - Updated - - -

Use the prr.exe (or prr2.exe) tool before running fpt.exe, to get around the Error 28 messages.

[lenovokawawa]

This is amazing! i Love my laptop games and everything runs fine. I want to try this out. but i get this messages on the links. can someone tell me how to get the files?

1. Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
   
2. If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
   

[slurpee03]

A few questions...

Would this work with my Lenovo Y500 w/out SLI, running Windows 8.1 and with the 750m graphics card?

Would the modified BIOS have the options to overclock things like RAM, the 750m, and the processor?

Thanks.

[bogaert91]

Has it already been tested with the intel AC 7260? i bought one but it's not working..

[chad2625]

Yes, this would work with out SLI, as stated early on the 2nd video card has it's own Vbios so you have to flash that on it's own....

As for the Overclocking IDK I have heard some yes, there is an option for it but it is a greyed out... You can set the ram freq but for me it just stays at stock 800Mhz range. If you flash and can OC let me know would you please.

[Airr_1]

Does the MOD BIOS file (2.02 to 2.04) come with a changelog?

[SneekyFauker]

Is it normal if I have BIOs version 1.05? Also, can I just use the 2.02 BIOs from 1.05? From that 2.02 perhaps jump to 2.04 BIOs?

[jaxst]

My first post!

Corny, I know... I came here looking to modify my Y500 bios allowing me to use the [h=1]Intel Network 7260.HMWG WiFi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC+Bluetooth HM[/h]

I'm currently running the 2.04 BIOS and would like any pointers, but as soon as I can download the tools I should be well on my way.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[jaxst]

My first post!

Corny, I know... I came here looking to modify my Y500 bios allowing me to use the Intel Network 7260.HMWG WiFi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC+Bluetooth HM

I'm currently running the 2.04 BIOS and would like any pointers, but as soon as I can download the tools I should be well on my way.

the Thanks for the help everyone!

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.

[sheeeeeeets]

This has been such a HUGE help. I too had the Error 28 when booting up from the USB drive, but went back and read that I needed the PRR2.exe on the drive. After running that before running "fpt.exe -f modname.bin -bios", it sayed it is safe to flash and everything went off without a hitch.

Some smart SOB's on this forum, and MANY thanks to SVL7 for this guide.

[himen256]

I was trying all day to flash my 650m (not SLI, I don't care about SLI). Now I'm getting "BIOS version compare error!" when running InsydeFlash. I read up that it may be coz I have 2.02 version flash already. My BIOS in NVIDIA Inspector is 80.07.27.00.33 which is different from 2.02 or 2.04 so I have no idea what BIOS I have. After creating DOS USB i cant flash it, I end up with "error 104 the 2 spi flash device do not have compatible command sets" after typing in "fpt.exe -f filename.bin -bios". No idea what to do. I have Y500 with 650m i7,8gb,1tb and 250gb msata coming soon.

[IMAPP]

It´s good to try on a spanish Y400 Nvidia 650GT, version?

[moonlight0318]

I am looking forward to mod the bio of the lenovo y400 when it arrive from the mail next week and as soon as I can download the tool. Thank you for this mod.

[cj8397]

I've had my Y500 for 7 months now not realizing the bios is locked. Recently I had some wireless issues and after researching I came across this issue. Looked everywhere for a solution, and finally stumbled into here.

I plan to MoD my bios with this guide and installed the Intel 7260ac wife card. Seems like some people have had success with it. Will post feedback when I'm done. Thanks a bunch for this guide and the community here.

[jaxst]

So I'm back with an update after a week of not using my Laptop. I have the Y500 w/ SLI GT750's and successfully flashed the modified BIOS to get my wireless AC card to work, but have ran into further problems. The battery doesn't seem to charge anymore and it would seem I blew out the power plug on the laptop. I'm looking at having the mainboard swapped out under warranty, but afraid they may catch on about the BIOS mod. I'm assuming this would void the warranty (I purchased the three year accidental plan). I'll give a rundown of the troubleshooting I have gone through thus far.

1. Battery would not charge, although the icon would show it was... It kept losing power.

2. Laptop will not boot w/o battery in, so I thought it was the power adapter.

3. Contacted Lenovo to have new battery and power adapter sent... Computer powered up for a second because the new battery had a tiny amount of juice and powered off.

Was I supposed to update the BIOS on the second GPU? It wont power even w/o the second GPU anyways, but just wondering.

I will be sending the laptop in to have the board replaced and hoping they notice that it is not powering up and just replace the board w/o hooking up a fully charged battery to see if the BIOS was tampered with. (You can expand on this if you know of their process... anything could be helpful).

I have the backup file to my BIOS on the machine still on the mSATA drive, and I have a Y470p I can plug that into to pull data off and try to restore the original BIOS, but I would need power first... I don't think I have much of an option to do anything like that right now, but if you have any tricks, do tell.

[alejdark]

hello... I try to disperse the lenovo Y 500 GT650 SLI, but clock don't rise. how to correct it? thanks in advance... I am sorry for transfer

[Koala19]

Does updraging you BIOS to 2.02 without official updates from Lenovo harm your warranty?

[Shuey707]

Thanks for this tutorial and programs! Once my Intel 7260 AC comes in, I'll know for sure if this cleared the whitelist. Why does Lenovo put these limits up?

[Silvos]

This is exactly what I've been searching for. Though I find it really odd Lenovo would do this, especially when some would be willing to buy directly from them.

[ethopianprince]

This is exactly what I've been searching for. Though I find it really odd Lenovo would do this, especially when some would be willing to buy directly from them.

Lenovo has in all honestly degraded in quality since a few years back in terms of customer service. The whitelist as most likely said before, could be to make it easier for them in terms of repairs as they know which parts are being used and have experience with them. Otherwise it could be because they want them to use the parts only "certified" by them for financial reasons.

[wwischerath]

I cant believe that white listing laptops is for ease of customer service. After all, desktops dont have these restrictions (that I am aware of) To me, its like buying a car and being told what brand of gasoline I have to use.

[eaglespeed]

hey guys thank you for your great forum, I am currently having a problem with charging the laptop ( reset battery gauge issue) my warranty is over anyway so would updating the bios fix this issue, and where can I download it? thanks