General Question About BIOS modding

[da_jokker]

From what it appears, people don't modify the OEM bios update from the manufacturer's website. Instead it seems like each and every computer has to do a BIOS dump and then someone modifies that file. This makes that file worthless to anybody else, even if they have the same laptop.

So just a couple of questions:

1) Is there a reason way the generic OEM bios updates can't just be modified to remove the whitelist so everyone can enjoy the same file?

2) Sounds like I would use something called "Universal BIOS Backup ToolKit 2.0" to dump a copy of my working Lenovo G500 InsydeH20 Bios. Is that the same tool that would then flash the newly modified bios?

3) It seems like there are many people willing to do the mod for me, but is there some reason why I can't do it myself? Is there just a tool I need to download to remove the whitelist (or Whitelist check) code?

4) I'm looking to replace my WiFi card with one that can connect faster. I don't mind using another 'approved' wifi card and not mess with this whole bios thing, however is there any way to extract out this infamous WhiteList to see what my choices are?

Thank for any info and I look forward to educating myself.

[donovan6000]

I'm not sure where your getting the idea that people don't modify the bios rom that comes directly from the OEM. People like to post backup's of their bios that were created by tools like "Universal BIOS Backup Toolkit", but we usual just ignore that and ask for a link to the official update. The guy who made that utility says that he can't gaunrentee that it'll work perfectly for every chip, so I personally don't trust backups generated by it

I wrote some tutorials a few months ago on my blog about modding Insyde bios. However some of the stuff in there is outdated now. Going to start rewriting a lot of my tutorials on this site soon, and I'm going to make them a whol lot better

[da_jokker]

I'm not sure where your getting the idea that people don't modify the bios rom that comes directly from the OEM....

I was trying to keep my post generic but as I read other post specifically for my Laptop model I'm seeing people say that trying to use a modded BIOS for another identical laptop would brick any other.

Everyone was taking dumps of their specific BIOS, getting it modified, and then the new BIOS would be deleted from the web link.

In addition, the BIOS from Lenovo comes as an EXE. So not sure how one would get the actual BIOS file out from it (another reason I thought people were required to do a BIOS dump first)

I'll check out your post.. thanks for the info.

[Florin9doi]

A bios dump contain serial number, windows cdkey, network mac address and bios password... etc. If you will flash a password protected dump, your notebook will be unusable unless you know the password. Also if you write a dump to 2 PCs from the same network, the network will stop working because they have same mac address.

[donovan6000]

.EXE is just one of the standard Microsoft OS executable formats. There's also standard libraries for compressing files into the executable that most popular archiving software can deal with. So opening the executable with programs like winrar, win zip, 7zip, etc will show all the stored files in it.

Also when running the executable, all the files, including the bios rom, will be extracted to a temporary directory. They are usually extracted to one of several different places like C:/, C:/users/name/AppData/local/temp/, C:Windows/, etc.

[Ludonja]

.EXE is just one of the standard Microsoft OS executable formats. There's also standard libraries for compressing files into the executable that most popular archiving software can deal with. So opening the executable with programs like winrar, win zip, 7zip, etc will show all the stored files in it.

Also when running the executable, all the files, including the bios rom, will be extracted to a temporary directory. They are usually extracted to one of several different places like C:/, C:/users/name/AppData/local/temp/, C:Windows/, etc.

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What with extracted bios file that is different in size and can not be used as such for direct programming with eeprom programmer?
HP newer bios are like that.

[donovan6000]

What with extracted bios file that is different in size and can not be used as such for direct programming with eeprom programmer?
HP newer bios are like that.

All bios roms are like that. Your bios chip actually consists of several regions: flash descriptor, GPE, BIOS, ME firmware. And there can even be more than that. The bios upates from your manufacture are only designed to update the bios region of the chip, which is why the size of the rom isn't what you'd expect

You'd have to dump the bios with an eeprom programmer to get a full dump that can be flashed back with the programmer.

[Ludonja]

Well I took from bios chip original program witch is not working. Usually need to download bios program from official site and fill chip with it.
Now I still can do that but laptop is dead after that.
If you have some idea or advice to share with me and rest of population here be free to shot.

[donovan6000]

Well I took from bios chip original program witch is not working. Usually need to download bios program from official site and fill chip with it.
Now I still can do that but laptop is dead after that.
If you have some idea or advice to share with me and rest of population here be free to shot.

How did you brick your laptop? There are recovery procedures that can be preformed depending on what manufacture your computer is from.

[Ludonja]

I will check your blog for sure. You suggesting me to try with USB and win+B keys?
Till now nobody succeed to do that.