Lenovo M93 Tiny - I3 4160T support

[gdfath3r]

It's not BIOS problem. Current BIOS has support for this CPU.

There you go: https://forums.lenovo.com/topic/view/1308/5002300

[DeathBringer]

There you go: https://forums.lenovo.com/topic/view/1308/5002300

What do you mean?

[goodsub]

There you go: https://forums.lenovo.com/topic/view/1308/5002300

What do you mean?

The thread linked to - and others on the Lenovo forums - talk about a likely whitelist. I've had seven M93 Tiny's that originally came with Pentium 3220T's and all appear to have a whitelist for CPU's as well as WiFi cards. Only CPU's that were originally available as spec options will work, with the possible exception of some specific Xeon processors.

I've personally tried i3-4160T's and i5-4590T's with no luck in machines that work fine with an i5-4570T. The 4590T is on the M93/p Service Parts List but will not work with M93 10A4 models in my experience. The 4160T isn't on the list but the symptoms are identical; the fan spins but no lights come on and the computer won't boot.

This thread seems to suggest that a whitelist could be tied to the serial number of the motherboard. I'm certainly no expert and I have no idea how to start going about editing a BIOS, but that would make perfect sense as the BIOS itself would appear to support CPU's that refuse to work.

[DeathBringer]

The thread linked to - and others on the Lenovo forums - talk about a likely whitelist.

They discuss only hypothesis. But I've analysed BIOS. The result - no CPU whitelist.

[goodsub]

The thread linked to - and others on the Lenovo forums - talk about a likely whitelist.

They discuss only hypothesis. But I've analysed BIOS. The result - no CPU whitelist.

And yet in practice CPU's that weren't originally available as part of the spec of the model don't work. Whether it's an actual whitelist or not, it's effectively the same thing. Only certain CPU's work, while others that seemingly should work don't.

Do you think there's anything to the idea of serial numbers being tied to which CPU's will work and which won't? Or can you think of another explanation for why they won't? It's certainly not faulty CPU's as I've personally tried multiple 4160T and 4590T processors in multiple M93 Tiny's and none work. All the CPU's work fine in an ASUS Z97 so there's definitely something blocking them from working in the Lenovo boards.

[DeathBringer]

It's hardware incompatibility with specific revision of the motherboard. Not BIOS problem.

[goodsub]

It's hardware incompatibility with specific revision of the motherboard. Not BIOS problem.

So there's no way around it? No way to make CPU's that should work with the BIOS work with the motherboard?

[DeathBringer]

I think BIOS doesn't start at all in this case. So any BIOS patches will not help.

[gdfath3r]

It's hardware incompatibility with specific revision of the motherboard. Not BIOS problem.

Not long ago I updated my bios. I assume that has been updated the microcode as well.
Someone, a goodwilling person decided to help me. Asked for my bios dump. After examination, he told me that the microcode in my ( latest bios ) is ancient and needs to be updated in order to support my CPU which is a haswell refresh.
The computer manufacturer sometimes makes money from this kind of situation, this is what I learned.

[DeathBringer]

Try to update ME region.