[REQUEST] Lenovo X220 (8DETxxWW) Whitelist Removal

[johnmcdonnell]

Indeed, my fault. Reuploaded.

Working perfectly now. Thanks again!

[skx]

Indeed, my fault. Reuploaded.

Working perfectly now. Thanks again!

Can I ask how the latest bios is performing, knowing that Spectre fixes were included? Any noticeable downgrade on CPU performance? I am really breaking my head whether to stay vulnerable on performing bios or being less vulnerable on latest bios with downgraded performance. Knowing that our precious X220's are becoming old... thanks all for your feedback.

[johnmcdonnell]

Can I ask how the latest bios is performing, knowing that Spectre fixes were included? Any noticeable downgrade on CPU performance?

I haven't noticed any performance issues since updating to v1.46.

For what it's worth, there's a comparison here of the Geekbench results with my X220 under BIOS v1.43 and v1.46 showing essentially no difference in performance.

[skx]

I haven't noticed any performance issues since updating to v1.46.

For what it's worth, there's a comparison here of the Geekbench results with my X220 under BIOS v1.43 and v1.46 showing essentially no difference in performance.

Thank you, wonderful news. I am still on bios 1.40, latest version allowing downgrading to older version. Does this modified bios keep the downgrading functionality? Thanks

[johnmcdonnell]

Does this modified bios keep the downgrading functionality? Thanks

It is the official Lenovo BIOS installers that prevent rolling back to a previous version. It is always possible to roll back by opening a command prompt (cmd.exe) as administrator and running the Flash.bat file included with the modified BIOS installers.

[skx]

It is the official Lenovo BIOS installers that prevent rolling back to a previous version. It is always possible to roll back by opening a command prompt (cmd.exe) as administrator and running the Flash.bat file included with the modified BIOS installers.

Thank you johnmcdonnell. I am a linux (debian) user, for the initial flash I will put a win 7 hdd inside my X220. Just for my good understanding, when I flash my bios via linux I modify the official CD image to have it booting via usb and I flash it accordingly. What do you mean with the offical Lenovo BIOS installer? Is this the tool which is auto loaded when launching the bios flashing from CD? Thanks

[johnmcdonnell]

What do you mean with the offical Lenovo BIOS installer? Is this the tool which is auto loaded when launching the bios flashing from CD? Thanks

Hi skx. Yes, the installation tool that Lenovo provides with their bootable CD iso image here and Windows BIOS update utility here (WINUPTP.EXE) is what prevents rolling back the BIOS to a previous version. The installation tool included with the modified BIOS does not prevent rolling back.

If you want to flash the modified BIOS without installing Windows or bothering with the modifications to use Linux, there's a procedure described here that allows you to do it from a bootable Windows PE USB.

Hope this helps!

[skx]

Hi skx. Yes, the installation tool that Lenovo provides with their bootable CD iso image here and Windows BIOS update utility here (WINUPTP.EXE) is what prevents rolling back the BIOS to a previous version. The installation tool included with the modified BIOS does not prevent rolling back.

Amazing, thanks for clarifying, so I am indeed good to keep rolling back as I never used their official Windows bios update tool. I thought the roll back prevention was included in the actual running bios, but they did it in their windows update application.

If you want to flash the modified BIOS without installing Windows or bothering with the modifications to use Linux, there's a procedure described here that allows you to do it from a bootable Windows PE USB.

Never heard of of Windows PE, already quickly looked into it and I will indeed use this to flash the custom bios.

Hope this helps!

It sure did, johnmcdonnel Thanks a lot, and have a wonderful day!

[Remmerboy]

Hi
nice work on modifying bios.
but i'm getting bsod when running flash.bat for no whitelist only of a file called winflash64.sys

update
the bsod message is "Page Fault In Nonpaged Area" and i have run memtest84 to see if it was my ram. no errors found on ram

second update
reinstalled windows and run the program right after install. no problem. it must be a config somewhere in windows that messes with bios update

[lapbios]

Flashed 1.46 on X220 (Lenovo official 1.46 previously flashed) and "Advanced" menu shows, X220 is apparently behaving normally since. However at end of flashing (flash.bat) a message had appeared quickly three or more times in succession "Verifying BIOS Fail! Reflashing". Eventually the process finished without any particular confirmation message of success or otherwise.

Does this indicate something unrecoverable went wrong, or does it indicate the flash was eventually successful?

Thanks