07-25-2020, 12:49 PM
If you're getting this error "Unauthorized network card is plugged in - Power off and remove the miniPCI network card" or something like it when trying to install a new wifi card, and you don't frequently power off or reboot your laptop, you can completely bypass the BIOS whitelist check by changing your wifi card while your laptop is on.
How to:
Make sure that airplane mode is on and then unplug and switch the wifi cards while your laptop is running.
The new card likely won't work out of the box, so use either ethernet or a phone to download the appropriate drivers for the card and install them on the laptop.
Keep in mind that if you reboot your laptop, it will still show the error, prevent you from booting, and make you remove the wifi card. You can always just put it back as soon as it boots though.
I decided to post this because I spent a long time searching for how to fix the BIOS whitelist and didn't come across anything that told me I could do this. I tested this on my Lenovo U430p, with an ax wifi card, but it should work for any laptop.
Edit: The new WiFi card will only work if you plug in the old one while the bios is booting
How to:
Make sure that airplane mode is on and then unplug and switch the wifi cards while your laptop is running.
The new card likely won't work out of the box, so use either ethernet or a phone to download the appropriate drivers for the card and install them on the laptop.
Keep in mind that if you reboot your laptop, it will still show the error, prevent you from booting, and make you remove the wifi card. You can always just put it back as soon as it boots though.
I decided to post this because I spent a long time searching for how to fix the BIOS whitelist and didn't come across anything that told me I could do this. I tested this on my Lenovo U430p, with an ax wifi card, but it should work for any laptop.
Edit: The new WiFi card will only work if you plug in the old one while the bios is booting