Bios Mods -The Best BIOS Update and Modification Source

OK , just read this post carefully and you would be able to flash your bios safely

1 ) concerning the recovery method for the lenovo notebooks , you should first create this recovery disk by downloading the crisisdisk ( the tool which will make the crisis disk ) and also you must get your bios file bios.wph not the bios.fl1 .
you must knew that the FL1 format is a compressed format which can be decompressed using a tool called e_bcpvpw.exe .
this tool will extract the bios.wph file from the main FL1 file.
then create your crisis disk using the crisis disk tool and the bios.wph file .

2 ) you asked if the bootblock has the function of flashing using crisis disk...........sure it has this function ,,,,, if the usbstick (which contains the recovery disk) inserted and then press the power button , the notebook would begin reading the recovery crisis disk and begin flashing automatically ( without pressing any fn/esc/w/......etc it will flash automatically ) .................SO , I THINK YOU HAVE THE RECOVERY METHOD AND DON`T WORRY
also here is a thread containing a post about a member who has recovered his lenovo notebook from a badflash using the methos i have explained to you http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads...post261775

3 ) if you have selected any option and the computer didn`t boot , just remove the CMOS battery and the notebook would boot again .
and in the worst case , just use the crisis disk .

4 ) the modified bios file which i have moded for you is FL1 format and use winphlash that comes with your bios update files to flash it
Remove any BIOS PASSWORDS
Stop all other programs
Execute WinPhlash.
"Browse" to choose your bios file (.WPH .ROM .USF .FL1 .BIN)
Uncheck all boxes in "Advanced Settings", except "Verify block after programming"
Press "Flash Bios"
Your computer will restart
4 ) you must knew that i have unlocked both the optimus and switchable options in your bios , so it`s sure only one of them would work as no notebook can run on both optimus and switchable .
here is the menu would be like that
DISPLAY
- Default Primary Video Device
- Boot Display Device
- Graphics Device ( integrated , discrete , switchable )
- Graphics Device ( integrated , discrete , nvidia optimus )
- OS Detection for Switchable Graphics
- OS Detection for nvidia optimus Graphics
- Force X1 Support

the menu will be like the previous explain.


NOW , CREATE YOUR RECOVERY DISK , FLASH THE MODIFIED BIOS AND THEN TELL ME IF THIS WORKED .
ALSO PLEASE UPLOAD SOME PICS FOR THE DISPLAY MENU IF THIS WORKED.
IF THE MODIFIED FILE DOESN`T WORKED WELL , I WOULD MAKE ANOTHER MODIFIED FILE BUT IT WILL BE .WPH NOT FL1 ( FLASH IT WITH WINPHLASH )

I`M WAITING YOUR REPLY.

(07-05-2011, 07:45 PM)AHMED HOSSAM Wrote: [ -> ]OK , just read this post carefully and you would be able to flash your bios safely

1 ) concerning the recovery method for the lenovo notebooks , you should first create this recovery disk by downloading the crisisdisk ( the tool which will make the crisis disk ) and also you must get your bios file bios.wph not the bios.fl1 .
you must knew that the FL1 format is a compressed format which can be decompressed using a tool called e_bcpvpw.exe .
this tool will extract the bios.wph file from the main FL1 file.
then create your crisis disk using the crisis disk tool and the bios.wph file .

2 ) you asked if the bootblock has the function of flashing using crisis disk...........sure it has this function ,,,,, if the usbstick (which contains the recovery disk) inserted and then press the power button , the notebook would begin reading the recovery crisis disk and begin flashing automatically ( without pressing any fn/esc/w/......etc it will flash automatically ) .................SO , I THINK YOU HAVE THE RECOVERY METHOD AND DON`T WORRY
also here is a thread containing a post about a member who has recovered his lenovo notebook from a badflash using the methos i have explained to you http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads...post261775

3 ) if you have selected any option and the computer didn`t boot , just remove the CMOS battery and the notebook would boot again .
and in the worst case , just use the crisis disk .

4 ) the modified bios file which i have moded for you is FL1 format and use winphlash that comes with your bios update files to flash it
Remove any BIOS PASSWORDS
Stop all other programs
Execute WinPhlash.
"Browse" to choose your bios file (.WPH .ROM .USF .FL1 .BIN)
Uncheck all boxes in "Advanced Settings", except "Verify block after programming"
Press "Flash Bios"
Your computer will restart
4 ) you must knew that i have unlocked both the optimus and switchable options in your bios , so it`s sure only one of them would work as no notebook can run on both optimus and switchable .
here is the menu would be like that
DISPLAY
- Default Primary Video Device
- Boot Display Device
- Graphics Device ( integrated , discrete , switchable )
- Graphics Device ( integrated , discrete , nvidia optimus )
- OS Detection for Switchable Graphics
- OS Detection for nvidia optimus Graphics
- Force X1 Support

the menu will be like the previous explain.


NOW , CREATE YOUR RECOVERY DISK , FLASH THE MODIFIED BIOS AND THEN TELL ME IF THIS WORKED .
ALSO PLEASE UPLOAD SOME PICS FOR THE DISPLAY MENU IF THIS WORKED.
IF THE MODIFIED FILE DOESN`T WORKED WELL , I WOULD MAKE ANOTHER MODIFIED FILE BUT IT WILL BE .WPH NOT FL1 ( FLASH IT WITH WINPHLASH )

I`M WAITING YOUR REPLY.

OK, here goes nothing I'm just going to turn off my PXE boot rom first, then boot into windows and do it. Bite the bullet

OK , im waiting your reply after flashing the bios

Nothing bad happened
If I'm not back in 10 minutes i'm disassembling my laptop.

Edit: The two GPU selection menus displayed as expected but the "OS Detection" options didn't function properly. The menus weren't drawn, only the titles. The menus were simply reset to "Discrete" after rebooting.

Nice to knew that and thanks for the pics
Now , after all options have been unlocked , only 2 options would work properly ( i don`t knew which one from switchable or the optimus would work properly but it`s simple that only one would work ) ...........now if one of these options didn`t work , you should knew that it didn`t work because of the hardware of your notebook not the BIOS .
it will be clear now what options your notebook support .

i hope i have helped you , you are welcome here and now i can modify any lenovo bios you request at any time .

First: When I set the graphics to "Integrated" and save and exit the BIOS, the option is set back to "Discrete" automatically.

If I press F9 in the Display menu to reset the settings to their defaults, the first "Graphics Device" menu is set to Switchable and the second is set to Optimus. Whatever option is picked for "Graphics Device" is mirrored in the other menu. Integrated is selected on both, Discrete is selected on both. When either Switchable or Optimus are selected, its counterpart in the other menu is displayed.

EDIT: I tried booting with the "Switchable / Optimus", that seemed like asking for trouble It didn't work.

The OS detection option is meant to automatically turn Switchable Graphics / Optimus on or off according to whether the BIOS detects a compatible operating system. I am looking for more information about this.

A project to add these features would require a huge amount of hacking

This has been very interesting, please post again if you have any more ideas you would like to test! Thanks again, I bet you were the first person to try this!

well , as i told you now it`s the role of your notebook`s hardware not the bios.
the 2 graphic device options works with the same routines . this means when you select integrated , it will be selected for both options and the same for discrete .
when you select switchable or optimus , the bios follows the routines for this option ( if your notebook support optimus , the optimus would work and switchable wouldn`t work even if switchable was selected)
in other words , the word switchable or optimus is only a text ( string ) and both will follow the same routine when selected but only the one supported with your notebook hardware will function properly and the other would be useless.
also i think that when you select integrated and it was set back to discrete ,,,, this means that your intel integrated graphics won`t work properly in your notebook or it`s simple that no integrated video in your note book and it`s only the nvidia one ( in this case nothing from switchable or optimus would work and i assume that this case is the right one for your notebook )

so , if you selected switchable or optimus , i think the selection would be set back to discerte after you restart and from here you can make sure that your notebook has only the nvidia graphics card no more .
try this and i`m waiting your reply

---

i`m sorry , i didn`t noticed that you have edited your last post
well , as you said it didn`t work when you have booted with switchable or optimus. so , i think your notebook have only the nvidia graphics card.
and if the intel integrated one is excited , it doesn`t work properly..........and these problems are concerned with hardware not the bios.

or the bios has some sub-routines which always set the selection to discrete ( i don`t think this is right but i think it`s hardware problem )

i really don`t knew if your notebook contains intel integrated graphics or not!!!! and please note that some editions of the core i5 cpu don`t have the integrated graphics feature ( i have read that your notebook have core i5 cpu )

here is alink to your notebook spec. and it says there are one with intel integrated and other with nvidia
and i don`t knew which one from these two is your notebook
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.as...nkpad+t410

Ahahaha, I should have been more clear about that actually. I have a T510 with the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 3100m GPU and my CPU is the Intel Core i5 M520, which does have the Intel HD GPU. I had the option to buy the integrated version for $100 less and I should have taken it, I just thought that Lenovo would add the switchable option. There was a lot of confusion on many forums at the time

So I'm going to try the last thing i'm capable of doing, change the DMI machine type and model number to 4314-DEU and see what happens. Probably nothing

The only other things I can think of are:

The EEPROM flash Lenovo referred to could just be the video BIOS. This is very unlikely.

The PCI PnP IDs may play a role.

Otherwise there is some unidentified mechanism for identification.

i will take another look on the bios modules to knew the routine which selects discrete as default .
but i think that if the intel HD graphics works properly in this notebook , lenovo would have updated the bios like the newer models !
i really don`t knew what to do but i don`t want to change defaults in your bios as it might brick your bios and become not bootable.
i will take alook at the other bios components and reply to you after i finish this
please tell me when you discover any new thing

Wow, thank you! I will be online for the next 3 hours, let me know if you would like any dumps from "rw everything" or a similar program. Changing the DMI Product ID to an Optimus-supported model did not even affect the BIOS, the original machine type and model were still displayed.