Lenovo - locked to specific WiFi cards??

sim

sim

Hi

I've seen it suggested that Lenovo lock their BIOS so that it will only accept specific Lenovo-approved hardware (e.g. WiFi cards etc). Is this true? I'm getting a bit tired of my Intel 6300 wifi card and would like to swap it for an Atheros, but it seems this may not be possible.

Can anyone confirm? And if so, are there any hacks/workarounds?

Thanks

sim
 
Yes, it's true. Search the net for "Lenovo wireless whitelist". Some people modify the BIOS to add the desired card to the list.
 
Some great info there, many thanks. My plan of attack, in order:

  1. Try the WWAN card slot
  2. Mod the device ID
  3. Hack the BIOS <----- not sure whether I'd risk this, atm.

sim
 
Totally true. Lenovo claims to do it to ensure compatibility and reliability of peripheral hardware.

My recommendation is to flash the BIOS to remove the whitelist completely. The best and safest BIOS for your Lenovo laptop is the Middleton BIOS (just google "Middleton BIOS" and you will find links to download). I flashed my T61 with the Middleton BIOS to remove the whitelist and to also enable SATA-II on my Thinkpad (for the T61, Lenovo limited the SATA-II controller to SATA-I speeds in the BIOS for compatibility reasons). I've had no problems to date.
 
Thanks rajl.

It looks like the Middleton offerings don't cover mt T510, however a little digging around suggests that there are equivalent non-whitelist mods for the T510. If I can get some confidence that they are reasonably safe I'll give it a go.

sim
 
I had this same issue a few years ago with an ASUS Eee-PC 900. The included Atheros WiFi card was not supported by OpenBSD, so I swapped it for an Intel WiFi card known to work extremely well - Only to find that it was not exposed to the OS! x(

You are lucky in that it seems relatively simple to get a modified BIOS for your Lenovo. I spent a great deal of time attempting to learn how to modify the vendor ID's embedded in my BIOS image, but ultimately I failed - The mass of horrendous leaked/unverifiable Windows utilities required (not to mention the places they were hosted) was enough to put anyone off!

Good luck :)
 
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