Lenovo ThinkPad L15 Gen 1 i7 (20U4) Bios and EC dump needed

[Joluvillas]

Hi all! I was reading on tutorials how to flash a bios to remove password from a bios, and I ended up reading the EC chip instead of the main bios chip, it only gave me a .bin file of 1,024kb, I learned later that that is the EC chip not the main bios chip (I should have read the tutorials here instead before attempting anything, my bad), I went to flash the original backup, the 1,024kb size file into the same chip and laptop is not powering up anymore. I may have screwed the chip or even the motherboard (Hopefully not), I am trying to see if there is a fix before I discard it. I had a couple of questions I hope someone can answer so I can try and save my laptop.

1- Is there a way the motherboard or chip might get damaged by using the clip on the CH341a (modded to 3.3v) instead of desoldering the chip? Like a short or something that may have broken the laptop? I was very creful on the order of the connection.

2- I am attaching a picture of the board for location purposes, and a close up of sorts of the EC chip (winbond 25Q80DVSIG) I extracted the .bin file from (And then attempted to get it back in) and also a close up of the other chip I was told is containing the main bios. Can someone please confirm if I got the correct main bios chip this time? I haven't touched it yet, since the clip does not fit that particular chip (GD25B256DYIG)

3- Going back to the main bios chip, if it is indeed the GD25B256DYIG, is the only way to read it desoldering it? also, will the CH341a read it once I desolder it with the adapter I attach in another picture below?

I just don't want to mess up further so I am reaching out to you awesome people for guidance. I leave the info on the machine below:


Model: Lenovo ThinkPad L15 20U4 (Gen 1)
S/N: PF3PXX6F
Type: 20U4
Machine Type: 20U4S8GY00
Motherboard: GL4A0/GL4A0 NM-C632
Processor: 1x 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10510U Processor(Core i7-10510U)



I also uploaded the .bin file I got from the EC chip, but I think it's mostly FFFF's


Thank you very much in advance for any attention given to this humble post, I hope it attract's someone's attention and we can work this out together!

[Markus1741]

I'm trying to explain, keep your hands off the chips, it won't help you read them.
Lenovo does not store the BIOS password in the BIOS chip but in the EC chip, which you cannot read.
For most Lenovo notebooks with a BIOS size of more than 33MB, it no longer works to manipulate the BIOS.
Member Maxpower3 has found a way and also published how to interrupt the communication between EC and BIOS at startup.
I was able to unlock a 2022 Lenovo T14s Gen2 with this trick.
Watch YouTube video from his channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK8IIi_Hlh8

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...-ec-pwd-bypass

[Joluvillas]

I found this forum way too late, I am learning from scratch, I already messed up with the chip, but I will watch this video and see if I can do it, thank you for replying and I will post if successful.

PostEdit: The laptop doesn't even turn on after I flashed that 1mb file back into the chip, any ideas as to how I can bring it back the way it was before so I can work with the steps Maxpower3 left for us and try to bypass it? Thanks in advance for any kind of help-

[Markus1741]

I found this forum way too late, I am learning from scratch, I already messed up with the chip, but I will watch this video and see if I can do it, thank you for replying and I will post if successful.

PostEdit: The laptop doesn't even turn on after I flashed that 1mb file back into the chip, any ideas as to how I can bring it back the way it was before so I can work with the steps Maxpower3 left for us and try to bypass it? Thanks in advance for any kind of help-

What comes to mind is that you damaged resistors while programming the chip, just load a picture.

This could cause it to no longer start.

[Joluvillas]

Hello there, thanks for following up, I found a great tutorial on yt and was able to verify that there no shorts on the motherboard, I checked everything from the adapter power input jack, coils, capacitors around the chips, the bios chip is reading 3.3v in pin 8 ( VCC As indicated in the video) I followed the tutorial to the letter (Actually I checked out 3 different videos on how to troubleshoot a dead laptop motherboard) and everything checks out, in the video it is mentioned that if Bios chip reads 3.3v on pin 8, to look for the right bios file and flash it. That would be my next step, since the 1,024kb file I extracted from that chip is not working when I flash it back, still dead board.

What troubles me is, that the file is 1,024kb and I can't find it anywhere. All the bios posted here and everywhere are at lease 16mb (8mb when compressed) and I don't think that's what I need, can you tell me the name of the file I should be looking for? is it a part of the whole bios I have to extract maybe with a hex editor? Any clue will be highly appreciated

Thank you btw for the help, as soon as I am able to power it up, I will try the method Maxpower3 shared.

PostEdit: I can still upload some pictures of the mainboard if you need me to, but my camera isn't that good. But if it would help, I can try to load it in parts maybe