Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

[Markus1741]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

Hi there,

I tried everything with my dump, I can't figure it to work.

Since a crash in bios settings after activate tpm 2.0, this bios seems to be broken. I got F1, F4, FN et power button blinking.

I tried to flash some dumps from here and other forums. Sometime I got a BIOS (hourray!), with CRC error., thenI can't enter in BIOS Settings because of password required (???). My old password doesn't work.

What's wrong with my original bios dump ? Please help me !

Here's my dump: https://we.tl/t-a9H64kFWqF

The (weak) bios password was azerty (or AZERTY)

Hi try this ME Clean File

Good luck ...

[breizhim]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

Hi try this ME Clean File

Good luck ...

Well... it works ! Thank you so much !!

I see in binary that you set a lot of bytes to "FF" or "00". Does the bios still secure without ME functions (or PE) ?

btw, thank you again.

[Markus1741]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

Well... it works ! Thank you so much !!

I see in binary that you set a lot of bytes to "FF" or "00". Does the bios still secure without ME functions (or PE) ?

btw, thank you again.

Nice to hear it works.

Well I gave your original BIOS file a new clean ME region.

Unfortunately, you only see errors from version 11 in the ME Analyzer

[breizhim]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

Nice to hear it works.

Well I gave your original BIOS file a new clean ME region.

Unfortunately, you only see errors from version 11 in the ME Analyzer

I did a BIOS update successfully. It seems to work like a charm.

Thank you for your work. Did you use UEFITool or anything like that ? I tried a lot of apps on Linux. And I'm curious about your work, if this is not a secret of course

[Markus1741]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

I did a BIOS update successfully. It seems to work like a charm.

Thank you for your work. Did you use UEFITool or anything like that ? I tried a lot of apps on Linux. And I'm curious about your work, if this is not a secret of course

Oh that's no secret, everything is here in the forum.

Look at this page that's how I learned it too.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...26&postcount=1

However, most of the tools don't work under Linux.

Intel has mostly written them as .exe for Microsoft newer versions, so from
12.0.0 they also work under Linux.

[Norrecito]

Thinkpad X240 bricked by a Windows 10 update

Hi,

I was watching YouTube on my Thinkpad X240 when suddenly, I was greated by Windows 10's blue screen of death (BSOD). I've allowed Windows to do its log collecting stuff (from 0% to 100%) and the machine performed a reboot. While rebooting, it decided that this is the best time for a Windows update so it started applying some changes and then all kind of artifacts started appearing on the screen and the laptop froze.

After a few minutes, I've powered off the machine by holding the power button and pressed it again, only to be greeted by what seemed like a BIOS level boot loop. The keyboard lights up (I got a backlit keyboard), fan kicks in then shuts down after ~1 second...and it was repeating this forever. Not even the power button did anything.

I came to the conclusion that Windows attempted to make a BIOS update (I have never asked for) at start but something went wrong and hence my laptop is now bricked.

I thought, well...I can reflash the BIOS. in fact I got a spare i5 motherboard I can read a working BIOS from. It's the same model number and revision as my i7 motherboard that I'm currently using (VIUX1 NM-A091 Rev: 1.0 2013-04-17).

I only have a CH341A (black PCB) and a Raspberry PI 3 model B to do stuff like this so I went with the first.

Both motherboards have the same winbond 25Q128FVSQ chip. Reading the corrupt BIOS went fine (I'm using SOIC-8 clips) and I made multiple backups and compared them, I did the same with the spare i5 motherboard.

I've then written the i5 motherboard BIOS to my non-working motherboard but things only improved slightly: no more BIOS boot loop. The machine seems to power on but doesn't POST, screen is black and it automatically turns off after 1 minute. Neither trying the reset button (on the bottom of the laptop) nor pulling out the CMOS battery for 30 seconds improves the situation.

I then tried almost all BIOS I could find in this thread:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=53578

I got the same black screen, no POST with all of them.

Then I did some more digging and found this great guide about how to clean the ME region:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=88533

The ME Analyzer has given me the following warning, so I got hopeful:
"Warning: Data in Engine region padding, possible data corruption!"

I've build a new BIOS with a clean ME region using this guide and loaded it...only to be greated by the same black screen, no POST issue

After this, I've tried to make a sanity check by loading the original, corrupt BIOS back to the motherboard and was surprised that even this has the same behavior, black screen, no POST.

By this point I'm not sure what's at fault:
The programmer (CH341A)? I have verified all reads/writes multiple times and found no problems. I've even tried multiple applications (AsProgrammer, Colibri, NeoProgrammer).
Maybe none of the BIOS-es I have tried are compatible with this motherboard and I have failed to restore the original with my clean ME attempt?
...or did that update fried something on my motherboard?

I would love to hear your ideas

[hoaca388]

Re: Thinkpad X240 bricked by a Windows 10 update

X240 Laptop (ThinkPad)

[Norrecito]

Re: Thinkpad X240 bricked by a Windows 10 update

X240 Laptop (ThinkPad)

Just tried it, still the same issue: black screen, no POST

Did 2 verifications after writting just to be sure. Also tried the reset button and pulling out the CMOS battery for 30 seconds.

[Norrecito]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

OMG, it's the DIMM slot! The problem is the DIMM slot.

I have a bent pin there. Either this or I have cold solder joint on one or more pins of the DIMM slot because if I hold down the RAM while powering on the machine, it starts normally and I have picture. I also POSTS.
It freezes as soon as I let it go though.

The corrupt BIOS was definitely a problem but there is this too.

Still can't believe I have two separate problems...anyway, I will see what I can do about this.


hoaca388: thanks for the BIOS, it seems to work fine. I will use that one if I manage to sort out my DIMM slot problem.

[Norrecito]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

FIXED!

I've managed to bend back that pin and it's all working now

Considering the history of this motherboard (which I previously didn't share because I thought it was irrelevant), it seems to make sense now.

This laptop originally came with the i5 motherboard (the one I've referred as a "spare" in my previous posts) and I bought that i7 motherboard with a "no picture" issue. The issue was a corroded pin in the DIMM slot...most probably the same pin which was now bent. I've fixed it by simply cleaning that pin and was using this machine with the i7 motherboard for more than 6 months without any issues. I even did multiple memory tests after cleaning that pin to be sure it was working and also verified the contact of the pin with a multimeter.

I'm not sure how it got bent (I didn't open that machine until it was already bricked) but my theory is that it somehow came lose and caused a memory problem which failed that forced BIOS update.

[Bilal@pc]

Re: X240 BIOS FILE/Clean ME HELP

thinks
system working, but bios has password

[Tienqy90]

Re: X240 BIOS FILE/Clean ME HELP

Hello!
Please help me, I have a bios locked laptop, I tried to open it but failed.
Now it just flashes the power light twice, the fan spins, but doesn't light up the screen.
I think it's a bios error, need to clear ME and remove pass.
Please help me fix it. Thanks!

[SMDFlea]

Re: X240 BIOS FILE/Clean ME HELP

Hello!
Please help me, I have a bios locked laptop, I tried to open it but failed.
Now it just flashes the power light twice, the fan spins, but doesn't light up the screen.
I think it's a bios error, need to clear ME and remove pass.
Please help me fix it. Thanks!

Post the serial number - https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=103570

.

[Tienqy90]

Re: X240 BIOS FILE/Clean ME HELP

Post the serial number - https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=103570

.

Sorry...!
My thinkpad x240 seri: NM-A091 v1.0 date 2013-04-17

[jomed.az]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

Hi

After update the bios to 2.49, the computer died, and dont turn on anymore.
Thinkpad x240 NM-A091 v1.0 date 2013-04-17

I was not able to able to backup the original bios because it fails always the reading, so I tried programing the bios.

After lots of attempts, finally i was able to flash the bios, and now the bios already reads and writes well.

I flashed the bios in this post
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=20
and the computer wakes up finally.

the computer now is booting, but takes to long to boot, since I press the on button until the lenovo logo appear, takes more than 40 seconds.

I noticed that it don't have the ME firmware installed, I tried to flash another bins from this thread, always the same, no ME installed. i tried to download the ME from lenovo page, to install it thought windows, but always get a message no ME installed and fails.

How can I install the ME firmware. Any help is welcome!
Thanks

[jomed.az]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

Hi!
I installed the bin in this post
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...3&postcount=48

it already shows a me firmware version, and is faster to appear the lenovo logo, but after 1st reboot, when starting boot, it goes off and on automatically 3 times and now I'm getting this error in bios (pitcture attached)

Its a I7 4600U CPU and bios chip is W25Q128FV

I'm newbie, its the first time that I'm dealing with bios problems, so any help is welcome.
Thanks

[hoaca388]

Re: X240 BIOS FILE/Clean ME HELP

Sorry...!
My thinkpad x240 seri: NM-A091 v1.0 date 2013-04-17

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=20

[papikit]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

please upload clean file for me thanks...

XM25QH256B@SOIC16-300_20231116_122829

[SMDFlea]

Re: Need bios dump for Lenovo Thinkpad X240

please upload clean file for me thanks...

XM25QH256B@SOIC16-300_20231116_122829

Read the rules.You must post the laptop serial number.You must not post external links.

Attach files directly to your post instead of linking to external websites
Post what the problem is, be specific, - black screen, no boot, running slow, password.Do NOT post "clean me", "clear bios", "clean bios", "bios need" or other such terms

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=103570

.