Lenovo Thinkpad T480 BIOS and EEPROM request

[SMDFlea]

Read the post above.... post serial number etc.

[angrej4953]

bios psw pleas pach

[peste]

Hello,
I have a Lenovo T480 that is locked with an administrator password.

post S/N, full name and model, motherboard model, TYPE,etc.

[kady_113]

Hello,
I have a Lenovo T480 that is locked with an administrator password.

[Bouchi11]

Hello everyone, my T480 suddenly won't boot. When I press the power button, it plays a melodic error code (I believe it's error 0001) for a few seconds and Power button stays on. This happened after I missed a BIOS update from Vantage and left the laptop unused for a couple of days.

I've already tried replacing the CMOS battery and reseating the motherboard connections. On one single occasion, I managed to get into the BIOS menu but didn't know what to do, and after a restart, it never came back (before this, no melody was playing just boot for a second and then shuts off).

• Model: ThinkPad T480 (20L5-0007GE)
• S/N: PF-1MFAX (Manufactured 02/2019)

I believe the BIOS is corrupted and I'm preparing to flash it directly onto the chip with a hardware programmer. I would be incredibly grateful for:

1. A known-good BIOS dump for my specific model.
2. Any tips or pitfalls to avoid during the process since I'm new to all this

[OnyxOutlaw]

Yes, of course you can try the autopatcher.
Then you can Load Defaults (F9) and maybe the error will disappear.
If not you probably need to rewrite your DMI info with Lenovo U1 or Golden key this will rewrite your CRC. There is plenty of info about dowload and usage here :
1.- https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...r-bootable-usb
2.- https://github.com/ASparkOfFire/lenovo-u1-tool

Okay. I will keep this in mind.
Running autopatcher leads to the same jingle as before, so I will probably make a post in that thread.
Thank you so much for your help.

[Stefan Steff]

Boots fine, but seems like the bios is locked.
I get the message 'Bad CRC of Security Setting in EFI variable' and then i meet with a locked bios.
Should I try the auto patcher now?
Thank you so much for your help, if you have any more advice I would sincerely appreciate it.

Yes, of course you can try the autopatcher.
Then you can Load Defaults (F9) and maybe the error will disappear.
If not you probably need to rewrite your DMI info with Lenovo U1 or Golden key this will rewrite your CRC. There is plenty of info about dowload and usage here :
1.- https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...r-bootable-usb
2.- https://github.com/ASparkOfFire/lenovo-u1-tool

[OnyxOutlaw]

Here is your new BIOS file, please provide some feedback about the result:

Boots fine, but seems like the bios is locked.
I get the message 'Bad CRC of Security Setting in EFI variable' and then i meet with a locked bios.
Should I try the auto patcher now?
Thank you so much for your help, if you have any more advice I would sincerely appreciate it.

[Stefan Steff]

As someone said before, this isn't the most active thread.
I understand that, but I'd also really appreciate a pointer or two.
As things are now, I have no idea how to go about things.
Thanks in advance yall.

Here is your new BIOS file, please provide some feedback about the result:

[OnyxOutlaw]

Hello. I'd like some help with a t480 with a (presumably) corrupt bios.
Type: 20L6-S18E00
S/N: PF-1FD5RP

The device doesn't boot and gives a chime, error code 010288.
Due to this, I don't know about the bios revision information.
Dump of the chip is attached.
Thanks in advance for the help!

As someone said before, this isn't the most active thread.
I understand that, but I'd also really appreciate a pointer or two.
As things are now, I have no idea how to go about things.
Thanks in advance yall.

[OnyxOutlaw]

Hello. I'd like some help with a t480 with a (presumably) corrupt bios.
Type: 20L6-S18E00
S/N: PF-1FD5RP

The device doesn't boot and gives a chime, error code 010288.
Due to this, I don't know about the bios revision information.
Dump of the chip is attached.
Thanks in advance for the help!

[SMDFlea]

Could anyone help me with a ThinkPad, which is currently password in the BIOS?
thinkpad x1 extreme gen 1
model : 20MF-000DUS
bios : N2EET42W (1.24)
s/n : R9-0V246W
year : 19/05

note : I already tried with Lenovo Patches v2 and it left my laptop with a black screen and beeps as if it was missing memory ram.

Off topic, this thread is for the T480.

[PULIO1500]

Could anyone help me with a ThinkPad, which is currently password in the BIOS?
thinkpad x1 extreme gen 1
model : 20MF-000DUS
bios : N2EET42W (1.24)
s/n : R9-0V246W
year : 19/05

note : I already tried with Lenovo Patches v2 and it left my laptop with a black screen and beeps as if it was missing memory ram.

[badiycbo]

Found this image from the bios before bricking which might contain relevant information.

[badiycbo]

The Desktop Management Interface (DMI) is a standard industry framework for managing and tracking components in a laptop/PC and it contains all sort of data about the hardware like laptop serial number, main-board serial number, model number, etc and the computer boots, but with a lot of errors if this data is missing or is incomplete...
You did everything ok...I think...I'm not a Linux fan...but I see there are no errors on read/write.
What I can suggest is to try more dumps (attached) .
This dumps worked on other T480 hardware....we don't know exactly what's yours because of the bricked backup.
Good luck!

Yes the write seems to working at least (if i can trust flashrom hehe), so I'll keep trying dumps like you said. Ugh I feel so stupid that I overwrote the original backups but thank you very much for trying to help, I feel more hopeful now knowing it is most likely just about finding the right bios dump for my hardware. Cheers!

[Stefan Steff]

Unfortunately no result, i'll tell you exactly what I did.

1. removed external battery
2. open chassi
3. disconnected internal battery
4. connected ch341a spi flasher to W25Q128JV chip
5. read the chip using flashrom:

sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c "W25Q128.V" -r backup.bin
flashrom v1.5.1 on Linux 6.12.47 (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q128.V" (16384 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi.
Reading flash... done.

6. flashed the file you suggested using flashrom:

sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c "W25Q128.V" -w Lenovo_T480_ME_Clean.bin
flashrom v1.5.1 on Linux 6.12.47 (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q128.V" (16384 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Updating flash chip contents... Erase/write done from 0 to ffffff
Verifying flash... VERIFIED.​

Then i removed the spi flasher, reconnected internal battery, closed chassi, reconnected external battery and plugged in to power. Still black screen and power button flashes 3 times. No luck it seems. Unfortunately i lost the original BIOS dumps from before bricking the system so the ones i uploaded in my first post never worked and might contain wrong data. May I ask, what is the DMI info? I'm not familiar with the term. A shot in the dark but could the issue have something to do with the other SOIC8 chip containing the thunderbolt firmware maby?

(The file i upload is the dump from reading the chip at step 5)

The Desktop Management Interface (DMI) is a standard industry framework for managing and tracking components in a laptop/PC and it contains all sort of data about the hardware like laptop serial number, main-board serial number, model number, etc and the computer boots, but with a lot of errors if this data is missing or is incomplete...
You did everything ok...I think...I'm not a Linux fan...but I see there are no errors on read/write.
What I can suggest is to try more dumps (attached) .
This dumps worked on other T480 hardware....we don't know exactly what's yours because of the bricked backup.
Good luck!

[badiycbo]

First read and backup your existing bios content as is the whole W25Q128JV chip content I mean...
Then write the file I have sent as is.
Your DMI info it's in EC so it should work as is.

Unfortunately no result, i'll tell you exactly what I did.

1. removed external battery
2. open chassi
3. disconnected internal battery
4. connected ch341a spi flasher to W25Q128JV chip
5. read the chip using flashrom:

sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c "W25Q128.V" -r backup.bin
flashrom v1.5.1 on Linux 6.12.47 (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q128.V" (16384 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi.
Reading flash... done.​

6. flashed the file you suggested using flashrom:

sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c "W25Q128.V" -w Lenovo_T480_ME_Clean.bin
flashrom v1.5.1 on Linux 6.12.47 (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q128.V" (16384 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Updating flash chip contents... Erase/write done from 0 to ffffff
Verifying flash... VERIFIED.​

Then i removed the spi flasher, reconnected internal battery, closed chassi, reconnected external battery and plugged in to power. Still black screen and power button flashes 3 times. No luck it seems. Unfortunately i lost the original BIOS dumps from before bricking the system so the ones i uploaded in my first post never worked and might contain wrong data. May I ask, what is the DMI info? I'm not familiar with the term. A shot in the dark but could the issue have something to do with the other SOIC8 chip containing the thunderbolt firmware maby?

(The file i upload is the dump from reading the chip at step 5)

[Stefan Steff]

Wow that was quick, thanks for taking the time trying to help! I think I did but I could try again to make sure. Do you mean to just flash it as is, or should i extract the bios region and replace the mac address etc?

First read and backup your existing bios content as is the whole W25Q128JV chip content I mean...
Then write the file I have sent as is.
Your DMI info it's in EC so it should work as is.

[badiycbo]

Did you try this dump ?

Wow that was quick, thanks for taking the time trying to help! I think I did but I could try again to make sure. Do you mean to just flash it as is, or should i extract the bios region and replace the mac address etc?

[Stefan Steff]

This thread does not seem to be very active anymore but if any knowledgeable person ends up reading this even a simple attempt to point me in the right direction would make me eternally grateful.

At this point I've tried a couple BIOSes posted in this thread and also extracting their bios region, replacing the mac address with the one i backed up before i bricked the computer (using hexedit) and stitching it to the BIOS region of my bios dump but nothing has worked. All i get is a black screen and the powerbutton blinks 3 times when i plug it in, but does not react to presses.

I'm completely out of ideas at this point so if anyone knows a potential fix or if there is further modification needed to the bios before flashing or something like that, Ill try anything at this point.

Wizards of badcaps.net I call upon thee

Did you try this dump ?