Detailed information about model etc.:

[B]Full machine model number:[/B]
Lenovo Thinkpad W541 20EG
CPU Core i7-4810MQ (but have others available),
GPU nVidia Quadro K1100 1GB,
RAM 2x8GB DDR3L (but have lot of other modules available and already tried swapping them),
Storage - various, i usually use 1TB Transcend M.2 SATA SSD for testing

[B]Serial number/Service tag:[/B]
Motherboard is not equipped with such sticker or ID. There is sticker containing "TYPE 20EG-S0QG1Z, S/N R9-0GJ45A 15/07" on the chassis but motherboard is...

Attached "backup" dumps taken at the beginning of the whole process, in case that anyone would be interested....

Hi,
I kindly ask for help with Thinkpad BIOS/ME repair.
Thinkpad W541 board bought from Aliexpress, so I have no service tag nor S/N. It is 1GB version Q1 (K1100 nVidia GPU). BIOS 2.23, EC 1.13, ME 9.1.32.1002.
It worked fine until I tried to remove whitelist.

Steps taken:
- battery out, CMOS coin cell out, laptop disassembled; I kept LAN/USB subboard connected
- i took SPI programmer (CH341A with 3.3V mod) and SOIC clip and did a full backup of all SPI flash chips (SPI1 and SPI2 - BIOS, EC, ME, GbE; SPI3 - video BIOS; SPI4 - Thunderbolt fw) for several...

Hi from Czechia, this is dj-bobr (Ondrej).
Quite experienced in IT, general electronics, prototyping, microcontrollers, RF including SDR, networking/infosec. Thinkpad freak currently learning how EC and ME works.
I can solder almost anything (equipped with hotair and several soldering stations), program I2C or SPI memories, can do hexediting and basic patching. I am currently doing a deep dive to bios modding as I messed up my first UEFI-based machine (Thinkpad W541) while trying to do whitelist mod and want to repair it....