FN-CTRL swap on all Lenovo laptops [SOLVED]

Hello Middleton.
Could you explain me, what is the method for disableing Thermal Sensing Error message? Will the cooling system work properly? Will the processor send the correct temperature data? I changed my T5450 CPU to a T8300, and I have the error message. With ESC key the system is booting, but I don't know if it is a safety way to use my R61i. Thanks in advance.
Jani

 

I just disabled displaying the message. That's all.
Many people use T61/R61 ThinkPads with Penryn processors and have no problems. You'd better ask real owners in this thread. Your question is off topic here.

 

Thanks for reply, and sorry because of offing.

 

Скажите, возможно ли получить прошивку на В560? ОЧЕНЬ напрягает эта клавиатура (проглядел при покупке

Tell, probably to receive an insertion on В560

 

No, I can't do anything for B560.

 

hello middleton,
i posted on this thread earlier in context of getting help for lenovo 3000 y500
bios upgrade for swaping fn ctrl keys. but you said that u cant give me a vios upgrade because there were no bios releases from lenovo for this model.
now i have a backup copy of my present bios in ".rom" format,can u mod it for the fn ctrl swap??

 

Check your BIOS type. If it's Phoenix then you won't be able to flash the modified dump back.

 

yes its a phoenix bios
why cant i flash the modified dump back??
actually my fn key is dead and m not able to use fn key shortcuts(like fn+esc to toggle touchpad power), thats why i wanted to swap fn and ctrl,
is there any other way to use these shortcuts.....mainly toggling touchpad power.!!!

 

Because the official Phoenix BIOS update contains BIOS firmware + platform information needed to correctly perform flashing. Unfortunately this information is not written into flash memory chips. So your dump doesn't contain any platform information - only BIOS firmware.

 

ah..my bad luck......
anyways....thank u middleton

 

Hi Middleton,

you seem to be an angel man! I can't explain how much I hated that key when I used to work with a Lenovo on the job.

I am about to order a Lenovo G565 (M42D4GE). I want to make sure, however, that I will be able to perform the fn-ctrl swap with it before i spent all the money for it. Can you tell me if it's possible? I think it's a pretty new model.

Thanks a lot!

Alex

 

At the moment there is no G565 official BIOS update from lenovo. So I can't tell you if it's possible to make CTRL-FN patch. But keep in mind the following:

I modified G530, G550, G555 firmware but I'm not able to modify G560 one. There is a very big probability that G565 is a successor of G560 and built on the same platform. If you buy G565 machine, then most likely you'll have to get used to FN-CTRL layout.

 

I read somewhere that for the new models it is very likely that you can adjust it in the bios without a patch. Do you think that might be the case?

 

Middleton, I have another important question. Do you know anything about the LENOVO B560 ??? I've seen other threads about it on the internet. Let me know if the swap is possible with that machine. Man, I'm praying!

 

As far as I know the official CTRL-FN BIOS switch is available for new ThinkPads only. See here.

Again, there is no official BIOS update for B560 from lenovo. I have a BIOS dump from lenovo B550 and can say that it's possible to create CTRL-FN patch for this machine. Maybe it's possible for B560 too. But I can do nothing without the official BIOS update. And it's absolutely unknown if lenovo is planning to release the BIOS updates for B550 and B560 or not.

 

Thanks Middleton! Let me please know as soon as you find out about a possible Bios dump for B560. It's exactly the laptop I want and I don't wanna refain from buying it because of only one key....

 

Just a big THANK YOU for your patch! Now my new T400s has a grownup keyboard - at least in the lower left corner. Now if you could move the DELETE key over to the top right corner where it belongs...

In any event, you're on my Christmas card list forever!

laffin_boy

 

In most cases it's impossible to correctly swap FN and CTRL keys using software because of the way FN works. But all other keys can be easily swapped or remapped by software like for example SharpKeys. Use it to move the Delete key to the new location.

 

Hi middleton, can T61p BIOS be further modified to accept booting from Intel 310 SSD as a mini PCIe disk?

T61 working with Intel 310 ssd? - Lenovo Community
T61 working with Intel 310 ssd? - Lenovo Community

Many many thanks

bfok

 

Your post is off topic here. As for me: I'm not planning any further modifications of T61/T61p BIOS (maybe except for dual IDA mod).

 

Many thanks for your work on this ... I can't tell you how many times I have pressed the ctrl key to select items only to discover I was pressing the fn key!

 

Im using Lenovo Y560 with the latest BIOS update, it seems to me, according to the file name, that i would be downgrading the BIOS. I don't feel comfortable doing this as BIOS updates probably fixed some stuff, although i have no idea what was changed since my last BIOS version.

So i was wondering if it was possible for you to maybe modify the latest bios? Or even some how make a program that will modify what ever bios we have currently? (instead of reflashing a whole another bios on to the laptop) (Current bios version is CN71 and the one in the OP is CN59, not sure how many changes were in between these updates.)

Changing to this BIOS is very important to me, i game daily and this Fn key is Fn killing me xD (can't prone on time since in black ops since im not used to this weird setup.)

 

The Y460/Y560 patch has been updated. Check the first post.

 

Omg, i did not even expect a reply from you.

Thank you for the insanely fast update on the bios, going to try it now.

Thank you once again!!!

 

Update:

It worked 100%

I got scared that i might've flashed it wrong when it rebooted and kept rebooting itself but after that (about 2-3 times), it's running perfectly fine now.

Now i wish that the FN key was larger

 

Hi middleton,

really great work!!!

Just one question for T500/W500:

Is it possible, to do the swap-patch for newest Bios-Update: 3.17/3.19-1.06


Would be very nice

regards

ole258

 

It's not necessary. Flash my patch (if you didn't do it earlier), then flash the latest BIOS - the CTRL-FN swap will keep on working.

Note: while Embedded Controller's version in the official BIOS is the same as in my patch (1.06) you can safely flash the latest BIOS updates from lenovo's website.

 

Hi!
Awesome work you're doing here!

Would this be difficult (uninteresting) to do for a Thinkpad X30 or X31? I own a X30, I love it, and the X30,X31 are really cheap on ebay.

EDIT: I'm an Emacs (and Linux) user, and every key binding starts with "Ctrl" in Emacs. I've almost considered using Vim in my frustration.

 

are the any patch for the y460p model?

oh, and how do i go to the BIOS? i cant seem to find the key to access it, it load up too fast (less than a sec).. and i've tried keys like F1-2, delete, and many others and i still cant seem to figure the BIOs key out..

 

X30 has the same keyboard controller as other ThinkPads. The CTRL-FN patch is definitely possible. But I won't make the patch due to the way X30 firmware is encoded. The algorithm is very simple but I need to create additional utilities to decode/encode the firmware. I don't like it. It will only take my time and give me nothing in terms of experience because the keyboard code itself has no differences from the code that I've already analyzed many times.

There will be no Y460p/Y560p patches until lenovo releases the first official BIOS for these machines.

 

@middleton, OK, thanks for replying. I'll eventually buy an X60 and flash that one instead. Thank you for doing these patches.

 

Wonderful work and thanks. I am thinking of flashing this patch on my T400 Vista 32bit machine. But, after flashing if for any reason, I change my mind and want to back to original settings (sell my laptop for example), can this be done and thanks.

Gary

 

what? does that mean i have to wait for a patch to get y460p BIOS?

geez thanks anyway

 

You can easily flash the original lenovo BIOS. Use search in this thread, I answered this question earlier.

You have to wait for the official BIOS to get the CTRL-FN patch.
If you can't enter into BIOS setup, then I'm not able to help you.

 

I own a T61p and am getting close to an upgrade, which will include Middleton's Bios Mod. A couple of questions to those who have gone before me.

First, my T61p has never had a Bios upgrade - running on it's original Bios from almost four years ago. Do I need to flash it with some intermediate "step" before it will accept the current version from Middleton? I seem to remember some cases where you had to be at a certain "level" to continue to upgrade.

Second, I'm a little fuzzy on the ISO CD method - do I download Middleton's Bios to a CD, go into the existing bios and tell it to boot from the CD/DVD drive and then just put the CD in and start it - or is there more to it than that. (And yes, I will backup all critical files to other media first!)

Finally, will a new 7200rpm drive show any speed improvement with the new bios over the old? Or do I need a new Solid State drive to feel any difference?

Thanks in advance,
Thinkpad Fan

 

I own the Lenovo SL500 laptop with BIOS v1.30 running on Windows 7 64x. All my attempts to flash the patched BIOS v1.28 failed, even using flash.bat. Mr. midldeton, how can I flash patched BIOS to swap the Fn and Ctrl buttons on my SL500? Thank you in advance for any help.

 

I want to flash this modified BIOS on T60p widescreen, but I don't have Windows on it, so flashing from bootable ISO is the only way I can flash it. But because the version of embedded controller is the same (in every version of T60 BIOS), it is not flashed. How to flash it?

 

Thinkpad Fan, you chose a wrong thread, I can't answer your questions. You'd better ask real ThinkPad owners here.

I've updated the patch to version 1.30. Try it out.

The patch for T60/T60p has been updated. ISO flash method should work properly now.

 

Middleton, I flashed the bios of my T400 a few months ago to invert the fn and ctrl keys, and now I want to change back. I've tried upgrading the bios with lenovo's tool, and when that didn't work I tried downgrading to the oldest version they host - nothing.

Is there any way I can switch these keys back?

 

You are amazing, I answered your question few posts above .
If you are so lazy, then read this post.

 

That doesn't work. I already said I tried using the Lenovo tool to upgrade to the latest version of the BIOS; I just tried again using the flash.bat (which doesn't do much other than running the BIOS installer supplied by Lenovo) and the fn+ctrl keys are still inverted.

Any other options?

 

flash.bat runs lenovo BIOS update utility with /s switch. This switch is intended to skip all version checks. It's really true because I disassembled the official lenovo BIOS update tool and made sure in that.

Something interferes with BIOS flashing process on your machine. Try to turn off your antivirus software and other utilities and run flash.bat again. If flash.bat quits instantly, then you definitely have some problems on your machine. And I hope you run flash.bat as administrator.

 

Nothing is interfering with the BIOS flashing, I've tried from windows XP and a fresh windows 7 (no internet, no antivirus) on the same machine. I've managed to successfully flash both the oldest and then the newest BIOS available on the Lenovo website (takes a few minutes and I verified success by looking at version numbers), and neither of them fixed the fn+ctrl inversion. Now I'm at the newest BIOS version again and it's still not fixed.

Is it possible that I inverted the keys in some other way? The BIOS is flashing properly, like I said, so I really don't understand what is going on.

Alternatively, is there any way I can re-switch the keys by a method that doesn't involve the BIOS? What would happen if I removed the CMOS battery? At this point I just need to fix this in any way possible...

Thanks for the help!

 

If you really used flash.bat and flashing was completed successfully (flash.bat didn't quit instantly), then try to reset Embedded Controller:

- Turn off your machine.
- Unplug the power cord.
- Remove the battery.
- Press the power button and hold it several seconds.
- Insert the battery back.
- Plug the power cord.
- Turn on the notebook and check CTRL-FN swap.

Warning: This doesn't help if you didn't use flash.bat.

If the problem is still not fixed, then email me (you can find my address here).

 

Is there any way that you can reupload the 59BIOS for the IdeapadY560? The 71BIOS have overheating issues.

27CN59WW64.exe_???? has a link to the 59 BIOS (w/o FN/CTRL swap) if anyone needs them for whatever reason.

 

Sure here is the link.

 

Thanks, much appreciated.

 

Will any of your BIOS-patches:
-ThinkPad X60 Tablet
-ThinkPad X61, X61s
-ThinkPad X61 Tablet,
work on a "normal" Thinkpad X60, or a X60s?
(I don't have a X60 or X60s yet, but I'm planing on buying one.)

 

There is no patch for Thinkpad X60/X60s. Let me know when you buy a X60.

 

Flash BIOS completed CTRL-FN for T61 machines is already done.
Bios not menu option swap FN-CTRL ???
Return require FN-CTRL ???