T61/X61 SATA II 1.5 Gb/s cap - willing to pay for a solution

Thanks for the bios!!!

X61T

Quick question. I'm using Win 7 Pro X64, and as a result I have to update the bios via usb boot.

I've tried both #1 and #2, neither of which seems to swap the CTRL and FN key. I have confirmed the bios is working. I downloaded the Intel Rapid Storage Tech software, and confirmed SATA Transfer Mode: Generation 2.

Has anyone experienced this? I really would like to switch the keys, and I'm afraid I might be doing something wrong.

 

Hi. I have an X61s with w7,64 bit and M4 128GB , and created a boot CD, and booted from an external DVD/CD device (don't have the ultrabase), and it did not work (no CD/DVD drivers found - as previously mentioed elsewhere in this thread)... there are many usb booters... what did you use to get it to update the bios? Also, did you use the same method to update the M4 firmware to 0002? Cheers.

 

Soooo,

I have been using my X300 for three years now and was running out of disk space with the original 64GB samsung SSD. So I ordered a 1.8inch Crucial C300 128GB disk to gain some space and speed up my system a little.

I was kind of disappointed with the current Samsung SSD speed, and the C300 should have been a nie upgrade speedwise.

I installed the drive and restored my data. Alignment and stuff all OK.
I ran a benchmark and was kinda disappointed again with the marginal speed increase. have a look at my two CDM benchmarks.

Until I discovered that my x300 is running a 1.5Gb/s sata connection. What the... I found the modified BIOS in this thread but has anyone experience with the new BIOS on a x300?! Will it flash safely and gain me the full potential of the C300's speed?

 

Try to reset Embedded Controller:

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

If it doesn't help, then try to flash under Windows, using Hiren's BootCD (HBCD). This CD contains mini Windows XP 32-bit. Some ThinkPad owners reported about successful flashing, using this method.

 

This should do the job.

DOS USB boot drive - Vista Forums

 

I'll give it a go and let you know. Its just weird because the intel rapid storage app reports that I'm Gen 2. o.0

Thanks for the response and the Bios.

 

Actually Hirens isn't work. I'm using an older version, 10.

After loading lite XP, I try executing the flash. The Flash program tells me I need to install a full charged battery and plug my AC in. Well DUH, that what I have done. Battery is at 100% and ac is plugged in.

?!

Tried version 14, and still nothing. Strannnge...how did everyone else get it to work???

 

Thanks for that... I copied the files out of middleton's iso onto the usb stick (after making it bootable)... booted from the usb stick, but it did not autoexecute... what did you do? (BTW Normally, I'd just try things, but because it's a bios flash, I'm being rather cautious) Cheers, and thanks for the help.

 

You need to execute the updateflash program.

Keep in mind your working with DOS now. Type in "dir /w", without the quotes. It will display a list of files in your current directory. I'm not sure where you copied the files too, and whether or not they are in a sub folder. Eitherway look for a file that is abbreviation of updateflash; updtflsh.exe and run it.

To drop down a directory type in "cd\(directory name)"

 

UPDATE:
After executing updtflsh.exe it came back with...
"An update is not required at this time, update cancelled"

------

OK. I'll try that. I didn't copy any directories, just the files... at least I know which file to execute now... I was wondering about the flash2.exe, but I'll try the updtflsh.exe

Cheers

 

Your bios is the latest released by Lenovo. Go grab 1.24 from their site and flash it. Then you'll be able to flash the hacked bios.

 

I tried what middleton had previously mentioned earlier in this thread...
flash2.exe /u
BUT, this did not work, giving a flash error 99, mentioning problems updating flash when BITLOCKER is enabled... I don't have BITLOCKER enabled on any drive, so I'm not sure what this is about.

 

I was able to continue past the bitlocker message. It was just a warning.

 

OK. I eventually managed to flash my x61s with Middleton's bios via a USB stick (if anyone's interested, I'll post more detailed info).

The results look great (cheers Middleton), apart from the 4KQD32, which should be around 180 / 130 (r/w) from what I have seen of other laptops on SATA II using an M4 128GB... does anyone have any ideas why my 4KQD32 results are low at 118 / 95 (r/w)?

I've posted before and after CDM, so people can see the difference, and hopefully can tell me what the problem is?

BTW The SSD is aligned correctly, and is using msachi drivers, and the bios is set to AHCI. My M4 is still on firmware 0001, and I do not have any problem with BSOD, stuttering or delays...

 

i wanna ask about BIOS

TO Midleton did u're mod bios support to unlock GOBI2000 wwan
this specification
Products:
ThinkPad AT&T GOBI 2000 U.S. BroadBand Option (78Y1398)
ThinkPad GOBI 2000 Worldwide BroadBand Option (78Y1399)
UMTS/3G operates in the following frequency ranges:
Uplink (Mobile Broadband Module to base-station)
850: 824 - 849 MHz
1900: 1850 - 1910 MHz
2100: 1920 - 1980 MHz
Downlink (Base-station to Mobile Broadband Module)
850: 869 - 894 MHz
1900: 1930 - 1990 MHz
2100: 2110 - 2170 MHz
GSM/GPRS/EDGE data at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900 MHz
GSM Power Class:
MCS1-4 (GMSK): GSM850/900: Class 4/2W/33dBm GSM1800/1900: Class 1/1W/30dBm
MCS5-9 (8-PSK): GSM850/900: Class E2/0.5W/27dBm GSM1800/1900: Class E2/0.4W/26dBm
UMTS Power Class: Class 3 (23dBm)
UMTS reference sensitivity:
Band V(850): Nom <-110dBm, Max: <-104dBm
Band II(1900): Nom <-107dBm, Max: <-104.7dBm
Band I(2100): Nom <-109dBm, Max: <-104.7dBm
Performance specifications:
Peak power consumption
Supported Voltage Range 3.0V - 3.6V (3.3V +/- 9%)
Nominal Operating Voltage 3.3V
Average Standby Current / Power (Radio off) <30mW
Average Idle Current / Power (Attached to network) <30mW
Data Transfer Peak Current / Peak Power <2.8W
UMTS: 384 kbps (Packet-Switched)/64 kbps (Circuit-Switched) DL; 384 kbps (Packet-Switched)/64 kbps (Circuit-Switched) UL
GSM: 14.4 kbps UL/DL
GPRS: 85.6 kbps DL; 42.8 kbps UL
EDGE: 247.4 kbps DL; 123.70 kbps UL
3G: 7.2 Mbps DL; 2.0 Mbps UL
Physical specifications:
Approximate height: 4.25 mm (0.1675 in)
Approximate width: 30 mm (1.18 in)
Approximate depth: 50.95 mm (2.0 in)
Approximate weight: 0.012 kg (0.026 lb)

Hardware compatibility
Description
Machine - Models
ThinkPad L412, L512
WWAN Ready ThinkPad models
ThinkPad T410, T410s
WWAN Ready ThinkPad models
ThinkPad T510
WWAN Ready ThinkPad models
ThinkPad W510
WWAN Ready ThinkPad models
ThinkPad X100e
WWAN Ready ThinkPad models
ThinkPad X201, X201s, X201 Tablet
WWAN Ready ThinkPad models
Note: Compatible with WWAN Ready ThinkPad models. WWAN Ready models are ThinkPad system with an installed WWAN attenna.

if not ready to unlock may u help me too made that bios for me
and i had try to upgrade bios to midleton i check it stil 2.29 serial from IBM

 

Hello

I have Windows 7 64bit and I flashed the Middleton bios mod. Now I got in the event viewer very often the following message:

: Der eingebettete Controller (EC) hat nicht innerhalb des angegebenen Zeitlimits reagiert. Dies deutet auf einen Fehler in der EC-Hardware oder -Firmware hin bzw. darauf, dass das BIOS auf falsche Art auf den EC zugreift. Fragen Sie den Computerhersteller nach einem aktualisierten BIOS. Dieser Fehler kann in einigen Situationen zur Folge haben, dass der Computer fehlerhaft läuft.

Sorry, it's german, but I hope you can understand it.

Just a few moments ago I got the following message with a bluescreen.

Der Computer wurde nach einem schwerwiegenden Fehler neu gestartet. Der Fehlercode war: 0x00000116 (0xfffffa8009223010, 0xfffff880064634e0, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000002). Ein volles Abbild wurde gespeichert in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Berichts-ID: 070811-10218-01.

What's wrong with the bios mod?

 

translated, if this helps:

The embedded controller (EC) did not respond within the specified time limits. This indicates an error in the EC hardware or firmware, or to the fact that the BIOS is accessing the wrong way on the EC. Ask your computer manufacturer for an updated BIOS. This error can result in some situations, that the computer

did the bios flask work ok?

 

I get the above errormsg pretty often as well, but I don't remember if it started after flashing the modded bios

 

T7500 PGA upgraded to T9500 works, no errors yet XX.
FRU42W7875 Lenovo Bios 2.17 25/4/08. Noticeable speed difference.
Does anyone know which Bios to use for the SATA II ?
The listed ones do not include FRU 7875.
Thanks

 

I updated BIOS without any issues. T61P 6459.
Primary: Intel SSD 320 160GB
Ultrabay: Seagate HDD 750GB

Before:
SSD

HDD

HDD Experience Index: 7.1

After:
SSD

HDD

HDD Experience Index: 7.4

I have not yet noticed anything different as far as speed is concerned because my allocation unit size is 4K (4096) - the maximum you can choose (using Windows Format) is 64k.

Copying a large 13.5GB from one folder to another Folder on the same SSD averages about 80MB/S - it starts fast but eventually slows down to 80MB/s.

I have not noticed any issues at this time with the Ultrabay HDD.

 

It looks like I'm having wireless problems :|

I'm on 2.29 Bios since it was released, but I haven't really been using WiFi that much until this past week when I went on vacation and for some reason I get connected on free hotel Wifi on 3 phones and yet having problems connecting with my laptop. It will connect after 4-5 attempts but never on the first try.

Today I found out that my other T61 (I have 3 total) that has intel 3945 card is also having hard time connecting, and it's using the same bios.

Please let me know if anybody else has encountered WiFi problems as well. Apparently those problems occur from time to time only, as at home I have WPA2-PSK network that is working without any problems, yet on 3 other free networks with 2 different T61s I get issues where other people connect just fine from the first time.

so anybody else with WiFi issues ?

thanks

P.S. everything else works fine. I tend to think this is hardware related as I'm using just Windows WiFi after clean OS install. Back in the day I did not have any connection problems.

 

To Middletone
Can you enable PCI Express Active State Power Management in T61 BIOS? This can significantly improve battery time. The situation is described here
Thanks a lot in advance!

 

Why not setup eGPU Setup 1.x, put the required setpci commands in the startup.bat and boot to Linux or Windows via the "automated startup via startup.bat" boot option instead? You'll get your power savings that way. I believe the bios will restore the settings after resume as well, but please test to confirm.

 

had no issues flashing to an x61 tablet, used vista business 32-bit.





I pulled the SSD from my W500 just so I could check if this worked (windows 7 ultimate 64-bit).

also IDA seems to be working nicely: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1930208 (with no CPU load)
now I just need an SXGA+ screen and i'll be completely happy.
processor in WEI went up to 4.9, ties the ZM-80 in my mostly dead tx2500z.

 

If I don't use ultrabay as an extra hdd, but just as an optical drive, will I have any issues updating with this hacked bios? I have t61p with new c300.

Also, has anybody tried contacting lenovo customer service and asking for an official bios update to support sata2?

P.S. I haven't read all 68 pages of this thread - just the first one (updated).

 

Hey guys,

did anyone test the modified Bios for the R61i (7650)? If yes, does it work smoothly?

Greetz

Christian

 

Hey Mr. Middleton.

Thank you for your bios. It's wonderful...

Only improvement I could ask for would be slower fan speeds.

It makes no sense that level 1 of 7 is over 3000 RPM!

 

Just for information: The patch for the R61i (7650) was downloaded 104 times. Nobody wrote about any problems so far.

 

I really think it's possible to change fan speed levels in Embedded Controller's firmware. The only problem is that analysis of the firmware takes time and I don't know when I'll be able to find time for solving this issue.

Anyway, I'll inform you in this thread in case of a positive result.

 

But is this a good sign if nobody replies?

 

I think in this case - more than 100 downloads - the answer is probably yes. But don't want to put pressure on you: I just gave the information - you should make a decision by yourself.

 

That's very kind.

I *think* the previous Lenovo BIOS to the last has a higher fan speed than the current one. At the time when I flashed it the fan seemed quieter at least.

Final piece in the jigsaw for my X61 would be a slower, quieter fan. I undervolt and throttle it back as much as I can, but to keep it at a cool and comfortable temperature (40-55C), I have to kick the fan in and off every minute or so. Makes no real difference to fan time if I set the threshold at 40C or 55C.

A level 1 fan that was on, but inaudible would sort it completely.

I have thought about putting an inline resistor on the fan cable, but that's just a waste of battery power.

 

How to run the bios update from an usb flash drive? I don't want to swap the ctrl and fn and i would like to update my R61i 7650

thx

Christian

 

I always get an error code 1 and check failed while i am booting from CD. What's my fault?

 

Ok i got it work for the R61i (7650)

I am enjoying the result. Look the performance. Niiiiceee



Great Stuff

 

Please, describe in more details about the setpci command to enable ASPM.
Also, in Lenovo forum you said that this command can be set in grub boot loader. Could you give some hints about doing that?
Currently my T61 frankenpad has dual boot: windows 7 and ubuntu 11.04 (just install a few days ago). By enabling ASPM in Ubuntu the lowest power consumption went down from 15.6W to 11.9W (3.7W difference!!!). So I will be very happy if I can enable ASPM in Windows 7 (or XP).
Thank in advance!

 

Since I recently joined this forum I want to thanks middleton for the BIOS hack! I applied it in my X61s and T61 without any issues and not only I have now SATA-II speeds, but I could also mod the Wlan card of my X61s with a non genuine IBM 6200N as well!

 

You possibly haven't enabled "Flash over LAN" in your BIOS. Enable it and it should work.

 

Thanks for the bios, it works great.

I also tried the ctrl-fn-swap via #1.iso and #2.iso - and now i am not able to revert to the unswapped version.

I tried to install the unswapped bios with the iso and winuptp but the swap is still active. Is there a way i am missing?

 

You have two options:

1) Use "flash.bat" file. Place it in the unswapped BIOS folder and run as administrator. More details see here.

2) Replace "winuptp.exe" in the unswapped BIOS folder by "winuptp.exe" from the CTRL-FN swap folder. Then run "winuptp.exe" as usual.

Unfortunately at the moment you can't use ISO way: the special version needs to be created to revert to the original FN-CTRL placement.

 

hi middleton, that worked, thank you very much

 

OK, I was success in enabling ASPM in Windows 7 using the setpci command in grub boot loader (many thanks to Nando4 for the hint on setpci command in grub loader).
The power consumption of my nVidia T61 is decreased by 1.8-1.9W, from 13.5 to 11.6W.
Details will be posted later, in a few days, when I have time.

 

Congratulations. This is great news and will most certainly give better battery life. Can you list your grub.cfg file's setpci commands you used to do this?

If the bios directly alters those values after a resume then would need to change them back. That way to do that is to create a script to do the equivalent setpci commands using r-w everything's command mode and have that script run directly after a resume.

R-w everything is available here and runs under Windows.

 

this ^ is something I'll have to look at when I get some time

but I sorted out the wireless problems that I though could be caused from the BIOS. So let me clarify - there should be no wireless problems when you flash the hacked bios

turns out that service called "RPC server" needs to run so that the power manager could function correctly, as well as the wifi (thought first could be messing with the second). I have two services like that, and I disabled one due to security reasons (which I though of). Well that apparently gives problems with some wireless networks, as the WPA2-PSK wifi that I have at home works fine, yet some free networks give problems.

anyways, enjoy this wonderful BIOS

 

I posted details in this separate thread . That thread includes setpci commands in grub.cfg file as you requested.
Some of my observations:
- After hibernate / resume Windows, ASPM is still enabled.
- Shut down Windows and turn off computer clear all of PCI-e registry settings by setpci, i.e. ASPM is disabled when start Windows in normal mode.
- Restart Windows (without turn off the computer) still keep ASPM enabled.

My preliminary conclusion is that Windows read ASPM value in PCI-e registry only once - when it start. Therefore, to use R-W everything you need warm-restart Windows to take effect after altering the PCI-e registry (did not try yet, to say frankly).

 

Hi, with this BIOS can i change my CPU from T7300 to T9500? I've Lenovo 7665-A32.. how can I install it on WIN 7 x64?

 

In regards to the upgrade from a Merom CPU to a Penryn CPU, the modded bios "simply" disables the error that you would get on certain machines when doing said upgrade. Even if your machine can be upgraded without error (if your MB is of a later revision that supports the digital sensors on the penryn) the modded bios can be flashed safely. The safest way to flash your bios (and perhaps the only way when running a x64 Win) is to make a bootable media from the .iso
This and much more is described and explained throughout these pages

 

thank you very much for your help! this firmware works with all T61? users have had problems with using this? the bios I can install it as a normal firmware lenovo right? thank's

 

Please delete.

 

Please forgive me for not reading this whole thread, but is there anyway to get SATA II speeds on my t60? The first page just lists 61 series laptops.