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

What AHCI driver are you using? My X61 is using Middleton's BIOS with no issue whatsoever.

Make sure you are also using the Intel RST driver. I think the last version that would work on the T61/X61 chipset was version 10.1.

 

Looks like Middleton isn't checking on this thread anymore..

 

Hi Middleton,

I hope you are still around, we appreciate all your work on this!

I was wondering if its possible to update the Southbridge ROM or OROM for the ICH8 so that we can have support for newer Intel RST/AHCI drivers?

I have a T61P that I would like to add update OROM to the latest that it might support.

I wonder if any of these will work?

AHCI/RAID ROM modules for BIOS modding - already extracted - BIOS/BIOS-Modding - Win-Lite Forum

Here is how they are modding motherboards currently to do it.

BIOS-Modding: How to update PCI ROM modules of an AMI/Phoenix/Award BIOS - BIOS/BIOS-Modding - Win-Lite Forum

Hope all is well! Thanks for the great work!

Cheers! :hi2:

 

Please excuse my limited computer knowledge:

I'm trying to flash the Middleton BIOS on my X61S with Windows 7 64 bit:

I've followed the instructions for flashing with an USB stick using alternative method 4 here:
BIOS Upgrade/X Series - ThinkWiki

My hang up is that the image files have names like "BIOS update" with a space in the name.
In the HP Boot DOS utility the directory names are shown with a tilde. Not sure how to change directory to one with a tilde in it. Would renaming the directories with names without spaces cause any problems?

Thanks

 

Looking for help. Just got a refurb T61 as a Xmas gift for my wife and I flashed to the official 2.30 bios before finding Middleton's 2.29 mod. Reverting to 2.29 using the bootable CD fails with the following message

Checking for files and environment ...
Check failed. Return code = 1
!!! Flash Over LAN is disabled on this client !!!

Anyone experienced the same problem when reverting back. Has Lenovo prevented roll-back with 2.30? I have Windows 7 64 bit is installed and the Read Me doesn't recommend flashing from the OS.

Appreciate any suggestions.


Many thanks,
Art

 

Duh, needed to enable Flash Over LAN setting in bios first (Configure/Network/). Everything's fine.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

That would be AWESOME! I hope middleton will see this and update it using the 2.30 BIOS.

It's unfortunate that we can't use the newest version of Intel's RST drivers.

 

have you tried it ?

.. I'm using RST drivers and those work fine, version 9.6.0.1014 from 3/3/2010. I'm not sure if there's new version that requires special support of some sort though.

 

Yes, I have. Have you tried to install RST 10.5 or higher? It doesn't work since they dropped ICH8 support and 10.2 was the last version to have support for it.

Unless you hack the INF after extracting the the installer files first...

 

so that's not BIOS problem if Intel has dropped support for the driver for ICH8 ... nothing can be further improved here.

 

Hey, I've ThinkPad T61 15,4 widescreen, model no 6464. I want unlock Sata II.
Which bios is for me? Thanks fon answer.

 

I believe all T61 (14.1" and 15.4") models share the same BIOS file so you could use the modified 2.29 file found here.

 

ok, it works thank u!

 

Hi,

does this Bios woks with The T61 - 7665?

I don find any information about my model 7665.

I will be very glad if anybody is able to inform me about this.

Thank you.

Greetings
Joe

 

Hello,
I have a Lenovo T61p - type 6458 - B53.

Could you please share me a link with the SATA-2 unlocked functionality BIOS for my model.
I want to buy a sata-2 ssd A-DATA S511 120GB instead of using my old 100GB 7200rpm HDD, hoping to improve performance.

Thank you in advance,
Greetings
Kolio.

 

^ look at page 8 of this thread

 

Hello All,

I see there is an updated bios at lenovo website and was wondering if this modified bios is going to be updated as well? The new bios is 2.30-1.0 released 2 april 2012. I don't know if its a major release or not but was just wondering?? Just to let all of you know, I have been using this modified bios from Middleton(if I remember correctly) for a long time now (1 to 2 years) and haven't had a stitch of trouble at all Thanks for your hard work Middleton, I and others appreciate it immensely!!

Edit: Please disregard. I have found some posts about the new bios a dozen pages back or so. Sorry, it's been awhile since I have visited Lenovo website and this website. I guess it must not be an important bios update?? Thanks again.


Cheers,

Singtoh

 

Hello everybody,

I have a T61 (8889-ACG model) with 14.1" display (normal screen) and BIOS version 2.30, and I just want to know what version of hacked BIOS should I use for flashing after I will do the downgrade to official 2.29 BIOS from Lenovo.

Could you help me please? Thank you very much!

 

Hi all,
I'd like to share my successful upgrade experience
I'm happy owner of Lenovo Thinkpad R61i (7650-A6G), bought back in 2008 in UK. This lappy serves me for all those years without a single failure, and battery still holds for 1.5-2 hrs, so I decided to upgrade it.
After investigation of many forums and sites I bought cheap Intel T7500 CPU (C2D 2.2GHz, 4M cache, 15$ on ebay inc. delivery), 4Gb of DDR2 RAM (2x2, 35$) and Intel 330 SSD drive (for SATA3, but for now it'll work on SATA2).
I didn't want to spend too much for pretty old machine, apart of that I need laptop for usual everyday work, so this config will be ok for me for couple more years.
Reflashing the BIOS from Win 7 32 bit was very easy and after restart I've changed all internal parts to new ones. Re-installing of win7 64-bit from USB stick took no more than 10 min . Wooow.
Checking the SSD shows that it's really works on SATA2 speed - great! But what surprised me most, is CPU-Z that shows real CPU speed at 2.4 GHz. The reason is that motherboard has blocked multiplier of 12x, while T7500 is designed for 11X, but 200*12=2400 so it really works as [email protected]:
.
Great. The temperature is under 60C for loaded CPU.
Also, I decided not to install 8Gb of RAM (despite it's supported by motherboard) as it's very rare and expensive even now. 4Gb SoDIMM 667Mhz DDR2 module costs ~50$, which I think is too much for that type of RAM.
As result, I've got fast lappy with SSD that could be installed to other machine later with faster SATA3 interface. Overall impression from work is smth like that:


Thanks to Middleton for his work and support!
I appreciate that and would like to donate to PayPal - does anyone know his PP details?

 

I was able to downgrade my BIOS from 2.30 official to 2.29 (by Middleton) by using a bootable CD.

Thank you very much Middleton for your work!

 

you did not downgrade, you upgraded ... by quite a lot indeed

 

Hi, and thanks for all the great information!

I have tried in vain to update the bios of my T61. I run Windows 7 (64 bit) and must load via either CD rom or USB. I downloaded the appropriate Middleton BIOS the file is 7luj27uci.iso (6,586,368 size) and burned to a CD. Attempted to boot from CD and it tells me it's not a bootable disk.

I tried booting with the iso file and even used winrar (?) to extract the file still no joy. Used the HP program to format Fat 32 a USB drive to get a dos c prompt and still no joy.

I've read this thread over and over again and still after several attempts cannot get the BIOS to flash based on this file.

I've flashed other systems before- but can't seem to get this to work.

 

I've got a SATA II hard drive, will I benefit from this modded BIOS or will there really be no speed difference between SATA and SATA II for a 7200RPM hard drive?

 

For a normal spindle based hard drive you probably won't notice much difference as rarely they would saturate the SATA bandwidth compared to a SSD. But that doesn't mean you should look over the modded BIOS, there are other benefits such as the ability to upgrade to Penryn processors for the earlier Merom type boards and lifting the whitelist restriction to allow you to use any wireless card you choose.

 

My T61 already came with a Penryn processor (Core 2 Duo T9300), but thanks for the info. That's good to know. I'll have to think about it...

 

Happy Ending I was able to flash my T61 to the Middleton BIOS by configuring a USD boot and transferring the extracted ISO files onto it. Forgot my dos commands, figured it out and rans flash2.exe /u once in the proper directory. Booted up fine.

The flash does take a few minutes , so no matter how you want to hit the "enter" button don't do it ! You will get a long been and a flash succesful indication on the screen.

Now another newbie question, How can I determine whether my t61 is running sata 2 and not still at sata 1 ? What is a good program to determine my SSD's transfer rates ?

 

Use CrystalDiskInfo to show what SATA speeds the drive is operating in. SATA/150 = SATA 1, SATA/300 = SATA 2.

 

So here are the result of adding a 120GB Intel 330 SSD to my 5 year old Thinkpad T61 765901U with 3 GB of ram and the Middleton Bios:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 251.056 MB/s
Sequential Write : 146.313 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 241.391 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 146.410 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 20.198 MB/s [ 4931.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 39.128 MB/s [ 9552.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 116.897 MB/s [ 28539.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 86.589 MB/s [ 21140.0 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [C: 25.8% (28.8/111.7 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2013/01/21 1:19:01
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

How do the above specs look? Seats of the pants, it runs great.

Running W7 64 bit the laptop is noticeably snappier in running normal application and office software. I just bought one of my kids a new I5 based Asus laptop spec'd with 6 gb ram, a 750 GB 5200rpm drive also running W7. I must say my old warhorse T61 subjectively blows the new laptop away ( except in the graphics department).
Fairly pleased to get my old T61 running and having it perform so well Initially I was doubtful of the value of adding an SSD to so old a laptop, but it really does make a big difference, Now thinking of adding 8 GB of ram.

 

make sure the partition on your SSD is aligned

 

Hello - I'm new at this place, so the questions may be a little dizzy for some of You, but - I need to know that.

1. Does this upgrade is enabled to do into windows xp pro 32bit? I mean - is it possible to upgrade bios via XP Pro?
2. I have typical hdd drive (sata, 5200rpm, 80gigs) - is this one hdd will be still working as earlier - before update - with
windows xp on it?
3. After update - is it possible to easy change standard hdd into ssd intel disk (520 series, 60 gigs) - or there is a need of
programing some drivers/bios?
4. After update - with newer ssd drive - is it still possible to instal xp pro 32b on intel ssd drive?

Tnx for answers and patience :hi2:

 

Not recommended. Create a boot CD and update the BIOS via the boot CD.

Yes this shoudl work as before.

Yes you can replace the hdd with an ssd. Nothing special about it.

Yes it's still possible.

 

Tnx StMartin!

That's all I need to know at the moment - probably You just sawed my device and time lost on restoring datas

And sorry - my language is a "little" broken - but I'm Polish, so I don't use english so often

 

Hi everyone

I'm new is this crzy biios world.

I have a Lenovo thinkpad x61 12.1 , anyone could explain me how to uncap the sata 2?

I'll be eternally gratefull.

 

is this the correct bios updated? That's all i have try and done.

Many thanks.

Anyone could say me something about, i'll be gratefull.

Nice day.

ThX

 

Hi everyone,

I am going to upgrade my t7100 to t8300 or t9300 using Merom motherboard and Middletown Bios. I know that this bios hack thermal sensor error, but will this processor be cooled in proper way after that, knowing that readings from sensor were not correct.
What is your experience in that matter. I have board with Nvidia chipset, produced in late 2007, and would not like to fry it with new processor.

Thanks for reply!
t61fan

 

The Penryn processors should be fine with the original heatsink setup, in fact you probably should worry less about it as the Penryn processors runs much cooler than their Merom counterpart anyway. The Penryn processors thermal sensors are read digitally rather than analogue on the Merom chips (hence you get the thermal sensor error) but the temperatures readings will still be fine. I upgraded from a T7100 to a T9300 in my T61 using Middleton's BIOS and have been running it for about 2 years now, I have yet to encounter any heat issues myself.

 

Hearst, thank you for reply.
I decided to upgrade to T8300.

Regards
t61fan

 

I am trying to flash my T61 7661-12U with Middleton's Bios.It currently has the Ibm 2.29 Bios on it. I have Win7 64bit on it. I burned Middleton's iso image to a cd. When I boot from the cd it loads the ide cd-rom driver and the mscdex file. It then says checking for files an environment ... Check failed. Return code = ! . Please help

 

toggle boot from lan on/off in the bios. I'd probably just burn the iso again with different software or disc also just to take out some factors. imgburn is free and has worked well for me.

 

Thankhyou so very much jedisurfer1. That solved my problem. Everything is working fine. Bill

 

glad it worked, now put an ssd or ssd hybrid and the t61 will keep you happy for long time. Mine is almost as fast as my i5 laptops.

 

I had the same error number (although with a different error message) on my wife's R61 8932-CTO when attempting to flash the BIOS from a bootable CD-ROM. Setting all the security settings in the BIOS to "disabled" as recommended above resolved the problem. Thanks for sharing your resolution.

 

I'm confused. I wanted to check if I have the newest version of middleton's bios on my R61 15.4" so I run dmidecode command on linux, but here's the output:

Code:

BIOS Information
        Vendor: LENOVO
        Version: 7KETC9WW (2.29 )
        Release Date: 04/07/2010
        Address: 0xE0000
        Runtime Size: 128 kB
        ROM Size: 2048 kB
        Characteristics:
                PCI is supported
                PC Card (PCMCIA) is supported
                PNP is supported
                BIOS is upgradeable
                BIOS shadowing is allowed
                ESCD support is available
                Boot from CD is supported
                Selectable boot is supported
                BIOS ROM is socketed
                EDD is supported
                ACPI is supported
                USB legacy is supported
                BIOS boot specification is supported
                Targeted content distribution is supported
        BIOS Revision: 2.41
        Firmware Revision: 1.8

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
        Manufacturer: LENOVO
        Product Name: 8918DEG
        Version: ThinkPad R61
        Wake-up Type: Power Switch
        SKU Number: Not Specified
        Family: ThinkPad R61

Bios version is listed as 2.29, while in the table here the highest R61 bios version is supposed to be 2.24.

Any ideas?

 

i read nearly every page, i am a linux (ubuntu) user and wish to say thanks to Mr M and xstonex et al.

my hd died yesterday with a block 0 error and had to make a choice, a new box, or a new drive if so sata or ssd. It's 6 yrs old, i am a programmer not a gamer, i don't want to waste money on an ageing box.

Inspired by this thread i got me a sandisk 120GB SSD for £60, it went straight in and now boots in 9.5 secs without the flash, i was well happy but do i risk bricking it with this bios to get that extra speed.

The bios worked first time, the boot wasn't any faster but i did a disk utility benchmark which showed around a 10% increase afterwards so not a huge increase but may prove itself good when i start shifting large files and i get my lamp stack and drupal sites running again.

I used Impactors dmidecode > bios.txt before and after the flash upgrade (will post them for you Impactor if it helps)

The one thing i had hoped for was to stop the annoying "fan error" message i get when i boot up and have to press escape to continue or it shuts down, but it didn't cure that, is there something i have to change somewhere? It's not a big issue as it only happens when i power on and i am right next to the esc key anyways.

@Impactor the only difference in the dmidecode output was this
before:

Version: 7LETC5WW (2.25 )
Release Date: 11/14/2008

after:

Version: 7LETC9WW (2.29 )
Release Date: 03/18/2011

before:
BIOS Revision: 2.37
after:
BIOS Revision: 2.41

again thanks to all.

 

Take the keyboard off and blow out the fan. Its probably getting filled up with dust. Does it have heat issues after running for a while?

 

Hello everyone, I am new here. What has brought me here was the error 1802 on a T61 7661 AD1 I had just purchased. I was trying to upgrade the (very slow) wireless card to a newer Intel 5300 Ultimate N when I discovered "WhiteList." I downloaded the SLIC21 v2.29-1.08 from this thread. The BIOS version that is on the laptop currently is 7luj28uc, which is the current file from the Lenovo site. I was just wondering how I should go about installing the modded bios? Should I make a backup (using which program)? Kind of new to this and definitely don't want to brick a new laptop....my wife will kill me, LoL. Thanks guys.

I should also mention that I am using Win7 x64 (If that makes a difference).

 

Just wanted to confirm that I did get SLIC21 2.29 successfully installed on my T61 7661 AD1 with WIN7 x64! Also, the Intel 5300 Ultimate N card is working great (No more whitelist). Thank you to everyone involved for all your hard work creating this BIOS update. Now I can connect up to 300Mbps, instead of the 54mbps I was getting from the old wireless adapter.

 

I would like to share my unsuccessful experience about flashing middleton's bios on my T61 8892-79G
So i downloaded T61 bios version 2.29, burned ISO on cd-rw and made sure that i have no password for bios setup.
First time when i boot from cd, bios upgrade didnt start and error 99 (179) came out, saying something about bitlocker.
I searched this forum and figured out, that error 99(179) happens with some users, and they fixed it by disabling security chip in bios setup.
So than i disabled security chip in bios setup, saved settings and bootup again.
Flashing process started and i had to wait few minutes, after it show me "done" and goes reboot automatically, so i never pressed any button or disconnected any power supply.
After reboot my TP blinked green capslock and numlock leds and stopped with no picture on lcd.
I try to plug/unplug the battery, PSU,open and unplug bios battery - no luck.
Now my tp is a brick.
Hopefully i will get it back to life by replacing of bios flash memory chip, now i'm searching for solution, and i'll need a lot of tools and a lot of luck.

 

I saw the following two bios on your link:

X61, X61s 2.22-1.03
X61/X61s SXGA+ 2.22-1.03

I installed the 2nd (SXGA+) one on my X61 whereas i was supposed to install the 1st one to get the Ctrl Fn swap option.
I restarted the system but i didn't get the Ctrl Fn swap option in Config. Then i realised that i have installed the incorrect version of bios.

Now when i try to install the correct bios (1st one), it says "An update is not necessary at this time. The process has been canceled."

I have then tried to install the original bios from lenovo website but i am getting the same message.

Could you please advise if it is possible to go back to original bios version or the 1st one?

Please help me..

 

I managed to revert back to original bios and then :


I flashed the bios with 2.22 but there is no swap option available in the bios menu. I tried both #1 iso and #2 iso but no luck.

First i tried with #1 iso but didn't get the swap option in bios menu. Then reverted back to original bios and then flashed it again with #2 iso but again didn't get the swap option?

I really need the Ctrl Fn swap option

Please can anyone help me here?