X220 Custom BIOS 1.40 Release

I have patched the latest X220/X220i/X220 tablet/X220i Tablet BIOS 1.40. Several nice enhancements have been added.
Modifications to 1.40 BIOS:
* Removed Wifi/WWAN Whitelist
* Enabled AES-NI instructions
* Re-introduced fast memory options in the BIOS that were removed in updates past 1.29 past DDR3-1333 (supports DDR3 1600 and 1866)
* Enabled hidden "advanced" menu
* Disabled package c-state lock at MSR 0xE2 for you that want to hackintosh, you will not need to patch AppleIntelCPUPowermanagement.kext or use NullCPUPowermanagement.kext

Instructions:
1. MAKE SURE YOU ARE ON OFFICIAL 1.40 BIOS FIRST! Download directly from Lenovo's website, flash, then boot back into Windows.
2. Close all applications in the background
3. Open command prompt with elevated privileges, navigate to this directory, and run flash.bat
4. Wait for flash process to complete, then restart computer
5. Enjoy! (BIOS was tested on my computer and it is working 100%)

Donations would be appreciated, as this is a risky, time consuming process (and will be used to modify the T420 in similar ways)

Download here!
http://www.mediafire.com/download/4exae4t9lhfhlxw/X220_1.40_MOD.zip

Pass to unlock zip is: raidriar@nbr

 

Nice work I might have to pull out my x220 again, just can't stand the 768 resolution.

 

If you don't like it, I can always use it for further development

 

Bios of me have twice sound "tit tit tit tit tit" and "tit tit tit tit tit"

 

Need to disable security chip. It makes those sounds because the internal check doesn't like the current checksum of the BIOS. It is way too complicated for me to try and recalculate the proper checksum, let alone find out where it supposed to go. I just disable the TPM chip.

 

Does this somehow invalidate the TPM chip, or can you just reactivate and use as normal after flashing the custom bios?

 

I believe you can use as normal, it just beeps to let user know that the BIOS checksum is invalid.

 

sorry, what about password?

 

I wonder if it is possible to make bios modification to allow installing ivy-bridge processors and ram @1.35v in sandybridge thinkpads ?

the same chipset used in the *20 series can run ivybridge, since some manufacturer offered bios update to allow it.

i created a thread about this a while back:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ad-xx20-willing-to-pay-for-a-solution.773981/

 

Isn't the cpu in the X220 soldered on?

 

Impossible, the X220 has soldered CPU.

 

Some people had successfully replaced BGA soldered processors, here is quad core on x230: http://forum.51nb.com/thread-1602437-2-1.html

also, i am more concerned about the T520/W520/T420 , since i think they all share the same chipset that is used in the X220, with almost similar BIOS.

and what about ram @1.35v, even if ivybridge is out of the question ?

when i install ram that support 1.35v in my T520, they get pretty hot, because they are forced to run at 1.5v.

 

If you have a BGA station and access to quad core BGA modules, then of course you can upgrade the CPU. That is out of the realm of 99.9% of the population though.

Sandy Bridge chipset does not support 1.35V, will automatically run 1.5V due to chipset forcing it to. 1.35V was not introduced until haswell chipset.

 

Sorry I seemed to have forgotten to put in the post! Pass is raidriar@nbr

 

Thanks for this BIOS.

 

Hi Raidriar,

Great job on the modified BIOS, and thanks for your hard work.

Is there any possibility of you updating to the latest 1.42 BIOS in the future?

 

I gave my X220 to my mother, so I don't have it at my disposal anymore. I don't feel comfortable releasing something I don't test personally, so no more BIOS mods for the X220 from me. Sorry!!