Unauthorized wireless lan board

[keeney123]

I have a Lenovo T-440p and I tried to replace the N-7260 wireless land board with a Intel AX210 Board and got a message as a unauthorized wireless Lan board. Is there anyway of making the AX210 work on this machine?
I have tried powering up with the N-7260 and then uninstalling its driver both in WI-FI and Bluetooth. Then while computer was in the OS I physically switch boards with power on. I was able to download the AX200 driver for both Bluetooth and WI-FI however, there was no Wi-Fi networks showing.

[mcplslg123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

For other wifi card to work, you need whitelisted bios dump for your model.

[keeney123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

So how does one do a whitelist dump? Is this the correct way to reprogram the whitelist or is there a easier way? https://notthebe.ee/Removing-the-Wi-...-T540-etc.html

Does someone sell the bios chips already reprogrammed so a person could take one chip out and replace it with another? If one put a socket in the for the bios chip one could solder the socket to the board and then put the chip in the socket. If the modified bios chip did not work then the original chip could be replace very simple.

[mcplslg123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/bi...hitelist/34212

[keeney123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

https://www.win-raid.com/t5658f36-BI...whitelist.html

That does not help me much. I am not a programmer. I understand Hex numeric system and Binary. I use to know Demorgan's theorems and understand the gate technology. I tried the UEFI Winsplash to downgrade the bios as I read that the 2.36 bios did not have a white list. My present version is 2.55. It can not be turned back with the command line routine. I found a whitelist patch for the bios on badcaps written as a .rom program but have no way of delivering it to the bios. The reset in the Bios keys will not work. So I am pretty much stumped. I have the Hxd Editor but I do not see how that can read the bios or write to it. Just to install a newer wi-if board with bluetooth they sure do not want these board manufacturers to make any money. You would think Lenovo would have a way that the operator could suspend the whitelist by the user until the board was installed and registered that enable the whitelist again.

[mcplslg123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

The winraid link given has a whitelist bios. You need to flash the bios chip with a spi bios programmer. there is no other way.

[keeney123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

The winraid link given has a whitelist bios. You need to flash the bios chip with a spi bios programmer. there is no other way.

Thank you for your help. I will have to think about the possible consequences of doing this.

[mcplslg123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

Thank you for your help. I will have to think about the possible consequences of doing this.

There is nothing to think about consequences. You take backup of your original chip and save it and then you are supposed to flash the whitelisted bios. If anything goes wrong, you can reflash your original saved bios dump.

[keeney123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

I have read enough to know people have experience different outcomes when they tamper with the system board bios. There are so many factors that one does not understand that the manufacturer may put in to prevent this. If anything does not go as expected one could have an unusable computer.
I have tried to force this board to work in this machine. I installed the board in while the operating system was running. Loaded the driver through legacy and Window is unable to recognize or install the driver in a Windows environment. I have done this when the bios was operating as a legacy bios and then I tried this with Unified Extensible Firmware Interface bios. The ax210 is backward compatible. I have use the driver directly from Intel and it says it is successfully installed but, does not show up. I have email the Lenovo main administrated office in Hong Kong an told them of this problem. The fact that they are preventing board manufacturers from selling their products. The reasoning I have read is they have to follow FCC guidelines as some countries have restrictions on the 5G. This is concern with the strength of the signal interfering with phone transmission. It sounds like legal hogwash. The solution I am using is to run the N-7260 board with it's Bluetooth uninstalled. I am using a USB Bluetooth dongle. The N-7260 does not have the 5G and therefore when one is also running it's Bluetooth at the same time I get interruption on both the Wi-Fi and on the Bluetooth. The way I am running it now there does not seem to be a issue.

[Mazorca]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

The cards are cheap, just order one on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/LENOVO-THIN...UAAOSwCRtga042

[keeney123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

Thank you for your suggestion. The one I have works. Intel does not support the n-7260 any more. That was one reason I wanted to upgrade the card. There is a list of problems with the n-7260 if one searches on the web. Also, buying a used card may be fine but, to me it is like buying a used car. Never completely know what little surprises one might have in their future. Such is life itself. I also have a Asus cm1630 desktop. I install ax200 intel Ubit card and had no problem with it's installation. However I did have problems with the Bluetooth staying connected. I find for me that the TP Bluetooth dongle works better than the other intel cards Bluetooth.

[Mazorca]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

Man I think I got bad luck from here. I just downgraded a Lenovo x250 (dead) to a Lenovo X240 (good mobo) and all the plugs and connectors fit. And when I booted up, usual date not set error...then the"unauthorized wireless lan board" error, system halted. It seems the cards are not the same. Now I have to do the whitelist programming...shoot! I have to eat my own words now.

[keeney123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

They get a person every time they turn around. I say if it plugs in it should work. Let me know how you make out with the programming the bios chip. It would be nice if there was a socket for the bios chip. Then one could pull the chip out of one board and put it in another. Of course then they would say all the parts were wrong. Good Luck!

[Mazorca]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

I will just order another card. I read and read, I am not sure about the bios mod, I don't think I will do it, there is no guide, just someone that will do the mod for you if you send the original bios bin. The X240 has the whitelist in the Bios, but not the X250. Within a week, if I haven't repaired the x250, then it is back to the x240 and the card should have arrived. By the way, in my 10 years or so of fixing busted laptops, I have replaced less than 5 wi-fi cards. The ones that were obviously bad were hot to the touch.

[keeney123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

I think your wise not to do the bios mode. I found a procedure to do mine. It is listed in the #3 post. It also have a video to go with it by the same person. Getting the correct board sounds like the safest way to go. Let me know when you have complete the repair. Perhaps someday Lenovo will upgrade the bios so one can upgrade the boards.

[Mazorca]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

Yes, I read everything on the procedure, even saw the video, but the modified file is available for your laptop, not the X240, I couldn't find any available, otherwise I would have done it. And I got the X250 motherboard running, so changing cards is moot. For some reason, it does not like 8GB Kingston brand Ram sticks, any other brand and same specs work good. Just like kids hating veggies. The whitelisting involves just changing a few bytes using a hex editor so it is not complicated. Problem is knowing where, which, and to what value. I'm gonna do more research.

[Mazorca]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

Look here and ask imranromi to help: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=76727

[keeney123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

Yes, I read everything on the procedure, even saw the video, but the modified file is available for your laptop, not the X240, I couldn't find any available, otherwise I would have done it. And I got the X250 motherboard running, so changing cards is moot. For some reason, it does not like 8GB Kingston brand Ram sticks, any other brand and same specs work good. Just like kids hating veggies. The whitelisting involves just changing a few bytes using a hex editor so it is not complicated. Problem is knowing where, which, and to what value. I'm gonna do more research.

I talk to one person who use to program these bios chips. He told me that certain bios chips have a burn leg. Meaning that if a programmer is applied directly to the chip one of the legs will burn out when one tries to program the chip. He was saying something about chips with rs in their name.
I remember when a Texas Smart Watch came out and they had a sequence of 64 individual bits as a code before one could program the chip. That was way back in 1986 you can imagine what type of security they can put in the bios chip.
I just think the manufacturer needs to upgrade these bios so they can except these boards. I am sure companies like Intel want to sell wi-fi upgrade chips. Seems they need to put a little pressure on computer manufacturers if they want to sell more chips then what new computers are getting.
If you are a gambler then trying the bios dump and whitelist correction is worth a try. For me the gamble is too expensive because I have a working unit and have found that using a Bluetooth dongle cures the problem that the n-7260 has with trying to operate both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the 2.4GHz channel. In my computer it uses the PCI bus to run the wi-fi. If I had used the PCIe bus which is a spare and used for WAN network it most likely would of worked. In my hardware book it claims to have the same connector for each board however that is not true. The Wan connector has a mini PCIe connector. The PCIe has universal specifications the PCI does not. Only thing one has to know is what number the PCIe is. A PCIe 16 board will only run on a PCie 16 connections. However, the PCIe 16 is backward compatible to a PCIe1.
With all that said I upgrade a ASUS Desktop with a Ubit PCie board with a AX200 Wi Fi chip on it and still had problems with the Bluetooth losing connection. With the TP Bluetooth Dongle in the Lenovo T-440p I do not have that kind of problem. I had lost connection only one time and it was easy to reconnect by going to settings in Windows then devices and then to the device and select connect. With the Asus Desktop even though I had the upgraded Intel Wi-Fi chip the connection to Bluetooth drop out from time to time and was nearly impossible to connect.
Just a few thoughts. Good to hear You got the X250 running what was its problem?

[keeney123]

Re: Unauthorized wireless lan board

Correction on this post: My Lenovo t440p does not have a mini PCIe connector for the WAN it is a M2.0 The hardware manual does not distinguish between different types of M2.0 connector keys. My understanding of the M2.0 connector used for the WiFi card is for local area network and it is keyed A and E. I have read that this connector does not fully support the PCIe protocols because not all the data lines are in place with this connector. Lenovo only specifies certain WiFi cards that will work. The other M2.0 connector for the WAN says it is upgradeable on the Lenovo site. I have read that is is a M2.0 type B key. Whether a WiFi card with a M2.0 key B connector card will work in this position I am not sure as I have not tried this.

I talk to one person who use to program these bios chips. He told me that certain bios chips have a burn leg. Meaning that if a programmer is applied directly to the chip one of the legs will burn out when one tries to program the chip. He was saying something about chips with rs in their name.
I remember when a Texas Smart Watch came out and they had a sequence of 64 individual bits as a code before one could program the chip. That was way back in 1986 you can imagine what type of security they can put in the bios chip.
I just think the manufacturer needs to upgrade these bios so they can except these boards. I am sure companies like Intel want to sell wi-fi upgrade chips. Seems they need to put a little pressure on computer manufacturers if they want to sell more chips then what new computers are getting.
If you are a gambler then trying the bios dump and whitelist correction is worth a try. For me the gamble is too expensive because I have a working unit and have found that using a Bluetooth dongle cures the problem that the n-7260 has with trying to operate both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the 2.4GHz channel. In my computer it uses the PCI bus to run the wi-fi. If I had used the PCIe bus which is a spare and used for WAN network it most likely would of worked. In my hardware book it claims to have the same connector for each board however that is not true. The Wan connector has a mini PCIe connector. The PCIe has universal specifications the PCI does not. Only thing one has to know is what number the PCIe is. A PCIe 16 board will only run on a PCie 16 connections. However, the PCIe 16 is backward compatible to a PCIe1.
With all that said I upgrade a ASUS Desktop with a Ubit PCie board with a AX200 Wi Fi chip on it and still had problems with the Bluetooth losing connection. With the TP Bluetooth Dongle in the Lenovo T-440p I do not have that kind of problem. I had lost connection only one time and it was easy to reconnect by going to settings in Windows then devices and then to the device and select connect. With the Asus Desktop even though I had the upgraded Intel Wi-Fi chip the connection to Bluetooth drop out from time to time and was nearly impossible to connect.
Just a few thoughts. Good to hear You got the X250 running what was its problem?