Lenovo E530 has eeprom and 2 flash memories

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by bob7224, Nov 17, 2022.

  1. bob7224

    bob7224 MDL Novice

    Nov 15, 2022
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    Mods if this is in the wrong place please move it for me. I have been reading on this forum for over a week now. Just recently I joined as a member. I have been reading until my eyes bleed red, LOL! I really could use some help here. My Lenovo E530 has a whitelist and of course I want to remove it with a Mod to the bios. I want to use an ax 6e mini PCIe wireless nic. I have spent lots of time trying to learn the process. I ordered a ch341a programmer and it should be here next week some time. For now I am getting ready, collecting software, etc.....

    Background; I use Debian 11 for all my main internet stuff. Therefore I am going to be using flashrom to read and write the bios chip(s). I am going to take the original saved and verified bios-bin to my Win 10 machine and use uefi-tool and ida pro to mod the bin once I am convinced I know what to do. Then I will return and use flashrom to write the modded bin back and hopefully all will be well. I for sure will make multiple copies of the originals and do sha256sum checks all along the way to be sure. I have been reading in other forums as well trying to soak in as much knowledge as I can. I am not in a race here preferring to be methodical over bricking my machine. I should be able to write the proven working bin/bios file back if things get off course along the way.

    Part of my preparation was to gather multiple pictures of the Lenovo E530 motherboard so I know what I am up against here. I ran into something that has me nervous and will extend my learning curve. The older Lenovo machines with one chip have a very predictable and somewhat easy route to removing the whitelist. This Lenovo E530 creature has an eeprom and two flash memories next to it in the pictures. WTF?? I doubt I will get luck enough to simply mod the eeprom and be all good? I have watched several youtube videos about disassembling this laptop. I am not afraid of that part, but its pretty much a full breakdown to reach the chips on the board. I don't want to pull it into pieces until I feel like I can finish the mod same day and put it all back together. Of course I have multiple computers for support.

    I am in the "deep end" of the pool here. Can someone or several give me some direction or links where to discover how to conquer this?
     
  2. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
    Staff Member

    Nov 30, 2009
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