Bloggings

1vyrain - unlock your Thinkpad T430

01-09-2023

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+The Thinkpad 430 comes with an older wifi card that doesn't support 802.11ac. My machine also didn't come with a Bluetooth card. +

+In order to fit a replacement card such as the AC 7260, the BIOS must be altered as by default Lenovo only allows you to install hardware they have whitelisted, and as the T430 dates a bit this list is defunct. +

+Thankfully, 1vyrain has created a BIOS that adds an advanced tab in th BIOS and wipes the whitelist, and allows you to install alternative hardware and deactivate Intel ME among other things. +

+I followed the following steps: +

1

+For this you'll need to be in Windows 64 bit +

+First downgrade the BIOS to one that is hackable, for the T430 this is version 2.64 +

+You can either download and install the BIOS from the Official Lenovo page +

+or use 1vprep: +

+https://github.com/n4ru/IVprep +

+Click "code"> Download ZIP. Unzip the package and click "downgrade.bat" +

+The system will reboot and install the BIOS +

2

+Boot into the BIOS and make sure Secure boot is disabled, and startup set to Both, UEFI first. +

+Boot back into Windows +

+Download the 1vyrain.iso from https://github.com/n4ru/1vyrain +

+Currently available from
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yusq98ja6NmI4G4txKVueFqY_ZEwaZvO +

+Burn the iso to a USB drive using Rufus https://rufus.ie (select DD mode) +

+Reboot from the USB drive and follow the instructions. The computer will go into sleep mode, just hit the power button to get back into 1vyrain +

+Note: I had to remove the SATA drive where windows was installed to be able to select the USB drive to boot from. +

+The computer will reboot, it might recycle a few times. It might also display a CRC error, you can ignore this and reboot. +

+Boot into the BIOS again, you should now see a new tab "Advanced". In this tab you can disable Intel ME. +

+You are all set! +