W530 upgrade wifi card and remove BIOS whitelist

[T520]

Hello Forum,

This is my first post. Has anyone tried removing the bios whitelist with W530 and succeed. I want to have better internet speed and Bluetooth. The current Bluetooth connection is very weak and keep cutting off. And the internet is not very fast.

Is there a guide that shows how to remove the bios whitelist for W530. Also this is my main laptop, so I am scared of bricking it.

Thank you!

[SAIYAN48]

Follow this: https://github.com/n4ru/1vyrain

[mikemex]

I even patched the EC to add earlier battery support (xX10/xX20) and the classic keyboard. That's more difficult but there is a step by step guide. You use Linux for that.

[heilong]

What the other guys said. It seemed a bit tricky, but I could do it. Having some linux sys admin experience helped
I did the EC reflash and the classic keyboard mod as well.
I use an AX210 WLAN/BT card (mPCIe version from AliExpress), both WiFi and BT are working well with Intel AX210 drivers.

[limbrooke]

Not to necro-bump but I recently discovered the wireless networking capability of the default Intel 6205 Advanced N adapter as not sufficient enough in areas without wired ethernet.

Managed to downgrade from 2.59 normal BIOS and running on 2.58 got the ivyrain installed showing G5ETB6WW (2.76 ) active successfully. Given this was primarily to remove the whitelist feature for WIFI access, I'll need to find a suitable upgrade for the 1/2 height PCI-e, likely an Intel 7260HMW.

[heilong]

Managed to downgrade from 2.59 normal BIOS and running on 2.58 got the ivyrain installed showing G5ETB6WW (2.76 ) active successfully. Given this was primarily to remove the whitelist feature for WIFI access, I'll need to find a suitable upgrade for the 1/2 height PCI-e, likely an Intel 7260HMW.

Good for you. FYI 7260 comes in two versions - 802.11n and the more recent ac. But why bother with the rather old 7260, when you can get the most recent thing? AX210 or AX200 is available in mPCIe - not officially from Intel, but by some Chinese manufacturer. You can buy them on AliExpress, for example.

[my03]

Managed to downgrade from 2.59 normal BIOS and running on 2.58 got the ivyrain installed showing G5ETB6WW (2.76 ) active successfully. Given this was primarily to remove the whitelist feature for WIFI access, I'll need to find a suitable upgrade for the 1/2 height PCI-e, likely an Intel 7260HMW.

Good for you. FYI 7260 comes in two versions - 802.11n and the more recent ac. But why bother with the rather old 7260, when you can get the most recent thing? AX210 or AX200 is available in mPCIe - not officially from Intel, but by some Chinese manufacturer. You can buy them on AliExpress, for example.

Yes and i did exactly this yesterday (ax210 derivative). The result: almost 3x faster (in my case hitting 640mbit/sec where i used to have 220). Well worth it

[heilong]

Good to hear that. Also, it supports latest Bluetooth, which is great for modern bluetooth speakers/headphone or e.g. BLE-MIDI.

[limbrooke]

Managed to downgrade from 2.59 normal BIOS and running on 2.58 got the ivyrain installed showing G5ETB6WW (2.76 ) active successfully. Given this was primarily to remove the whitelist feature for WIFI access, I'll need to find a suitable upgrade for the 1/2 height PCI-e, likely an Intel 7260HMW.

Good for you. FYI 7260 comes in two versions - 802.11n and the more recent ac. But why bother with the rather old 7260, when you can get the most recent thing? AX210 or AX200 is available in mPCIe - not officially from Intel, but by some Chinese manufacturer. You can buy them on AliExpress, for example.

AX210 would work? I think I might be getting one anyway for my 'new' T14 Gen 2 20XK. I don't like how the MT7921 interacts with the 5ghz band on my home network. Thanks for the info!

[axur-delmeria]

AX210 would work? I think I might be getting one anyway for my 'new' T14 Gen 2 20XK. I don't like how the MT7921 interacts with the 5ghz band on my home network. Thanks for the info!

As long as it doesn't have a BIOS whitelist, it will work. I upgraded a client's Yoga 530 from a crappy Realtek WiFi card to an AX210 and it got a threefold increase in download speed.

[limbrooke]

AX210 would work? I think I might be getting one anyway for my 'new' T14 Gen 2 20XK. I don't like how the MT7921 interacts with the 5ghz band on my home network. Thanks for the info!

As long as it doesn't have a BIOS whitelist, it will work. I upgraded a client's Yoga 530 from a crappy Realtek WiFi card to an AX210 and it got a threefold increase in download speed.

The issue is, it does have a whitelist and no bypass that I've seen. Seems there are two AX200 units that could work.

02HK704 & 02HK705. I will need to figure out the difference between them...

[axur-delmeria]

The issue is, it does have a whitelist and no bypass that I've seen. Seems there are two AX200 units that could work.

02HK704 & 02HK705. I will need to figure out the difference between them...

If they're both AX200's, then the difference is the company that Lenovo sources it from-- there's usually 2 or more suppliers.

[RealBlackStuff]

You can remove the W530 whitelist via IVprep and 1vyrain, which you can find here and also on the Forum here.

[heilong]

Both of the FRUs you mentioned are M.2 form factor cards that will require an adapter and be more painful to install than if you would get a mPCIe version from AliExpress.
Even if you are able to install these Lenovo FRUs, I am sure they will NOT pass the BIOS whitelist check. The whitelist was determined when W530 was released, based on Lenovo testing this laptop model with all the network cards that they offered, measuring that the laptop+network card combination's radio emissions satisfy FCC requirements and whatnot. There's a very slight chance that some later BIOS update added newer network cards to the whitelist (requiring Lenovo to test these new combinations), but this is time and money and I don't think Lenovo would bother doing that, not for a long period after the laptop was released. W530 is from 2012. AX200 is from 2019, and officially only came in M.2 form factor (W530 doesn't have such a slot). It's most certainly NOT in the W530's whitelist.
If you want a newer card, you have to unlock (de-whitelist) your BIOS, all the info on how to do it is in this thread. If you're not sure how to do it, find someone else who will do it for you.

[RealBlackStuff]

Once the whitelist is gone, look for a MPE-AX3000H (wifi-6) or MPE-AXE3000H (wifi-6e) card, preferably made by Fenvi.
They are a drop-in for W530.

[ac427]

Once the whitelist is gone, look for a MPE-AX3000H (wifi-6) or MPE-AXE3000H (wifi-6e) card, preferably made by Fenvi.
They are a drop-in for W530.

Do those two WiFi cards still require whitelisting?

Are they a better solution than the Intel AX210 card?

[RealBlackStuff]

Yes.
AX200/AX210 do not fit in that oldie.

[ac427]

Yes.
AX200/AX210 do not fit in that oldie.

Thanks so the AX210 won't fit anywhere in the W530.

Does fitting the Intel MPE-AXE3000H Network Card mean i can still fit an mSATA SSD?

Sorry for being thick.

[odamiolur]

Yes.
AX200/AX210 do not fit in that oldie.

Thanks so the AX210 won't fit anywhere in the W530.

Does fitting the Intel MPE-AXE3000H Network Card mean i can still fit an mSATA SSD?

Sorry for being thick.

Yes you can fit half sized MPE-AXE3000H Network card and you can still use WWAN slot for mSATA SSD.