Serial EEPROM Hacking? (Defeating BIOS Whitelists)

Device IDs for most devices, especially PCI-based devices (vs AGP, for example), are part of the PCI interface on one of the chips (whichever one is attached to the PCI bus). That's not an EEPROM, it's more like a ROM.

I have an Intel Pro/Wireless 2200bg in my 8600. There is no hack for changing the ID of the card. Compaqowned.

 

anyone here buy a 2200bg oem and find it funny that its "illegal" or bad for the end user to install it, according to a paper insert in the box?

 

It does make sense for the card to have an EEPROM to store the MAC address, but probably not the device ID. I'll bet the PCI ID is set once (PROM on chip) since it never has to change.

I looked at the HP driver and the 2200BG cards they sell use the HP (xxxx103C) minor device ID instead of the Intel minor device ID (xxxx8086). But the main device ID is similar: 8086:4220/8086:4223 on the HP 2200BG vs 8086:4220 on my Intel 2200BG.

You are not going to find a flash utility to change it. The hacks that others have used on the IBM Thinkpads to get around the same problem involve CMOS bit hacking and BIOS editing.

http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mjg59/thinkpad/wireless.html

You shouldn't use the CMOS hack because it probably won't work on your HP since that bit/byte is probably used for something else (or maybe unused).

 

I've used CBROM to enable HighPoint RAID on a non-RAID motherboard. That's similar to what you're trying to do by replacing a module.

See this page for tools and instructions for exactly what you're trying to do: http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html

 

BTW the EEPROM thing will work, and the 2200BG should have thie following ID to work in HP laptops. (Taken from their driver for ze2000z anyway)

%NIC_MPCI3B_BG% = Install_HPQMPCI3B_MOW_BG_XP, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4220&SUBSYS_27618086 ; HPQ 2200 mPCI 3B - MoW
%NIC_MPCI3B_BG% = Install_HPQMPCI3B_BG_XP, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4220&SUBSYS_27628086 ; HPQ 2200 mPCI 3B - RoW

%NIC_MPCI3B_BG% = Install_HPQMPCI3B_MOW_BG_XP, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4220&SUBSYS_12F5103C ; HPQ 2200 mPCI 3B - MoW Subven 103c
%NIC_MPCI3B_BG% = Install_HPQMPCI3B_BG_XP, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4220&SUBSYS_12F6103C ; HPQ 2200 mPCI 3B - RoW Subven 103c


Depends, the way to do this in Linux is clearly outlined, but there is another new and interesting problem. HP notebooks that don't ship with wireless leave the button and switch etc off the LED daughter board. Therefore the wireless is always turned off. This results in it being impossible to flash the eeprom, you only read 00x0 and that is it. Supposedly you can make it work and I tried by soldering across some contacts on the daughter board, but as of yet I have not made it work. Sorry to ressurect this old thread, but this is something we should figure out.

In addition, it seems that the bios hack for HP has been figured out.

http://www.richud.com/HP-Pavilion-104-Bios-Fix/ <---there

 

bump

you guys not figure this out yet? I've just hacked an atheros card into my dv6000 bios, and did it with a freaking lot of reading from the previous link. I can provide some info for others that are having trouble getting it to work.

2501@cinci.rr.com

I rarely every check this forum, so just email me if you need help.


use the pheonix bios editor, and winhex. and read a good amount from the last link. F37D just came out for dv6000's, so if anyone is running one, I can patch it and send it to you.

 

anyone have any idea how to hack the hp 6735b bios

the bios revision is F.11 (14 Sep 2009) grab them here http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechS...Item=ob-76142-1

the old g card

Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4315&SUBSYS_137C103C&REV_01
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4315&SUBSYS_137C103C
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4315&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4315&CC_0280


the new dual band n card

intel wifi link 5100 agn
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4237&SUBSYS_12118086&REV_00
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4237&SUBSYS_12118086
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4237&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4237&CC_0280

i didn't think it would be much of a problem but i was wrong and laptop makers are insane with not making laptops easy to upgrad... everthing on a laptop should be upgradeable or at least video, mem, cpu, wif, and audio

 

Yet another bump on an outstanding (4 year old) thread.

I have a tx2000 I'd like to DESTROY the whitelist on. I really find it hard to believe consumers aren't raising a bigger stick about the whole whitelisting thing.

The same thing happened with cars a while back. People pushed back and the result was the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. I sure wish this would draw enough attention to get the FTC to bitch-slap HP...

 

it's amazing that you bumped this. I have acompaq f756nr that I'm trying to put a wireless n card in. I even bought a card that has an HP part number, but apparently it's not listed for my laptop... grr... I'll have to do some reading.

 

It is completely ridiculous. We have two HP laptops that have this issue (the tx2000 I mentioned earlier, as well as a dv9000).

As far as I know, Compaq/HP are the only companies to do this. It is obviously a ridiculous ploy to direct people wanting upgraded networking to go through them. Lack of compatibility is one thing. Denying support for the product if you put a non-HP part would even be acceptable. But completely denying a customer the right to choose their own network card (the ones in both laptops SUCK) is ridiculous.

I'm seriously thinking about starting some sort of petition/class action lawsuit against HP. I was not told this before I purchased the systems. Had I known that, I would not have bought them.

 

same here, I could have bought an acer with pretty much identical specs for the same price, and would have chosen it had I known this BS.

 

Maybe even starting a webpage www.hpwhitelist.com would be sufficient to get some attention. Start a petition on there?

I'm willing to pay the registration fees for the domain, so long as someone is willing to build/maintain the page (I just don't have the time). Whaddya think?

 

FYI, I created the domain. I think we can go somewhere with this. At the bare minimum, we can at least make the public aware that if they buy a HP/Compaq laptop, they will not be able to put their own wireless NIC in.

 

I came across this myself. I was able to add the device I wanted after I added it to the BIOS. Took an hour just to figure out what the hell I was doing since I had never done it before. HP does this, as does Dell. On some models anyway. The reason there isn't an outcry over this is because most consumers don't install their own wireless solution. And if they do, it is USB or PCMCIA.

As far as I can tell, the manufactures do this for support reason, they same way they only support certain OS's. It's a prebuilt machine, the tech support crew is trained on the hardware configuration that it was built with. They don't want to waste the time and money dealing with hardware compatibility problems. When I bought a new wireless chip to install, I first read through all the reviews I could find and some chips just didn't play nice with certain laptops, there are real issues out there.

All in all though, this is such a non-issue for so many people.

 

Gotta bump this again.

This whitelisting is pure bullsh*t. Have a new HP coming with a 2.4ghz Intel 1000 card. Want my current 6250 wimax card to work so I can add the 5ghz as well. I guess I can buy the HP version at a premium price. Ti malakias! Thanks for letting me rant a bit.

 

This is not a support issue.

An intel 6200 card is an Intel 6200 card, no matter who brands it. Same chip. They do not have to support various 'versions' of a 6200 anymore than they would have to support different (customized) versions of the ATI 5650 chips. These are not ARM-type chips. Just allows them to force the customer to purchase their brand of the 6200 or 5650...usually at a much higher cost.

 

I just sold my HP laptops. Much easier than trying screw around with the shitty whitelist.

I've since seen good deals on HP laptops, but always passed them up. I never recommend them at work or to friends/family.

 

I'm an IT guy and I will never buy another HP and will tell my customers to stay away from them also. My newer Fujitsu laptops don't seem to have whitelists but I have an older B series that came with an Atheros card and won't work with an Intel. Not 100% sure it's a whitelist problem. The card is recognized and I can load the driver but it says it's turned off via the hardware switch. The switch doesn't work with this card. Is that a whitelist problem? The BIOS preventing the card from turning on?

 

I've never seen that. It's definitely odd, though. Can you boot into an older OS and see if it's being assigned an IRQ?

The HP whitest happens during the POST sequence. If a non-whitelisted card is detected, the system won't boot. In fact, there have been people who've switched the card after bootup and had it work just fine. Don't remember how they did it, but it definitely wasn't blocked after POST.

 

It's just got XP on it at the moment and I have the Atheros card back in it now. I would think that all resources would be assigned properly and the BIOS is just keeping the switch signal off since the drivers load fine and it looks fine in the device manager.

 

What do you mean, the "switch signal"? Do you have antenna hook up right? Is the card a 2 or 3 antenna setup? What about the laptop?

 

I'm talking about the hardware switch. I'm replacing a 2 antenna Atheros B/G card with a 2 antenna Intel A/G/N card. The antenna connectors are the same.

 

I put some tape over pin 20 and it works. The hardware switch is disabled but the wireless works fine.
http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thre...pad-x220-WWAN-whitelist-remove-request?page=3

 

Are you talking about the actual switch to enable/disable wireless on the laptop itself? If so, I doubt that would be what's making it not work. Have you been able to find anyone else with the same problem?

 

No I haven't found anyone else that has the same problem. The way I understand it the hardware switch signals the BIOS which tells the card to turn the wireless TX/RX off or on via pin 20 in the mPCIe slot. Putting tape on pin 20 keeps the BIOS from turning the card off. Apparently the BIOS doesn't like this card and tells it to stay off no matter which position the hardware switch is in.

 

The answer is simple.... on your next PC purchase dont get HP, DELL, or any other mainstream brand.

Get a Sager, Malibal, etc.... I can throw any piece of industry standardized hardware and it works.

 

Wow, a 7 year old thread is active and still showing the difficulty with whitelists. I haven't thought of it much because I've: bought laptops with the mini PCIe cards I needed, ebayed a compatible card made for that OEM for dirt cheap or used the handy ExpressCard slot.

I probably wouldn't boycott the OEMs even if they whitelist since I can get those systems (with an OS) for significantly cheaper than Sager/Malibal/other white boxed models with the same specs.