Clevo M720SR BIOS hardware lock - modify?

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

by **Limousin** » Wed May 13, 2009 2:03 pm

The concerned notebook with Sis672 Chipset obviously has got a BIOS lock accepting other hardware.
In my case I´d like to use a different WiFi-Adapter. The present one is Realtek RT8178B, I´d like to use a faster 802.11n-card, tried 3 different versions, none works. Slot is MiniPCIe.
There is no support except that this device accepts only this card. Other notebooks with the same chipset have 802.11n-cards on board, so it must be assumed, that the BIOS locks other hardware.
Unfortunaly I can´t post a link yet to the BIOS, but surely this can be done via PM?

by **brandl** » Wed May 27, 2009 6:23 am

Limousin wrote:The concerned notebook with Sis672 Chipset obviously has got a BIOS lock accepting other hardware.
In my case I´d like to use a different WiFi-Adapter. The present one is Realtek RT8178B, I´d like to use a faster 802.11n-card, tried 3 different versions, none works. Slot is MiniPCIe.
There is no support except that this device accepts only this card. Other notebooks with the same chipset have 802.11n-cards on board, so it must be assumed, that the BIOS locks other hardware.
Unfortunaly I can´t post a link yet to the BIOS, but surely this can be done via PM?

i have the SAME problem with my clevo M520N. when i try to upgrade my RTL8187L to Atheros or Broadcom, it just don´t boot even praying!

need help guys!

by **edwin** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:30 am

Have a look here:
http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/topic9388.html

It's initially for HP notebooks but it seems the same applies to your models...

by **brandl** » Thu May 28, 2009 7:50 pm

kind too much complicated to me (if something goes wrong...)

by **brandl** » Fri May 29, 2009 2:07 pm

i´ve found something that could explain it..

when i removed the aluminium cover, i saw 2 burned chips...
so, this is kind a hope to me because i don´t think that happened into my notebook because if did, minicpi-e should not work anynore right?

but i did swap back to the original one (RTL8187L) and everything is fine with no sign of damage or anything else...

i´ll try contact the seller to send me another one..

what do you guys think?

by **itsme** » Wed Aug 11, 2010 4:12 am

Hi Limousin,

did you have any success with a n-card on that notebook?

I'm experiencing same problems right now...

Bought an Atheros AR9287 n-card and can't get it recognized (BIOS 1.0.0.16 / EC Firmware 1.0.0.21)
I'm running Linux and neither lsusb nor lspci shows any information of that adapter.
So I assume there is something wrong with the BIOS, or the mini-pci-express interface does not meet specifications.

by **edwin** » Wed Aug 11, 2010 11:44 am

did you check the link to the other post I put in here? It seems some notebookmakers are white-listing miniPCIe wireless cards, essentially meaning you have to use those listed and no others. The posting is about modifying that list in the bios.