Modify TC1100 BIOS whitelist or...?

Don't ask how to hack password. (BIOS Passwords)
Post Reply
ohaya
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:14 am

Hi,

I have two HP/Compaq TC1100 Tablet PCs, and I'd like to upgrade them to 802.11n by replacing the current mini-PCI card with a TP-Link TL-WN861N card.

I believe that this card uses an Atheros AR5416-AC1A chipset.

The problem is when I install the TP-Link card into the TC1100, I get a "104-Unsupported wireless device" message, and it stops there.

I've been searching for awhile now, and I think that I understand at least some of the alternatives.

Also, I've recently tried flashing the BIOS back to the original TC1100 BIOS, F.03, and still get the same "104" message. In fact, with the F.03 BIOS, it even gave me that message with the original WIFI card, so there's definitely a whitelist, even in the oldest BIOS.

I guess that I'm at the point that I'm ready to look at modifying the device id, etc. in the BIOS to try to get this working.

So, the first thing that I did is run the softpaq .exe for F.0F (the latest BIOS), and found the bios.WPH file.

However, looking at that file using a hex editor, I can't seem to find anything that looks like device id, etc.

So, I was hoping that someone here might help me get started with this.

The latest F.0F BIOS is "sp30961.exe".

And, as I said, when I run that EXE, I get, among other things, a bios.WPH file.

Thanks!

Jim
ohaya
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:14 am

Hi,

No one has responded, but I hope that someone will, eventually :)...

I have the bios.WPH from the F.0F BIOS. Here's the first part, from a hex editor:

Code: Select all

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000000  24 43 4F 4D 50 49 42 4D 01 FF EE FF 00 0F 12 0F  $COMPIBM.ÿîÿ....
00000010  24 0F 36 0F 48 0F 5A 0F 00 6C 0F 7E 0F 90 0F A2  $.6.H.Z..l.~...¢
00000020  0F B4 0F C6 0F D8 0F EA 0F 00 FC 0F 0E 1F 20 1F  .´.Æ.Ø.ê..ü... .
00000030  32 1F 44 1F 56 1F 68 1F 7A 1F 00 8C 1F 9E 1F B0  2.D.V.h.z..Œ.ž.°
00000040  1F C2 1F D4 1F E6 1F F8 1F 0A 2F 00 1C 2F 2E 2F  .Â.Ô.æ.ø../.././
00000050  40 2F 52 2F 64 2F 76 2F 88 2F 9A 2F 00 AC 2F BE  @/R/d/v/ˆ/š/.¬/¾
00000060  2F D0 2F E2 2F F4 2F 06 3F 18 3F 2A 3F 00 3C 3F  /Ð/â/ô/.?.?*?.<?
00000070  4E 3F 60 3F 72 3F 84 3F 96 3F A8 3F BA 3F 00 CC  N?`?r?„?–?¨?º?.Ì
00000080  3F DE 3F F0 3F 02 4F 14 4F 26 4F 38 4F 4A 4F 00  ?Þ?ð?.O.O&O8OJO.
00000090  5C 4F 6E 4F 80 4F 92 4F A4 4F B6 4F C8 4F DA 4F  \OnO€O’O¤O¶OÈOÚO
000000A0  00 EC 4F FE 4F 10 5F 22 5F 34 5F 46 5F 58 5F 6A  .ìOþO._"_4_F_X_j
000000B0  5F 00 7C 5F 8E 5F A0 5F B2 5F C4 5F D6 5F E8 5F  _.|_Ž_ _²_Ä_Ö_è_
000000C0  FA 5F 00 0C 6F 1E 6F 30 6F 42 6F 54 6F 66 6F 78  ú_..o.o0oBoTofox
000000D0  6F 8A 6F 00 9C 6F AE 6F C0 6F D2 6F E4 6F F6 6F  oŠo.œo®oÀoÒoäoöo
000000E0  08 7F 1A 7F 00 2C 7F 3E 7F 50 7F 62 7F 74 7F 86  .....,.>.P.b.t.†
000000F0  7F 98 7F AA 7F 00 BC 7F CE 7F E0 7F F2 7F 04 8F  .˜.ª..¼.Î.à.ò...
00000100  16 8F 28 8F 3A 8F 00 4C 8F 5E 8F 70 8F 82 8F 94  ..(.:..L.^.p.‚.”
00000110  8F A6 8F B8 8F CA 8F 00 DC 8F EE 8F 00 9F 12 9F  .¦.¸.Ê..Ü.î..Ÿ.Ÿ
00000120  24 9F 36 9F 48 9F 5A 9F 00 6C 9F 7E 9F 90 9F A2  $Ÿ6ŸHŸZŸ.lŸ~Ÿ.Ÿ¢
00000130  9F B4 9F C6 9F D8 9F EA 9F 00 FC 9F 0E AF 20 AF  Ÿ´ŸÆŸØŸêŸ.üŸ.¯ ¯
00000140  32 AF 44 AF 56 AF 68 AF 7A AF 00 8C AF 9E AF B0  2¯D¯V¯h¯z¯.Œ¯ž¯°
00000150  AF C2 AF D4 AF E6 AF F8 AF 0A BF 00 1C BF 2E BF  ¯Â¯Ô¯æ¯ø¯.¿..¿.¿
00000160  40 BF 52 BF 64 BF 76 BF 88 BF 9A BF 00 AC BF BE  @¿R¿d¿v¿ˆ¿š¿.¬¿¾
00000170  BF D0 BF E2 BF F4 BF 06 CF 18 CF 2A CF 00 3C CF  ¿Ð¿â¿ô¿.Ï.Ï*Ï.<Ï
and, here's the file size info:

Code: Select all

06/06/2005  09:47 AM           620,483 BIOS.WPH
To begin with, I'm not sure if this is compressed or whatever.

I've tried to open it using Phoenix BIOS Editor, and I get "Invalid BIOS length".

Anyone can help with this?

Thanks,
Jim
ohaya
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:14 am

Hi,

I'm just trying to search through the printable text in the WPH file, and found this:

Code: Select all

Phoeniÿx NoteBIÿOS 4.0 Rÿelease 6üJ
Palych
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:42 pm

It is possible to open bios of TC1100 with Phoenix BIOS Editor 2.2.13.
I can share it with you if you do not have it.

I even have TC1100 bios with integrated slic 2.1, somebody in China already moded the bios for "oem activation" of Windows 7. I have this bios too.
enderffx
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:26 pm

Hi !
I tried all that to add my broadcom to the whitelist.
It all looked good, but after flashing my tc1100 now is dead.
I read some methods to boot a phoenix rescue disk from usb but non works, the disk is not booting up.

Does anyone know exactly how to recover my bios / which hotkey to use ?

HELP :-(


Ender
greenmk
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 7:46 pm

enderffx wrote:Hi !
I tried all that to add my broadcom to the whitelist.
It all looked good, but after flashing my tc1100 now is dead.
I read some methods to boot a phoenix rescue disk from usb but non works, the disk is not booting up.

Does anyone know exactly how to recover my bios / which hotkey to use ?

HELP :-(


Ender
Hi All,

I have the same problem and am quite frustrated. Does anyone know how to recover this tablet from a corrupted bios flash?

PLEASE!!
enderffx
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:26 pm

Hi greenmk !
I tried following the different methods here(always using the original bios file BIOS.WPH from the F:0F windows upgrade from HP:

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... procedures

All the procedures want you to start the pc with a specific key-combo, but i cannot get it to work, maybe i am using the wrong combo ?

Can anyone of the pros see from the bios file IF there is a recovery option or if my tc1100 is a paperweight anyways ?


THX,

Ender

P.S. i will post again if i have success, pls do the same...
Palych
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:42 pm

I bricked my tc1100 too. :(
Palych
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:42 pm

Hi all
Good news
I have successfully moded white list of my tc1100 tablet. My bios now supports TP-LINK TL-WN 861 N wireless card instead of Intel wm3b2200bg and it is already has slic 2.1 table, so no problem with Windows 7 ultimate “oem” activation. TL-WN 861 N is not the best card for tc1100 - it is too big and I have to isolate it from motherboard and wifi card compartment cover but it is working and tc1100 boots normally. Soon I will describe how I did it. Here you can find my bios:
http://rapidshare.com/files/415927148/HP...Palych.rar
flash it on your tc1100 on your own risk but it works for me.
stancorotax
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2010 4:09 pm

Hello Palych,

Can you provide the modded bios that supports TP-LINK TL-WN 861 N because the link you posted is not working anymore?

Many thanks!
terciops
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 3:35 am

Hi,
you obviously have a handle on these TX1100 BIOS(es). I have just acquired a S/H ex corporate unit that has a numeric 8 digit code on the bios entry - indeed on machine entry. Do you have any insights into how to open up the BIOS via a backdoor code or whatever.. Without a BIOS code I guess I may just have a rather pretty paperweight :)

Thanks in advance..

Ken
cichym
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:12 am

Hallo.

Is it possible to receive or download file with modyfied BIOS for TC1100?
Palych wrote:Hi all
Good news
I have successfully moded white list of my tc1100 tablet. My bios now supports TP-LINK TL-WN 861 N wireless card instead of Intel wm3b2200bg and it is already has slic 2.1 table, so no problem with Windows 7 ultimate “oem” activation. TL-WN 861 N is not the best card for tc1100 - it is too big and I have to isolate it from motherboard and wifi card compartment cover but it is working and tc1100 boots normally. Soon I will describe how I did it. Here you can find my bios:
http://rapidshare.com/files/415927148/HP...Palych.rar
flash it on your tc1100 on your own risk but it works for me.
Post Reply