Lenovo ThinkPad x301 Mods: BIOS, Bluetooth and microSD Drive

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Lenovo ThinkPad x301 Mods: BIOS, Bluetooth and microSD Drive

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Laptop Retrospective

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 49

@picchioknossus8096 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much man. It is good to listen to these kind of mods. I once saw an image on a Chinese website showing a very interesting hard mod. If you de solder a specific resistor and move it in a nearby position you can make the cpu be recognised as mobile xeon with much higher clocks and voltage... Of course you need better cooling at that point. I never dared to try when the x301 was my main machine and unfortunately never bothered to try after it became a secondary machine.

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

Yeah I've heard of that too but that's well outside my comfort zone to attempt on this example.

@acbc2k 3 жыл бұрын

Found 2 units of X301. Will collect tomorrow from the seller. More weekend fun of restoration.

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

That's awesome! Keep us posted.

@airborneranger-ret Жыл бұрын

Ok, I pulled out my X301, which was seriously slow, and flashed the BIOS. Seems noticeably faster. Thank you. I really like the X300/301 form factor, but it was s-l-o-w :) Thank you

@LaptopRetrospective Жыл бұрын

Glad to hear it improved!

@A_Nice_Guy. 3 жыл бұрын

Super awesome tape, indeed. X301 internal looks soo cool

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

A lot of design and thought went into the X301 that we still see today.

@hawkeye454 3 жыл бұрын

Very cool upgrades,very cool machine.

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Wes!

@claudiaw9246 3 жыл бұрын

Neat! I always learn something new when I watch one of your videos. There's an X300 available for $80 on my local Craigslist right now, no DVD drive. I think if it had the DVD drive, I'd be so tempted to get it so it's just as well that it doesn't -- I do not have the space to start up a laptop collection, ha ha. (Though I am a bit sorry that I let some of my old laptops and netbooks go, especially my Viliv S5. That was a great little device.)

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

The ones you truly love will make their way home I'm sure.

@sophiethecat9256 3 жыл бұрын

MY GOD I love thinkpads

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

They are so much fun to tinker with aren't they?

@sophiethecat9256 3 жыл бұрын

@@LaptopRetrospective Totally. i have a T420 and use it s a secondary machine. my main machine is a gaming pc because i do a lot of cpu intensive tasks and pretty much cant use those older cpus.

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

Good use for it! My X220 does a lot of work around the house.

@basicforge 3 жыл бұрын

@@LaptopRetrospective I'm using my X301 right now, running Mint Linux. I'm thinking of getting a second SSD and installing Windows on it. My docked X220t is my desktop machine. I also have a W510 that I use frequently. Then I use my X20 to run OS/2.

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

Very cool! I'm running Mint currently on the X300.

@oussama4629 3 жыл бұрын

your videos are just incredible 👍

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoy them.

@iamdmc 3 жыл бұрын

Love that PWM flashing on the screen backlight (or so it seemed in the first bit of the video) why would you put microSD cards in the laptop though? I figured mSATA SSD would be faster and cheaper

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

That board doesn't have mSATA lines running to any of its slots. That won't happen until future generations.

@karllenasson 3 жыл бұрын

How do the x300 and x301 perform with Windows 10? Are they still usable? I'm not really happy with Windows 10 on my T60 despite having a new SSD, 4 GB of RAM and a T7200, really sluggish performance, went back to Windows 7. Is the performance on the x300 or x301 better? Thank you for all the ThinkPad content by the way, really great stuff!

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

I'm still experimenting but Linux does well on the X300. I suspect it will do even better on the X301. Windows 10 does okay on the X301, even with a mechanical drive.

@Islam-Pocker 4 ай бұрын

Bro which graphics driver you using in windows 10 in thinkpad x301

@LaptopRetrospective 4 ай бұрын

I let Windows update and Lenovo System Update handle the drivers. You having issues?

@StevenDavidson_sjdmd 2 жыл бұрын

Great to find this video and learn this information. My X301 which I've had since new in ~2010 had the SSD wiped long ago. I pulled it out because I'd like to use it with Google's Chrome Flex OS. I'd especially like to install the newer WiFi card since the original doesn't support WPA2 let alone 801.11ac and the bluetooth upgrade to 4.0 would be nice as well. Is there anyway to flash the BIOS without reinstalling a Windows distribution. Back in the day, BIOS updates used to come on a bootable floppy disk and no operating system was required. Is there a bootable BIOS upgrade image available?

@LaptopRetrospective 2 жыл бұрын

Given the nature of these unofficial BIOS updates and what they do, I think they might require the support of an existing OS. There might be a bootable version but I'm not certain it's possible without the flasher program to help it bypass any protection the manufacturer put in place.

@ste76539 Жыл бұрын

I have an old R32 that came (for free!) without a wifi card inside. I have several of them but the laptop won't even boot with them installed. I even bought another from eBay that is supposedly supported but it still won't boot. And so I looked into flashing a custom BIOS to allow it to use any of these wifi cards and....It flatly refuses to flash a BIOS without it being plugged in AND have a fully charged battery. The battery is totally dead of course and new batteries cost many many times more than what the laptop is worth so at this point I have to give up. Thanks IBM!

@LaptopRetrospective Жыл бұрын

Ah, sorry to hear about your struggles, old tech can be tough sometimes.

@basicforge 2 жыл бұрын

Did you ever try updating the clock on the CPU?

@LaptopRetrospective 2 жыл бұрын

Nope, kept it stock mostly except for the BIOS mod for the bits I put in.

@andrewkrespov87 2 жыл бұрын

Just run throttlestop but I can only see 1core listed. Is there anything I am missing?

@LaptopRetrospective 2 жыл бұрын

What CPU is listed?

@andrewkrespov87 2 жыл бұрын

@@LaptopRetrospective Thanks for the response. I figured it out; In the BIOS settings I re-enabled Multi-CPU and Virtualization to enable the second core. All is well!

@LaptopRetrospective 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent.

@agiftfromdracosfather3490 2 жыл бұрын

Would you happen to know if there is a modded bios for the E530?

@LaptopRetrospective 2 жыл бұрын

One might exist out there. I'm not sure if ivyrain would work on the E series.

@agiftfromdracosfather3490 2 жыл бұрын

@@LaptopRetrospective Thanks for the reply! Ah okay, I've been looking for one for awhile, would you have an idea of a good place to look or find out more info? The white list thing has been really annoying.

@LaptopRetrospective 2 жыл бұрын

If ivyrain doesn't work on the E series your only other option will be making a request in a BIOS modding forum and that might still require a flasher.

@agiftfromdracosfather3490 2 жыл бұрын

@@LaptopRetrospective Thanks for the info, fingers crossed I'll be able to find something, cheers for that.

@LaptopRetrospective 2 жыл бұрын

Best of luck!

@JordanCardona 3 жыл бұрын

I would like to learn how to modify the BIOS on my x230 but I'm also just a little bit afraid

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

That would be ivyrain. If I get my hands on a 30 generation machine I hope to do the work. It is relatively straightforward.

@JordanCardona 3 жыл бұрын

Also thank you for replying to my comment and I do hope that I can see a video of that so I can follow all the steps because the only thing that I want to do is remove the white list for the battery

@LaptopRetrospective 3 жыл бұрын

Noted, most newer third party batteries don't really have issues anymore as they found a way a round the lockout.