Lenovo M700/M900 BIOS mod to Coffee Lake CPUs

[gandi69]

Did anyone else have an issue with the Lenovo m700 tiny after being “coffee modded” whereby when using a coffee lake cpu (8100T in my case ) you can’t reboot the machine? It just shuts down when you either trigger reboot in the os and you have to physically unplug the power and wait 5 seconds before you can power on again. If you power on without doing this you get a quick flash of the power light and fan spin then goes off again. Swap to a Sky lake or Kaby lake cpu and the problem doesn’t occur.
The Coffee modded m910q I have runs a 9100T perfectly and doesn’t suffer this issue, reboots just fine and powers on as normal.

 

[home_company]

Did anyone else have an issue with the Lenovo m700 tiny after being “coffee modded” whereby when using a coffee lake cpu (8100T in my case ) you can’t reboot the machine? It just shuts down when you either trigger reboot in the os and you have to physically unplug the power and wait 5 seconds before you can power on again. If you power on without doing this you get a quick flash of the power light and fan spin then goes off again. Swap to a Sky lake or Kaby lake cpu and the problem doesn’t occur.
The Coffee modded m910q I have runs a 9100T perfectly and doesn’t suffer this issue, reboots just fine and powers on as normal.

I have a M700 tiny with 8100T works well. I do not have the issue you mentioned. Did you mod your bios with a M710q BIOS region? Did you use coffeetime to add microcode and mod the VBios?
If you still can't made it, please google translate the post in #130 and that may helps

 

[home_company]

I have modified my M700 tiny to use coffeelake CPU. Thank you everyone in this thread

The following is my experience and hope can help some others to shorten the road.
1. i3 8100t (B0) works very well in M700 with modded BIOS. Do NOT put any 6 core CPU without any pin mod.
2. The M.2 NGFF SSD will boot after the "Load default Setting"
3. DP to HDMI converters will not work in bios or bootloader menu. It will work after driver load. Please use DP or VGA for bios editing
4. Front phone jack will work in Linux after using HDAJackRetask. See the attached configuration. (I don't use windows)
5. Do NOT upgrade ME (either through program or biosmod) when you are using M710 bios in M700. Please stick into ME 11.0. Otherwise Ethernet will not work even if you have disabled the ME.
6. There is a tool (credit dsnake) to Unlock Hidden menu in Bios for M710 /M910 Bios and also work in M700 modded bios.
7. Try not to use sync cores in coffeetime for M700 and M710 boards as higher temperature may kill the board
8. You may update the microcode to the latest version by replacing (not rename) the files in coffeetime. The latest microcode can dump from the latest Lenovo M700tiny, M710q and M720q bios from website using UEFITool
9. ***Always remove the Lithium Battery before reading and writing the BIOS

Updated #127 and add point 7 and 8

 

[home_company]

I have modified my M700 tiny to use coffeelake CPU. Thank you everyone in this thread

The following is my experience and hope can help some others to shorten the road.
1. i3 8100t (B0) works very well in M700 with modded BIOS. Do NOT put any 6 core CPU without any pin mod.
2. The M.2 NGFF SSD will boot after the "Load default Setting"
3. DP to HDMI converters will not work in bios or bootloader menu. It will work after driver load. Please use DP or VGA for bios editing
4. Front phone jack will work in Linux after using HDAJackRetask. See the attached configuration. (I don't use windows)
5. Do NOT upgrade ME (either through program or biosmod) when you are using M710 bios in M700. Please stick into ME 11.0. Otherwise Ethernet will not work even if you have disabled the ME.
6. There is a tool (credit dsnake) to Unlock Hidden menu in Bios for M710 /M910 Bios and also work in M700 modded bios.
7. Try not to use sync cores in coffeetime for M700 and M710 boards as higher temperature may kill the board
8. You may update the microcode to the latest version by replacing (not rename) the files in coffeetime. The latest microcode can dump from the latest lenovo bios using UEFITool
9. If you found screen error (such as 1.turn black and then resume after 1 second. 2. Screen flash in 2D screen minor tearing. etc) You may try add voltage on GPU. 50mw add to offset in Throttlestop in windows or intel-undervolt in Linux may help to resolve the issue.
10. ***Always remove the Lithium Battery before reading and writing the BIOS

Added point 9

 

[home_company]

I owned a gen6 M700 tiny, a gen7 M710q and a gen8 M920q. From my experience. I would suggest to get a M910q / M710q for this mod. If you are reading this thread and did not own one yet, I will suggest M710q. The reasons are follows:

1. M700 /M900 tiny biosmod requires swaping the BIOS region from a M710q. It can work quite well but found that it runs in higher temperature (>10 degree Celsius). Should be the ACPI problem but I am not able to resolved it. Also require software mod for front audio. It is still good for Coffeelake mod and daily driver
2. M920q /M720q do not support biosmod because of BIOS guard. Can support extra PCI-E card natively is the only advantage.
3. M910q M710q is the LAST Lenovo tiny that support biosmod. The biosmod can support intel gen 6 to gen 9 CPUs. NVME support. And one thing that not much people mentioned is that it comes with the best analog audio chip (ALC294) with beats M920q (ALC233) and M900 tiny (ALC223)

 

[swockan]

So I have some questions. I've flashed the biosmods and everything runs great with the e2286m xeon on my m910x motherboard but I cannot figure out how to set the right parameters for the fan. Mine is locked in a slow mode and it doesn't spin up over 2500-3000 rpm even though I select "best thermal performance" or even "full blast" in ICE settings. I tried enabling the thermal module and that makes it work a little better but it never reach full speed.

What am I doing wrong?
I have modded it with the unlocked menys but I can't figure out the right settings.

I also had some problems with the gpu flaking out every 10 seconds and flickering screen but dropping the max gpu freq to 1150mhz and disabling s6 rendering made it go away for anyone trying the same cpu as me.

 

[megokeg]

Is there any way to add ecc support? The 7100T and 8100T have support for ecc memory, but there is no option in the bios to enable it.

 

[home_company]

So I have some questions. I've flashed the biosmods and everything runs great with the e2286m xeon on my m910x motherboard but I cannot figure out how to set the right parameters for the fan. Mine is locked in a slow mode and it doesn't spin up over 2500-3000 rpm even though I select "best thermal performance" or even "full blast" in ICE settings. I tried enabling the thermal module and that makes it work a little better but it never reach full speed.

What am I doing wrong?
I have modded it with the unlocked menys but I can't figure out the right settings.

I also had some problems with the gpu flaking out every 10 seconds and flickering screen but dropping the max gpu freq to 1150mhz and disabling s6 rendering made it go away for anyone trying the same cpu as me.

If we unlocked the hidden menu, we know that EC will take over thermal management when CPU is over 72 degree. You may try the "Active Trip Point" Setting. I can feel the fan speed change in my setup (M710q+8500T)

I tried disable S6 rendering mode. Package draw 5W more power in idle.
In my case, the screen flickering only happens when first bootup ONLY and triggered randomly before windows is loaded.No more flicking after a reboot with the same Throttestop setting. Modify the Task scheduler to set it to SYSTEM user may resolve the issue
It won't happen when first boot is Linux as the intel-undervolt start before any GUI loaded.

 

[gandi69]

I have a M700 tiny with 8100T works well. I do not have the issue you mentioned. Did you mod your bios with a M710q BIOS region? Did you use coffeetime to add microcode and mod the VBios?
If you still can't made it, please google translate the post in #130 and that may helps

Hi
thanks for the advice, I did try that but in all honesty couldnt get my head around the tool to insert the bios into the relevant section (my attemps failed in other words) so i ended up just using a premade bios the original thread poster created.

I sold my M700s and "upgraded" to M710q and m720qs which I find far more relible and just work without having to get too hacky with the bios stuff. Have had no further problems. Fortunately the price difference isnt huge and its worth it to iron out any bugs.

 

[msoffice95]

Fighting an ongoing battle with this M700
Shipped with I5 6400T trying to use 7700T from Trademe
Using roms provided in the archive seemed to result in nothing (does boot on original cpu)
Trying now with upgraded 2022 bios
Attached is original 2022 version dumps FWKTBFA

Bios m700 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[TJ420]

Hi first time poster here,

I have a M900 sff which came with an i7-6700. I am using a custom chassis, check it out here : Gaming PC Inside a Fender Guitar Amp

I really want to get an 8700 or 9700 65w CPU running in this as I need the extra cores to run yuzu.

I understand that I first need to flash the m910 bios over the backup section of the m900 to make my m900 a m910.

Then coffeetime app plus pin mods on whatever CPU I choose.

My questions:

1. How much of this flashing can be done in software? IE without a USB flash tool. Can I get as far as M910 without any hardware?

2. I will buy a flash tool, looking for recommendations.

3. What is best method for modding the pins on the CPU? Are adapters or mats available online? I remember seeing such things on ebay back in the day for previous gens.

4. Will thermals be the same going from 65w to 65w CPU?

 

[home_company]

Hi first time poster here,

I have a M900 sff which came with an i7-6700. I am using a custom chassis, check it out here : Gaming PC Inside a Fender Guitar Amp

I really want to get an 8700 or 9700 65w CPU running in this as I need the extra cores to run yuzu.

I understand that I first need to flash the m910 bios over the backup section of the m900 to make my m900 a m910.

Then coffeetime app plus pin mods on whatever CPU I choose.

My questions:

1. How much of this flashing can be done in software? IE without a USB flash tool. Can I get as far as M910 without any hardware?

2. I will buy a flash tool, looking for recommendations.

3. What is best method for modding the pins on the CPU? Are adapters or mats available online? I remember seeing such things on ebay back in the day for previous gens.

4. Will thermals be the same going from 65w to 65w CPU?

1. no clue
2. CH341a + SOP8 clip
3. The pins are too small that easy to fail. Better use aluminum foil and tape with a sharper cutter
4. TPD doesn't mean power draw.

You may have a look on my experience in #127. As the price of M920 drop a lot, you may consider buying a M920 or even Intel Gen 11 tiny for faster CPU and lower heat. Personally I do not recommend M700/M900 mod using CPU other than quad core i3 8100/9100

 

[gandi69]

The flashing part is easy enough, whether it will work correctly or not is another story. As said above the difficulty will be masking the pins securely and robustly so they continue to work.
Personally in this situation if you need more than 4c/4t then sell your current unit and buy a 720/920 which supports those CPUs.
Yesterday I picked up a 720q in the U.K. for £65 so they aren’t very expensive anymore if you get a good deal

 

[TJ420]

I'm reluctant to sell my m900 and get a m910/m920 because of the custom case I am using. I would be OK snipping the pins off of mobo once an i7 8700 is demonstrated to work - I think a more durable solution than relying on tape. I have the CPU and USB flash tool on the way.

Would someone be willing to edit my original M900 bios so that I can

1. keep compatibility with i7 6700 but also add microcode and all patches needed for i7 8700

2. include the bios settings unlock so that I can access voltages

3. Restore my original SN, mac, and uuid into new bios?

I am happy to send some beer money

 

[TJ420]

My CH341A programmer arrived today, the i7 8700 should arrive in a few days.

Edited my post : bios chip is between the first two PCI-E slots on M900 SFF motherboard.

I was able to read in and dump my 16MB M900 bios, I then downloaded the latest 8MB M910 bios from Lenovo. Overwrote the second half of the 16MB bios with the contents of the 8MB. Used coffeetime 0.99 to patch everything, updated VBIOS and GOP to the latest versions. I chose microcode for 6700, 8700 and 9700.

Trying to flash this back to the board, nothing seems to be happening. I'm wondering if there is some sort of write protection on the chip.

 

[TJ420]

Success!! I think. BIOS is modded and flashed back, still waiting on the 8700 to arrive so still rocking the i7 6700 for now.

My CH341A seems to be finicky where sometimes it won't write. Unplug from usb, plug it back in without touching the clips at all and it works about 50/50. I was eventually able to flash my modded bios using asprogrammer after trying some other Russian tool which soft bricked my board.

First two boots it sat at blackscreen forever but after pulling the power the bios came up on try #3. I had the same issues as others : post errors about missing model and serial #. I fixed these in dos using the Lenovo provided flash tool to restore the original values for type, model and serial #.
UUID could not be entered manually but the Lenovo tool allows auto generation of a new UUID, neat.

I'm not sure if my sata or DP ports are working, don't really care about them because I'm using a Nvidia GPU and an m.2 that's in a pci-e slot. Haven't checked any of the other ports like audio, etc.
USB and Ethernet work and those are the ones I care about.

I did get the 'scanning for media' message which was slowing down my boot times. One or all 3 of these sorted that out: disabling pxe, enabling the OS optimizations and removing everything from boot order except for the pci-e slots.

Computer seems fine and stable, will report back once the i7 8700 arrives and I have time for pin mod. I didn't do the mod for hidden options in BIOS, but I did choose to sync cores in coffeetime. I hope my voltages will be OK.

p.s. Coffeetime ver 0.99 - no acpi or any other errors.

 

[TJ420]

My i7 8700 arrived today, I modded the pins with kapton and aluminum tape. Popped the new 8700 into this machine but it won't turn on. I'm not sure if it's the bios, the chip or my tape job: machine is only on for 1/10th of a second, no beeps, just a quick on and off. Any ideas? I'm going to add a pic of my CPU

 

[home_company]

My i7 8700 arrived today, I modded the pins with kapton and aluminum tape. Popped the new 8700 into this machine but it won't turn on. I'm not sure if it's the bios, the chip or my tape job: machine is only on for 1/10th of a second, no beeps, just a quick on and off. Any ideas? I'm going to add a pic of my CPU

As I remember, I just do the 'T' shape mode and join 2 pins only and it will work on lenovo boards.

I see from the pic. Did you cut the tape directly on the CPU? Better do it on a glass or metal

 

[TJ420]

Yes during early attempts I was a bit careless with the CPU, it's ugly but I think just superficial damage. I have been blocking more and more pins to no avail. I ordered some $7 premade stickers off Alibaba. I thought maybe too much glue on the metal tape I am using, also tried soft and hard pencil.

I've never seen this CPU power on before, I don't even know if it works. I might have to buy an M920s after all just to troubleshoot the #!%"* CPU. Hahaha.

 

[kino0924]

Yes during early attempts I was a bit careless with the CPU, it's ugly but I think just superficial damage. I have been blocking more and more pins to no avail. I ordered some $7 premade stickers off Alibaba. I thought maybe too much glue on the metal tape I am using, also tried soft and hard pencil.

I've never seen this CPU power on before, I don't even know if it works. I might have to buy an M920s after all just to troubleshoot the #!%"* CPU. Hahaha.

Try this