[Guide] Lenovo Thinkpad T440S using Clover UEFI hotpatch

[zorzaman]

Hey. Sometimes when the computer wakes up from sleep, the sound disappears. The icon is there, I can slide the bar to adjust volume, but sound is completely missing. Does anyone know a workaround for this?

 

[CoBrA2168]

Today i got a new ThinkPad into my laptop lineup:
A Lenovo ThinkPad T440S:

• Intel Core i7 4600U
• 12GB Ram DDR3L 1600MHz
• 256GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD
• FingerPrint Reader
• SmartCard Reader
• 1080p Display
• Backlit Keyboard
• 4G LTE WWAN Card

The friend that sold it to me does have a decent amount of thinkpad parts, i grabbed a physical buttons trackpad for upgrade from a dissasembled palmrest that had it, it was a T450S thinkpad as it was dissasembled and guess what, original touchpads do have working physical buttons on Windows aswell without a custom driver.
The upgrades that we order from AliExpress or eBay are custommade and have some sort of a fake firmware that does work with only like 2-3 specific drivers if you want working physical buttons: Couldn't be any happier than that !

To the point, i got it for 100 euros, it had some scratches on the display back cover (the panel that has the Lenovo and Thinkpad with LED i word that when you close the hing you see it.
Also got a dissasembled one that looks like new and this laptop now looks like it came just out of the box, perfect condition all around.
The scratched and bumped back cover of the display caused a line on the display and a bit of light bleed on the center of the display but i will order a new IPS panel for that.

I love the thin chassis and small display bezzels.
This laptop does still look like being released in 2018-2019 in terms of design.

I believe it was a spicy deal, 100 Euros for maxed out and just having to add 40 additional euros for the display makes it perfect.

Now expect even more support and improvements to this laptop.

Nice pickup!

I've recently been experiencing a ton of weird issues with my T440s (on Mojave) regarding iMessage. I posted something over in the "How to Fix iMessage" thread, but figured I'd link it here too:

How to Fix iMessage

No you haven't! - Try populating your profile with your specs as required (See Forum Rules) to enable others to assist you because as it stands no one knows what you're trying to get iMessage/F-Time activation on and then provide more information of what steps you've taken so far apart from 'I...

www.tonymacx86.com

Basically, when I send/create texts, the laptop doesn't think the user has iMessage and instead wants to send a standard SMS. While this isn't a huge deal, it's quite annoying switching between iMessage and SMS. My phone and other Hackintosh machines are not experiencing this behavior, so I have no idea what's going on...

EDIT: FYI, I fixed the above issue. It was due to the SMBIOS changes I made 2 weeks ago in an attempt to fix the auto mounting EFI folder. Blah.

 

[Sniki]

Sorry for missing on replies and stuff, i am just focused into fixing the rest of the things that are left to be fixed once and maybe for all.
This will be the biggest update since we ever had.

Audio is still not fixed, we still need to figure out how to send the verb 0x1a SET_PIN_WIDGET_CONTROL 0x24 at boot so it does fix the static noise when you plug headphones. If we sleep the laptop and wake, everything works perfect.

CodecCommander.kext is not needed anymore but the hda-verb cannot work without CodecCommander.kext or VerbStub.kext to send that special command with ALCPlugFix.

Im waiting for a response from them and maybe they may come up with a solution with such a feature into their AppleALC.kext and so we can fix that once and for all.

I don't know how and why i tortured myself this long with the CluncPad, the upgraded touchpad is just so freaking good and satisfying to use compared to the old one...

I know a lot of you are waiting for the Catalina guide but i really want to include the Audio change so it works only with AppleALC.kext

i grabbed a physical buttons trackpad for upgrade from a dissasembled palmrest that had it, it was a T450S thinkpad as it was dissasembled and guess what, original touchpads do have working physical buttons on Windows aswell without a custom driver.
The upgrades that we order from AliExpress or eBay are custommade and have some sort of a fake firmware that does work with only like 2-3 specific drivers if you want working physical buttons: Couldn't be any happier than that !

Turned out it was using the OOB windows drivers, after the driver got installed from system update, physical buttons stopped working.
Why is that way, i picked the T450S touchpad driver and still behaves the same, physical buttons not working.
Any of you with a solution, like a driver that does have physical buttons working, scrolling support on UWP apps etc ?.

 

[CoBrA2168]

Sorry for missing on replies and stuff, i am just focused into fixing the rest of the things that are left to be fixed once and maybe for all.
This will be the biggest update since we ever had.

Audio is still not fixed, we still need to figure out how to send the verb 0x1a SET_PIN_WIDGET_CONTROL 0x24 at boot so it does fix the static noise when you plug headphones. If we sleep the laptop and wake, everything works perfect.

CodecCommander.kext is not needed anymore but the hda-verb cannot work without CodecCommander.kext or VerbStub.kext to send that special command with ALCPlugFix.

Im waiting for a response from them and maybe they may come up with a solution with such a feature into their AppleALC.kext and so we can fix that once and for all.

I don't know how and why i tortured myself this long with the CluncPad, the upgraded touchpad is just so freaking good and satisfying to use compared to the old one...

I know a lot of you are waiting for the Catalina guide but i really want to include the Audio change so it works only with AppleALC.kext

Turned out it was using the OOB windows drivers, after the driver got installed from system update, physical buttons stopped working.
Why is that way, i picked the T450S touchpad driver and still behaves the same, physical buttons not working.
Any of you with a solution, like a driver that does have physical buttons working, scrolling support on UWP apps etc ?.

I'd say just wait until we get the audio solution. We've waited this long, and honestly the current build guide also works with Catalina, so might as well wait.

You never had the 3 button pad?!? That was the single greatest upgrade I made to this thing (better than the screen or RAM upgrades even). It's great!

If you have an "official" Lenovo one like I do, simply install the Synaptics drivers from Lenovo directly for Windows 10. I can't remember if the Windows precision drivers work or not (I haven't had Windows on this machine for a few years now).

 

[Sniki]

I'd say just wait until we get the audio solution. We've waited this long, and honestly the current build guide also works with Catalina, so might as well wait.

Yes, my guides are somewhat LTS (Long Term Support) releases on the Linux world.
They mostly work for somewhat a bit skilled peopled for even newer macOS releases if they track hackintosh world changes but when i release an update it includes a lot of improvements.

You never had the 3 button pad?!? That was the single greatest upgrade I made to this thing (better than the screen or RAM upgrades even). It's great!

I had on my ThinkPad L440 but used macOS only on it. Now my father is using that laptop.

If you have an "official" Lenovo one like I do, simply install the Synaptics drivers from Lenovo directly for Windows 10. I can't remember if the Windows precision drivers work or not (I haven't had Windows on this machine for a few years now).

So i guess i will have to uninstall the update that gets installed automatically from Windows Update which is a PITA.
And install the one from T450S lenovo support > Drivers website.
It is original pulled from a T450S and placed on my T440S and its Synaptics.
I will try latest versions and see if that fixes the issue.
As for precision drivers, i will experiment with that and install latest drivers from a T480s or something like that, it should give both precision support and supposedly physical buttons.

Best thing was v2.36 has no whitelist and dealing with Wireless Card was a super piece of cake.
This T440S was on v2.33 which i technically didn't even need a downgrade but first of all i upgraded to latest version so Management engine and Embedded controller gets updated to latest version and then reverted to bios 2.36 for the whitelist and it's working flawless.

Fan management is superior on macOS.
First thing was that the FANs were staying on most of the time, cleaned up and applied fresh thermal paste which completely changed the behavior and Fans do not turn on on idle or light work.
However on Windows they tend to turn on earlier than needed compared to macOS.
on MacOS in Safari 2-3 tabs (Github, Tonymacx86, any other news site) open and fans are OFF always.
TouchPad is just so much better as well, battery life much better too.

 

[Sniki]

Hey. Sometimes when the computer wakes up from sleep, the sound disappears. The icon is there, I can slide the bar to adjust volume, but sound is completely missing. Does anyone know a workaround for this?

It's a ALCPlugFix problem combined with AppleALC.
Im working to get all these problems resolved, we are close but need a bit more time to iron out 1 more remaining issue with static noise on cold boot and then Audio should work perfect only with AppleALC and without CodecCommander and without ALCPlugFix.

 

[tqbinh]

Turned out it was using the OOB windows drivers, after the driver got installed from system update, physical buttons stopped working.
Why is that way, i picked the T450S touchpad driver and still behaves the same, physical buttons not working.
Any of you with a solution, like a driver that does have physical buttons working, scrolling support on UWP apps etc ?.

Use this version of driver.
Because this is an old version, a few hours after installing it, Windows will automatically update to the newest one unless you didn't disable automatic driver update in the System policy. In that case, go to Device manage -> Ultranav device properties, tab Driver and click Roll Back Driver, it will keep this version forever.

 

[Fobos531]

Use this version of driver.
Because this is an old version, a few hours after installing it, Windows will automatically update to the newest one unless you didn't disable automatic driver update in the System policy. In that case, go to Device manage -> Ultranav device properties, tab Driver and click Roll Back Driver, it will keep this version forever.

I second this driver. This driver worked flawlessly for me on Windows 10.


BTW does the trackpad work for you guys? A week ago it stopped working for me. The 3 buttons and trackpoint work perfect, but the trackpad simply derped out, and I'm not sure why. The tracking does not work with one finger and instead I have to use two fingers at a time, and the gestures also don't work. I'm using latest versions of VoodooPS2Controller and VoodooInput

 

[CoBrA2168]

I second this driver. This driver worked flawlessly for me on Windows 10.


BTW does the trackpad work for you guys? A week ago it stopped working for me. The 3 buttons and trackpoint work perfect, but the trackpad simply derped out, and I'm not sure why. The tracking does not work with one finger and instead I have to use two fingers at a time, and the gestures also don't work. I'm using latest versions of VoodooPS2Controller and VoodooInput

Sometimes randomly when I boot, the trackpad does not work. A reboot will fix it. Not sure why that happens. Yes, I have the latest versions of VoodooPS2 and VoodooInput drivers from Acidanthera.

 

[Sniki]

@CoBrA2168 thanks.

Yes, after a clean install i went straight to download the TouchPad driver from T450S Lenovo Support - Drivers site which is:
(jbg218ww.exe) version: 19.3.4.224 release date: 03 Feb 2020
And installed it right away before Windows Update install the wrong version, rebooted and:
It is working correctly now as it was pulled from a real T450S and not bought on AliExpress or eBay.

@Fobos531
As for the n10gx25w it is the one for the chinese trackpads with different firmware versions.
Even for this there is a newer variant but what the main problem is, is the fact that even those models from china may work fine but they are just unspecified from/for what model they are/came from.
There are many variants. The best way would be for people to post their Hardware IDs on a specific forum for the entire **50 series so we know which models we got and go get that specific driver from that model that it was meant to.