[REQ] Panasonic Toughbook CF-53 Mk2 BIOS Unlock (AMI)

Hi Everyone,

Please help me to unlock the hidden menus inside my Panasonic CF-53 Mk2 BIOS V2.00L14.

Thank you!

@pkkilleru - Please zip for me images of all the BIOS you can see now, so I can see what ALL settings you see by default already.
Also, did you test, you can write above file back without error? And please link me to the stock BIOS download page for this model.

@Lost_N_BIOS Thank you for your reply.
I used fptw -bios -f bioserg.bin to try to write the dumped BIOS image back to the laptop
and I get an error Error 280: Failed to disable write protection for the BIOS space!

Here is a link to the Official BIOS

@pkkilleru - What is 1.bin??

Please do the following, AFTER you do the grub stuff below this.

If you have already modified the BIOS in ANY way, you will need to re-flash it back to factory defaults using factory method (NOT FPT)!!!
Additionally, please remove all BIOS passwords, disable secure boot, and disable TPM or Encryption if you have enabled. Do this before moving on to below


If you do not have Intel ME drivers installed, install them now from your system driver download page, then start over here after reboot.
Check your BIOS’ main page and see if ME FW version is shown. If not then > DOWNLOAD HWINFO64 HERE <

Once HWINFO is open, look at the large window on the left side, expand motherboard, and find the ME area.
Inside that section is the ME Firmware version. Take note of the version. (ie. write it down or get a screenshot)

Once you have that, go to the thread linked below, and in the section “C.2” find and download the matching ME System Tools Package for your system.
(ie if ME FW version = 10.x get V10 package, if 9.0-9.1 get V9.1 package, if 9.5 or above get V9.5 package etc)
> DOWNLOAD " ME System Tools " packages HERE <

Once downloaded, inside you will find Flash Programming Tool folder, and then inside that a Windows or Win/Win32 folder (NOT x64).
Highlight that Win/Win32 folder, then hold shift and press right click. Choose “open command window here” (Not power shell! >> * See Registry file below *).

If you get an error, reply to this post with a screenshot of it, OR write down the EXACT command entered and the EXACT error given.

((If “open command window here” does not appear, look for the “Simple Registry Edit” below…))

Step #1

Now you should be at the command prompt.
You are going to BACKUP the factory un-modified firmware, so type the following command:
Command: " FPTw.exe -bios -d biosreg.bin "

>> Attach the saved "biosreg.bin ", placed into a compressed ZIP/RAR file, to your next post!!! <<

Step #2

Right after you do that, try to write back the BIOS Region dump and see if you get any error(s).
Command: " FPTw.exe -bios -f biosreg.bin "
^^ This step is important! Don’t forget! ^^

If you get an error, reply to this post with a screenshot of it, OR write down the EXACT command entered and the EXACT error given.

Here is a SIMPLE REGISTRY EDIT that adds “Open command window here as Administrator” to the right click menu, instead of Power Shell
Double-click downloaded file to install. Reboot after install may be required
> CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD CMD PROMPT REGISTRY ENTRY <

If the windows method above does NOT work for you…
Then you may have to copy all contents from the Flash Programming Tool \ DOS folder to the root of a Bootable USB disk and do the dump from DOS
( DOS command: " FPT.exe -bios -d biosreg.bin " )


To get past error 280, we need to do the following in grub with setup_var. Use this guide, start at step #6, I’ll give you the info from 1-5 below.
Then after this, you will redo step #1-2 above using a new file name, toss the old one so there is no mixups with the locked BIOS region vs this unlocked one after your setup_var edits
[GUIDE] Grub Fix Intel FPT Error 280 or 368 - BIOS Lock Asus/Other Mod BIOS Flash

Rename .efi file to >> Shellx64.efi

SMI Lock variable to edit >> 0x49
BIOS Lock variable to edit >> 0x4A

So, at grub prompt, you will type the following one line at a time (case sensitive), enter between each, then reboot and redo step 1-2 of FPT spoiler with new name
setup_var 0x49 0x00
setup_var 0X4A 0x00

once done and you pass step #2 with the newly created FPT dump after grub unlock, send me that new BIOS region dump and I will edit to unlock menus for you.

@Lost_N_BIOS

I have tried to follow your guide to do the setup_var in grub, but my BIOS does not support UEFI boot.
I have been trying all day to find a way to run your .efi file in a legacy boot mode using GNU Grub, but the best I could do is to get "Error: invalid signature"
Do you have a Legacy boot version of the .efi file available, because the setup_var command is not available in GNU Grub, I suspect your Grub is customized.

EDIT
A few more days have passed and I have installed Ubuntu 16.04 with GCC 4.8 and I have compiled the source code for the patched grub 2.00+20130519 but for a i386-pc instead of efi.
Everything went well and I managed to create an iso that works in legacy boot mode and it shows the proper version of Grub, but it does not have the setup_var command to my overwhelming frustration.

The patch is either being added only for the efi mode when it gets compiled, or it’s added in the i386-pc mode too, but can only be accessed in UEFI.

Is there another way to dump the full bios without UEFI boot?

Please close this thread. I have given up trying to find a solution for a non-UEFI BIOS and I have bought a CF-53 Mk3 motherboard which has UEFI.

I will create a new thread soon with the proper BIOS dump to be modded. Thank you again @Lost_N_BIOS

@pkkilleru - Sorry I missed your reply until now! If you still have this board too, we can do this another way, using RU instead (legacy DOS exe)
Apologies again for missing this, I can never keep up with all the new threads each day here, I try my best but never enough time and stuff gets buried and lost