A few months ago, I was tasked to prepare Toshiba BIOS for a Windows 10 deployment. Here are some of my findings, hoping that they will be valuable and time saving for anyone that needs to take that path.
Links
Most BIOS tools are accessible from this web page using login TIUB2B_Deploy and password JAtq-Qdm. (The password may changes from time to time, check this page for updates)
BIOS Upgrade
I can’t speak for every single Toshiba model as I’ve only put my hands on a Z30A,a Z30B and a Z30C but, so far, here is what I found:
- BIOS can’t be upgraded from WinPE, when launched, the firmware executable popup a error message saying that the OS is not supported. So you must upgrade BIOS at least after Windows was applied and booted.
- BIOS upgrade seems to keep settings in the same state as they were before the upgrade (Good point).
- Firmware executables have undocumented silent switches (Big up Ewen) that can be used in your MDT/SCCM task sequence.
- A reboot step must be applied right after the upgrade.
Depending on your hardware, firmware comes in two forms, here are the switches to use for both:
P00xxvxxx_ECCxvxxx.exe /sms /suppresspopup
TCxxxxxxxxx.exe –s –scm
Switches will prevent packages from rebooting, they will also suppress confirmations and message boxes.
BIOS Password
Critical point to notice, alike Lenovo hardware, BIOS password needs to be set manually before being editable. This behavior was the same on the 3 models I worked with, and I have no idea if Toshiba can prepare machines with a preset password. If you have more info or know models that work differently feel free to report.
BIOS password can be edited using a tool called Toshiba Supervisor Registration Utility (TsuRu) or with WMI method (for WMI, the password should be cyphered at this place https://www.biospw.com/tsb/encoderbefore beeing used).
WMI method is only able to edit an already set password while TsuRu can theoretically create a password if nothing was set before. unfortunatly, i didn’t had the opportunity to try the tool.
According to the documentation, the tool use a .ini file that needs the following infos:
[Supervisor]
OldPswd=OLD SUPERVISOR PASSWORD
NewPswd=NEW SUPERVISOR PASSWORD
Remove the OldPswd line if no password was already set or remove the NewPswd to delete the old password but not both, one argument should exists at least.
Applying the password is done by running the command
Tsuruwin64.exe mypswd.ini
You can then cypher the file with this command:
Tsuruwin64.exe /scramble
.ini file should be in the same folder to allow the creation of a .ins scrambled file.
You can also generate an executable with the command:
Tsuruwin64.exe /scramble mypswd.ini outputs 'mypswd.exe'
BIOS Settings
On the FTP site, there are a bunch of tools to setup BIOS in an automated manner. There are old school command line tools and there are VBS and PowerShell scripts to setup BIOS using WMI.
Most scripts are examples and can be used as a base to apply your own settings, but they only demonstrate one parameter at a time and i needed something easier to manage, so i made something similar to what Lenovo offers: A script to capture all BIOS settings and another one to apply them. You can download them from my Github repo.
Both scripts where put together in a quiet hurry and are far from thorough testing but where able to do their job so far.
So, to capture BIOS settings: Boot your machine, jump to BIOS, tweak it to your requierments, then save and reboot to Windows or WinPE, both are supported.
In an elevated command prompt, launch the capture script with command line Cscript ExportAllBiosSettings.vbs
A few seconds later, an .ini file will appear in the same folder, your BIOS config file is now ready.
To restore settings on the target computer run the command cscript ImportBiosConfig.vbs /file:ConfigFile.ini /Password:scrambled SupervisorPassword
ConfigFile.ini: is the file name of the BIOS configuration previously saved.
Scrambled SupervisorPassword: is the cyphered password of the BIOS machine (Requiered if already configured).
Drivers
Bonus part, as drivers are often associated with BIOS lately. For the most recent models, Toshiba has built driver packages. They are available on the FTP site in the deployment file subdir:
Are they tested/supported/working on every version of Windows 10 ? You’ll have to figure this out by yourself… If your device is from a previous generation, drivers are available at the same place in the Application_Executable folder but in the old painfull fashion (you’ll have to guess what drivers to install, and then extract them from their installer!)
There are probably a few other things that i forgot to write down but i’m sure that the most important pieces are covered. Enjoy you journey in Toshiba’s world and see you next time.