Requesting Metabox/Clevo bios update

Hi, I'm requiring a bios update for a Metabox/Clevo P650RS-G please but I have been unable to find it. :-(

 

You can find a bios repo here:

https://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/

Your machine repo is: https://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/P6xxRS/

The repo is updated with the latest BIOS from Clevo

 

Awsome! Thank you! Will this bios have the metabox logo or stock logo?

 

Thats the bios provided by Clevo with their logo

 

Ok thanks, the intel integrated HD 530 graphics is giving a black screen when the driver is install so I'm hoping a bios update will fix it as I've tried other thing without success.

 

Also, Do I just flash the latest BIOS 1.05.07, or the latest BIOS and then EC 1.05.05? Also, How do I do a backup of the current BIOS on a clevo? I've only done Alienware. And, would there be any difference from the stock bios than the Metabox bios?

 

Depends! You should contact Metabox and get them to send you a BIOS modified by them!

 

Ah no worries, I'll send them an email, thanks.

 

Yes, first port of call for firmware is your reseller

 

Shoot Metabox an email and they'll sort out the new BIOS for you.

That being said..
If you're booting to a black screen on Intel GPU you may have a corrupted display EDID. I had this issue occur on my P650RP6-G. Notably, I "lost" G-Sync when this happened.
The Intel GPU simply fails to display when a corrupt EDID is used. The Nvidia driver is more reasonable and just loads a default one. My rig would also get Code43 errors on the GPU when using a driver newer than 388.75 (older worked).

That particular generation of motherboards shipped with read/write enabled on the display EDID for some insane reason. This also affected many Dell/Alienware machines and was commonly triggered by using EVGA Precision X1 which would accidentally write garbage data into the EDID.
I had never used EVGA Precision, but the EDID is accessible over a very low voltage I2C bus so it's very possible it was corrupted due to static.

Fortunately for me, I had a copy of the working EDID and could flash the corrupted parts back over via Linux and an external monitor.

If you have this particular problem shoot me a PM.

I also would not be surprised if a large number of these Pascal boards of the same generation that had Code43 GPU errors (VERY common) were actually just in this dead EDID state and ended up getting RMA'd.

 

Thanks for your reply, Metabox have replied and I've got the BIOS from them so I'll give it a go when I can and let you know the results.

The display works during boot but goes black before the login screen, the intel graphics works on the basic driver when the HD drivers are uninstalled but go black when the HD graphics are installed.

The GTX 1070 works without issues, it's currently running in "DISCRETE" graphics mode without issue on the laptop display and have not had error 43 on the GTX 1070.

The EDID issue is the reason I haven't gone to Win10 on my Alienware yet unless it has been resolved now?

 

Good to know. Good luck with the BIOS flash.

Indeed, mine worked in Discrete mode as well, so long as the driver was an older version (or default Windows version). Newer versions failed which is how I had noticed something was wrong.

The bug in EVGA Precision X1 was fixed, however the core issue is that the EDID should not have shipped in a read/write state as anything could stumble onto that I2C bus and break things. I'm not sure how that could be fixed without some sort of flashing of the EDID controller.

The workaround is to keep a copy of the working EDID (can be dumped in Linux) and save it in case of corruption. Then flash it in Linux it if it does go pear-shaped.

 

I have updated it with the BIOS sent to me by Metabox and I have updated the BIOS from 1.05.01 to 1.05.07.

Unfortunalty it has not fixed the intel graphics black screen so I am going to run it in "DISCRETE" graphics mode for now as this is a family members system required for Uni studies so I only have a few days to get it ready for him.

Windows 10 has auto installed 382.05 so that's easy.

That would be good, do you have a link to some instructions on dumping the EDID in Linux? I have both older Alienware models that users reported having this issue and a backup would be handy to have.

 

You'll want to update that asap. The Nvidia drivers have been found to have some serious security flaws which have been patched in newer versions. 431.70 is the newest.
So you may still have the EDID issue.

Unfortunately no links to instructions as I had to basically make it up as I went with lots of Googling. I might make a topic once I can organise my notes on it into something resembling a how-to. Basically I used a combination of edid-decode (available in Ubuntu repos), i2cdump/i2cset/i2cdetect (available in Ubuntu repos) and edid-rw from Github ( LINK).

edid-rw: This can read and write the entire EDID from your i2c device.
edid-decode: Useful for reading in the EDID dumped from edid-rw. It lists useful info like manufacturer/modes/specs and can confirm the Checksum (immediately tells you if it's corrupt).
i2cdump: i2cdump can dump the raw HEX values
i2cset: I used i2cset as it can set registers individually instead of writing the whole EDID. In my case it was only a single register that failed. From what I've read, writing the entire EDID is also far less reliable so if the EDID is only corrupted in a few registers, it's preferable to only correct those.

 

It's currently on 389.xx now and working but I tried the latest version and the display freezes up at login. Bad EDID side affect?

Thanks for that info, I'll have to try a backup before installing Win 10 on my Alienware.

So would i2cset maybe fix the EDID on the Metabox?

 

Possibly. Mine would always login but would run into Code43 issues. If it is a bad EDID, it's hard to know what the overall effects would be.

I would suggest dumping the EDID to check it. I think you might be able to do this with MonInfo. Link

In Linux you can dump it with "edid-rw" and piping it to "edid-decode". You can use "i2cdetect" to figure out which bus the EDID is on.

For example, my P650RP6-G looked like this when it was corrupted (EDID is on i2c device 4):

Code:

root@metabox-P65xRP:~/edid-rw-1.0# ./edid-rw 4 | edid-decode
EDID version: 1.4
Manufacturer: LGD Model 46f Serial Number 0
Made in year 2014
Digital display
6 bits per primary color channel
DisplayPort interface
Maximum image size: 34 cm x 19 cm
Gamma: 2.20
DPMS levels: Standby Suspend Off
Supported color formats: RGB 4:4:4, YCrCb 4:4:4
First detailed timing includes the native pixel format and preferred refresh rate
Display x,y Chromaticity:
  Red:   0.6396, 0.3447
  Green: 0.3349, 0.6250
  Blue:  0.1503, 0.0517
  White: 0.3134, 0.3291
Established timings supported:
Standard timings supported:
Detailed mode: Clock 138.700 MHz, 344 mm x 194 mm
               1920 1968 2000 2080 hborder 0
               1080 1083 1088 1111 vborder 0
               +hsync -vsync
               VertFreq: 60 Hz, HorFreq: 66682 Hz
Detailed mode: Clock 110.900 MHz, 344 mm x 194 mm
               1920 1968 2000 2080 hborder 0
               1080 1083 1088 1111 vborder 0
               +hsync -vsync
               VertFreq: 47 Hz, HorFreq: 53317 Hz
ASCII string: 3874Y
Monitor descriptor block has byte 4 nonzero (0x70)
Manufacturer-specified data, tag 0
Checksum: 0x92 (should be 0x22)

Note, the only thing really out of place is the Checksum. Other more corrupted EDIDs will come up with nothing or complete garbage.

 

I connected up a test LCD and the intel graphics is working! So I assume that would put it down to an EDID issue on the original panel.

I have a cracked panel of the exact same model, would I be able to read the good EDID off the broken panel and flash it to the good panel or can I swap the chip containing the EDID? I have the rework tools for the hardware swap if that's possible.

 

Sounds like it to me.

If it's only the panel/glass that is broken then you should be able to read out the old EDID and compare/flash to the current panel.

 

I have installed a new IPS screen from a different manufacturer for him so his Metabox is in 100% working condition for his studies so I can return the laptop to him.

That means I'll be keeping the corrupt EDID panel and can work on fixing it.

Yes, it's just a cracked panel so I'll try your steps to dump the good EDID and then flash it to the corrupt panel. I'll be working with the displays in my Alienware 15 R1.

 

I am unable to use edid-rw as I can't get python-smbus, "sudo apt-get install python-smbus edid-decode" doesn't find either of those packages, I am going insane trying to get this to work, I hate Linux with a pasion :-D I am using Ubuntu 19.04 live USB, I tried finding the packages separatly and found edid-decode but can't get python-smbus, please HELP! I can't stand Linux :-D

 

Try giving 18.04 a go. 18.04 is the Long Term Support version so a lot of more obscure packages are more readily available.
Also make sure that you run "apt-get update" prior to any installations to ensure APT is actually grabbing the correct versions.

 

Success!! I used 18.04 instead as you suggested and I was able to install all tools this time I was able to read the cracked panel edid (edid was good), dump it, install good corrupt panel and the checksum was wrong, dump the bad edid, write the good edid, reboot and it now displays and works! :-D

Thank you @Stooj for your awsome help with this and for the setps

 

That's great to hear!

I'm quite fortunate in discovering the issue, mostly because I use Linux every day. For Windows users the freeze on boot or Code43 GPU driver is taken as "this motherboard/GPU is dead, you need to RMA it". Makes me wonder just how many motherboards are sitting in a "dead pile" somewhere when the reality is the EDID just got corrupted

 

That's very true, I wish I had access to a dump so I could bring home the decent systems and fix them. :-D

Now that I understand how easy it was to do (after using the correct version), you can make a post about it (or even make a light USB bootable image with these tools pre-installed for easy setup and use or even a windows application) and hopfully over time we can gather enough info from the community using this method to determin why this happens and how to distinguish it from a dead GPU or an EDID issue. I have only recently come across the code 43 issue a few times.

I would have put my family members laptop down as a GPU issue until I found that the GPU worked perfectly in "Discrete" mode and would have left it in that mode for him if it wan't for your help. :-D

 

I have found a pre-setup USB bootable Linux image with the required tools included and a library of EDID's to use for fixing corrupt EDID's in this tread here, the link is the " Live and persistent Linux with edid tools (760 MB)" button and there is instructions on how to use it.

 

Well there you go! I probably could've saved myself a lot of googling and head-scratching if I searched the forum

 

I only came across it looking for some other information. :-D

I just tried it out now to backup my M18x R2 EDID before setting up Windows 10. It's got all the tools installed and folders for it on the desktop with an instructional txt file on there too.

This EDID tool/image should be in a pinned thread as this is very important! And not half way through a 58 page thread.

 

hi there, I have a Clevo p650rs -g laptop with i7 6820hk processor. I am having the same issues as you mentioned in your post, keep getting the Kernal power 41 error. I have been searching for a solution for months now with no luck, could you help me how to resolve this please.
thanks

 

Dear Stooj and other experts

My laptop (P650RS-G) with i7 6820 HK and Nvidia 1070 was functioning normally until I installed a Samsung display driver on my laptop mistakenly. I was booting to a black screen on Intel GPU (Hybrid mode) due to corrupted display EDID. In discrete mode I would boot to Nvidia 1070 not having any memory and very basic display(HDMI did not work at all). Laptop monitor changed from LP156WF6 to non-pnp 1024x768. I used the laptop for 7 days by attaching a Samsung display to it by HDMI port in Hybrid mode.Then, I tried to boot ubuntu 18.04 on the laptop by USB drive to try to fix EDID but during boot it showed a message about EDID being empty. After I restarted the laptop, it does not even boot anymore. Monitor turns on but no display, even the SAGER splash screen when computer turns on is gone.I can do a Cmos reset by pressing FN+ D during power-on but it does not help. I disconnected the battery for 5 minutes but nothing changed. I am totally out of hope now. I used to at least be able to use the laptop with an external display but now nothing works. I am not sure what is really wrong with it now....Is there anything i could do to fix it? The laptop is out of warranty so Sager is not helping..I am writing this on a Raspberry Pi device I had at home....Please help me if you can...I will pay for your help.....Please

 

Unfortunately it sounds like more than just EDID failure now if even external monitors don't work. Are you able to test with a DisplayPort monitor instead? Could just be the HDMI port not working correctly.
Also make sure you download the original release ISO for 18.04. As an LTS release, they have updated isos called 18.04.4 and 18.04.5 which have much newer kernels which may not work properly.

I also recommend booting the computer and shutting the lid immediately to see if that helps. This should force the system to boot up only on the external monitor and that should tell you if the system is still working.

Otherwise you may need to find a repair shop which can flash eDP EDID using an external tool, or worst case you may just need to find a new panel to go in (but I would only do this after confirming the rest of the machine still functions). You can find replacement LP156WF6 panels on ebay relatively cheap.