W940TU beeping then shutting down

I must say, I was very impressed by the Clevo W940TU at first, but slowly it is giving me some pain.

Randomly (e.g. warm starts, cold starts, with empty battery, with full battery) it would start beeping 20 times and then it would turn off.

It seems to be sending some signal to the OS as I get a popup with a countdown (Debian/Mate, so no virus), but it will also switch off (without beeping) within the BIOS setup, so it is OS unrelated.

At first I thought it was the battery, which kept giving me wrong information of the current load of the battery. As I removed it, the laptop worked normally, but today it happened again, so it does not seem to be related with the battery.

I know some suggestions say the CPU is overheating, but that is nearly impossible as it is a very low power CPU and does not get warm.

I tried applying the BIOS updates from here: http://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/W94xTU/ but none of them seem to work for me.

 

You did succeed in flashing the updated EC+Bios then? EC has to be flashed first (E0317.zip), then bios (B0319.zip).

Battery load report incorrect is 'normal'; it loses capacity over time, so it needs recalibration every half year or so.

 

I am currently running 03.16 - I did try E0317, which runs some lines and then shutoffs my laptop without doing anything.
E0319 gives me a read error on the second command.

I got a new battery replacement and I'm hoping it will report more stable values.

 

It shouldn't make a difference, but new battery's always useful.

Mind that "B" = BIOS and "E" = EC (embedded controller), these two are separate entities. Most brands combine the update into one flash (hiding the difference), Clevo usually keeps them apart. So these would be the latest revisions for both:

Code:

EC     12/05/2014   v1.03.17
BIOS   04/30/2015   v1.03.19

That EC v17 might resolve what you're experiencing:

Did check temperatures, right? Even low power cpu needs cooling. Not all need fans, but a heatsink properly connected to the die is the minimum.

 

Did someone already successfully do that bios update? As said, each time I run it it will print out a few lines very quickly and switch off my laptop - should it not reflect that version in the BIOS setup as well?

I know older computers had in accurate temperature meters, but now a days it would sit directly on the die, so if it is overheating it should reflect in the output of my tools? It doesn't however go crazy over 50C.

Also I was able to run multiple sessions of high cpu usage over half a day period (database operations) - and it did not shutdown.

I also did a memtest with no failures.

It currently seems to random to pinpoint it to something. I did unscrew then heatsink, nothing special, did not have any thermal paste, but might redo that as a last try.

What filesystem is the best for the USB stick? FAT or NTFS?

 

Yes, going into bios menu will show the current version of both ec and bios.

That 50°C is fine (critical starts at ~95-100°C), but you can't leave heatsink without either pads or paste. Cold metal to ceramic die doesn't do well to transfer heat; all air gaps inbetween (interface isn't 100% flush).

FAT32+MBR and bios has to be set to UEFI boot (can be set back after flashing). What message does it show after hitting "ecflash"?

 

Unfortunately it runs too quick and then shuts-off my computer before I can read anything out - I will try to find a way to pause it.