XMG U705 EC Firmware Panic! HELP...

Hi everyone,
I deeply need your help as I have a strange problem with my XMG U705 (Clevo P771ZM):
When you turn it on, after 25 to 30s, fans start to blow at full speed and all the leds come on with a loud beep repeating every 2 or 3s until laptop auto shutdown.
I tried to do EC Firmware reset --> no joy.
I tried different CPU, GPU, RAM --> no joy
I tried to swap gpu & cpu fans --> no joy
I also tried fans from another clevo laptop --> no joy

For the records, I have BIOS 1.05.01a and EC 1.05.01

Do you have any idea?
Should I try to flash again the EC Firmware or try another version (Clevo?)
Thanks

 

Graphicscard is dead.

edit: nvm, seems you tried different GPU. Well seems like dead board :/

lately LGA haswell mainboards from P77x series seem to drop like flies.

 

dead EC chip? Could that be replaced?
Should I try to re flash it first?
Could try to revert to an earlier version...

 

highly doubt the EC chip is broken. Maybe the GPU slot or so.

 

But I still have video output on internal screen.
The laptop is working perfectly except that after 30s, it starts to beep loudly.
It looks like some kind of temperature sensor has gone rogue... Or the rpm signal of the fan is not working anymore... Thus triggering the EC panic mode.

 

I tried today to disassemble and reassemble every bit of the laptop.
I've tested with keyboard uplugged also, and with another wifi m2 card --> no joy
I'm pretty sure now it's the motherboard that's involved now.

 

Are you still in warranty (I assume not, but if you had a 3 year warranty then it could still be covered) and if so have you contacted our support department yet?

You can download all the BIOS, EC and drivers directlythrough our website - 1.05.01 looks like the most up to date, but I haven't hecked the Clevo website - only ours. Chances are that if there is a more up to dateversion on the Clevo website for a model which is several years old, we didn't offer it ourselves as either our version was custom (fan curves on the EC for example) or it had negligable updates.

 

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
No, unfortunately I'm out of warranty... I've already sent the laptop in RMA to your support department and they were not sure whether it was the GPU or the motherboard.
Anyway, they did not have any P771ZM motherboard in stock so I'm pretty much doomed unless I can find one elsewhere.
I tried to contact PCspecialist but they wouldn't sell me one as I did not buy the laptop from them.
Found one on aliexpress but the price is ridiculously high (about 350€)...

 

Does anyone know if you can trick the temp sensor on the MXM port with a fixed temperature to prevent the EC panic mode and ultimately the quick shutdown?

 

It would be a somewhat complicated physical mod.

 

Quick update : the problem does not come from a temp sensor. I can read both cpu and gpu temp via hwinfo64. Both are good. Maybe it's the rpm signal from ghe cpu or gpu fan? How can I get the rpm info of both fans?
Any software is able to provide that information ?

 

The support for Clevo is absolutely garbage. Finding parts for a reasonable price is impossible unless you ask @clevo-extreme but they take lots of time to respond, but they are the only ones that actually have parts on stock for a decent price. So in a nutshell u're stuck to wait for weeks until they finally answer you. Currently trying to purchase a heatsink from them, getting answers in ~1 week intervals.

 

Any thoughts? Still need help on this one...

 

Hwinfo is your best bet, if not in there then you can't read it.

 

I've posted a link twice today to the Clevo Service Centres, they supply everyone with parts (resellers, system integrators and end user customers) so thays where we all source parts from including 'Clevo Extreme'. Thats why I generally recommend that people go direct to the service centres when out of warranty and when someone seems tech savvy enough to do the work themselves ;-)

 

You mean clevo center that doesn't answer me and 4 others? Sure, very nice support ;-)

I found another site, that would help me out instead.

 

I only recommend them as they supply everyone else with parts and I haven't had any negative feedback from anyone I reommended them to - but there's always exceptions. Honestly, they are generally pretty good. It's possible they are closed this week because of the Chinese National Day week long holiday - not making excuses though.

 

it was a long time ago and the others also tried to contact them on different times. They don't seem to answer people where they can't see good profit it seems.

 

Suprisingly Hwinfo64 does not seem to read any rpm fan... I don't know what more I can try...

 

You don't have PWN fans, an RPM reading would be way more suprising.

Seriously, purchase a new motherboard or send yuour board to repair, there really isn't anything you can do here.

 

"Official" and that is the key word here, Clevo centers answer maximum 1 or 2 days later when you contact them. If they have the part they ask you for shipping information to prepare a quote for the item to ship to you.

Or at least that is my experience with German and Brit centers.

 

German center doesn't answer, british center answers after a while but the pricing is sometimes really high.

Found some american sites for alternatives. Prices are also reasonable sometimes.

 

Hmm ... I communicate with them in German. So maybe if you do it in English your milage may vary.

 

Nope, I also communicate with them on german.

 

Damn EC controller... It is working perfectly fine until that crap shuts down the laptop for a fan reading that does not even show...

 

Whether the fan is controlled by pwm or variable voltage (such as most Clevos) doesn't matter; both types report their actual rpms back via the same method (a tachometer and a dedicated wire for the signal).

What do you mean by this? A bios reset could be accomplished with a 'reset to defaults' or a cmos reset, but the ec has no such option.

Modern HWiNFO versions can read Clevo fans just fine, but not when they're completely off when starting the program. You also may have to turn 'EC support' on and off once; Clevo has a separate 'Clevo EC' near the bottom of the page. You can use Fn+1 ( not F1) to force 100% speed fan in order to make sure it'll be detected.

If you really do get '0 rpm' after hitting Fn+1 then a full reflash is in order. This is a bit tricky since the 'no-signal=shutdown' is always active, even without booting to the os. That severely limits the amount of time you have to flash the system to about 30 seconds or so. The ec itself is really, really small so using an automated afudos set to flash ec-only may just do, but a programmer would be a safer bet.

 

In pwm the 4th wire is a control wire, the third is always a monitoring wire as in the 3 pin setup.

 

Hi,
I did that trick to reset EC Firmware to default values:
https://www.xoticpcforums.com/forum...resetting-your-laptops-ec-embedded-controller

I also correctly reflashed EC and EC2 to 1.05.01 despite the auto shutdown (1m30s after you turn on the laptop).
I did not try a bosh reflash as the laptop would've turned off before the end of the operation.

I tried the FN+1 combo to force 100% fan operation but HWINFO does not show any fan rpm reading. There's no such option for that laptop unfortunately...

Thanks for your help anyway. I'm disappointed as it seems to be only the EC firmware or some kind of 2€ sensor that is failing. And it looks like I'm gonna have to spend 200€ for a new motherboard...

 

Hmm ... that's a normal bios reset, but if you've done a reflash then that also means a reset. It can't be the ec firmware then, but the bios is a remote possibility. A programmer or indeed a new mb would fix that. Hope you never had a bios-flash-in-progress running when it auto-shutdown? That would be a guaranteed brick, of course.

Since you've swapped everything else the one thing that makes sense is a loose soldering pin somewhere on the ec chip's circuit. As it is unusable atm anyhow why not bake it? It helped me revive a few laptops and they're all still running afaik. Remove every component and cable and drop it in an oven set to 215 °C and leave it for 20 minutes after the ' temperature reached' ping. A hot air gun is far more precise, but all electronics components on the pcb can handle these temperatures. Ovens are not calibrated very well, so it's safer to do a 200 °C run first; it may actually be turning out 220 °C instead.

 

I might try a bios flash with a SPI programmer. But if that does not work, I'm gonna sell the laptop as barebone, as I don' have time to disassemble everything to try the "oven trick".
Thanks for the piece of advice anyway.

 

Unless tested that another config works in the chassis you would have to sell it as untested.

 

Unfortunately i have the same problem!
I noticed a high-frequency change in the CPU temp sensor value with MSI Afterburner which is really abnormal but i have no idea what i could do!

 

My cpu temp sensor was ok.think it was the fan tachymeter sensor that went bad. Tried a rewiring direct on the super i/o chip (ec) but did not work... sold the laptop in the end, for parts.