p170HM bricked bios repair

I have a sager np8170 with a bricked bios. I just need advice on how to proceed with fixing it. I can order a new bios chip and solder it onto the board. If that will work, I might just do that.

If there is a way to recover without swapping the chip, I want to try that first. Both the lights on the front bezel (amber and green) light up, as well as the power button and ST wireless light. I don't mind using the clevo bios, as long as it works. Oh, and I do have a Radeon card in it at the moment if that makes a difference.


If I can't fix it without a new motherboard, then you all will see a lot of p170HM parts on ebay as I don't have $300 to throw at a 5yr old pc. I have both 120hz eDP and 60hz gloss displays/bezels, as well as a few other extra parts and a couple gpu heatsinks that are hard to get now. Ill probably put the stuff I can't use up for sale when I get it fixed anyway... so keep an eye out if you are looking for that kind of stuff.


If Prema is still around, I would love it if he would weigh in on this... just tell me what you think my options are, if you have any idea :/

 

Sure, but no new chip is necessary; the old one is fine, but it needs to be reflashed. Can use an SPI programmer for this, which is actually cheaper than a pre-programmed chip. See here and here for some info to get started.

Just ask if there's something else you'd like to know.

 

Thanks, Ill order that and update when I try it out. Do you know if the EC and bios are on separate chips? I'm guessing they are, but I really don't know. I think you told me one time the bios is on the U25 chip? Also do I need to desolder it to flash? If not Ill probably just solder on some leads and leave them there so I can recover no matter what

I just downloaded the service manual pdf, so Ill try to figure it out.

 

On that old system BIOS & EC are still on one chip and ME on another.

 

Yes, according to the service manual it's the U25. They're not always accurate, though; changes happen (my systems also differs from their manuals) and there are known mistakes. But if it's a 32Mbit eeprom then it'll match the ESM. Like Prema mentioned; it could be there's indeed a different eeprom for the ME, either 16 or 32Mbit. Unfortunately, the design can differ between mb versions, so best best is to read out the current, main eeprom first; even corrupted it'll still be legible.

If it is indeed a 32Mbit, then it's likely a single ME+EC+BIOS design (why use a larger, more expensive eeprom otherwise?). All versions for the P170HM and HM3 have the same 4MB binary. Even the EC versions contain the (updated) bios, but they simply use different switches for afudos; ' /P /B /N' for the bios and ' /E /X' for the EC (the initial bios and ec actually have a copy of the same binary, except renamed):

Spoiler: AFUDOS v3.07.00

Code:

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                 AMI Firmware Update Utility  v3.07.00                     |
|      Copyright (C)2014 American Megatrends Inc. All Rights Reserved.      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Usage: AFUDOS.EXE <ROM File Name> [Option 1] [Option 2]...                |
|           or                                                              |
|        AFUDOS.EXE <Input or Output File Name> <Command>                   |
|           or                                                              |
|        AFUDOS.EXE <Command>                                               |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Commands:                                                                 |
|         /O - Save current ROM image to file                               |
|         /U - Display ROM File's ROMID                                     |
|         /S - Refer to Options: /S                                         |
|         /D - Verification test of given ROM File without flashing BIOS.   |
|         /A - Refer to Options: /A                                         |
|       /OAD - Refer to Options: /OAD                                       |
| /CLNEVNLOG - Refer to Options: /CLNEVNLOG                                 |
| Options:                                                                  |
|     /MEUL: - Program ME Entire Firmware Block, which supports             |
|              Production.BIN and PreProduction.BIN files.                  |
|         /Q - Silent execution                                             |
|         /X - Don't Check ROM ID                                           |
|       /CAF - Compare ROM file's data with Systems is different or         |
|              not, if not then cancel related update.                      |
|         /S - Display current system's ROMID                               |
|       /JBC - Don't Check AC adapter and battery                           |
|  /HOLEOUT: - Save specific ROM Hole according to RomHole GUID.            |
|              NewRomHole1.BIN /HOLEOUT:GUID                                |
|        /SP - Preserve Setup setting.                                      |
|         /R - Preserve ALL SMBIOS structure during programming             |
|        /Rn - Preserve SMBIOS type N during programming(n=0-255)           |
|         /B - Program Boot Block                                           |
|         /P - Program Main BIOS                                            |
|         /N - Program NVRAM                                                |
|         /K - Program all non-critical blocks.                             |
|        /Kn - Program n'th non-critical block(n=0-15).                     |
|     /HOLE: - Update specific ROM Hole according to RomHole GUID.          |
|              NewRomHole1.BIN /HOLE:GUID                                   |
|         /L - Program all ROM Holes.                                       |
|        /Ln - Program n'th ROM Hole only(n=0-15).                          |
|      /ECUF - Update EC BIOS when newer version is detected.               |
|         /E - Program Embedded Controller Block                            |
|        /ME - Program ME Entire Firmware Block.                            |
|      /MEUF - Program ME Ignition Firmware Block.                          |
|         /A - Oem Activation file                                          |
|       /OAD - Delete Oem Activation key                                    |
| /CLNEVNLOG - Clear Event Log.                                             |
|   /CAPSULE - Override Secure Flash policy to Capsule                      |
|  /RECOVERY - Override Secure Flash policy to Recovery                     |
|        /EC - Program Embedded Controller Block. (Flash Type)              |
|    /REBOOT - Reboot after programming.                                    |
|  /SHUTDOWN - Shutdown after programming.                                  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

For the P170HM you can flash the EC v1.00.09 ('ECP170HM.09') with the programmer. That way it'll have the latest BIOS and EC and also rewrite the ME, in case that happens to have been corrupted (no updates for the ME in any of the versions) and provided it is a single-chip design, of course.

For the P17HM3 this would not do because the BIOS part of the EC download is that of the HM and the HM3 needs a slightly different one. For that system you'd use BIOS v1.01.05 and later flash the EC v1.00.09 the normal way, or make a hybrid binary from both.

Not sure about the de-soldering first. Think it's easier than soldering on leads or using a clip and it'll work 100% of the time as well. That does need a better iron and/or flux due to the lead-free solder, whereas the wire-method will be less demanding.