NP530U3B (almost) bricked

Hello All,
I have a Samsung Series 5 ultrabook. bought in 2012, Phoenix Bios, delivered with Windows 7.
I am facing the same problem lot of people had/are having: after having played with linux distros and windows 10 beta the PC is almost dead. Symptoms are the following:
- it goes to boot loop at the very start, it displays just the Samsung logo, then it goes black and the Samsung logo again.
- no F key working at boot, so I have no access to boot options or or to F10.
- NVRAM should be corrupted.

I have tried to make a CMOS reset and to make it boot from USB removing the HD, none of them had any success.

I have no important data on the HD (no back up as well).

I have not been able to boot from USB, even without having the HD connected, what should I try?

thanks a lot.

Martino

 

Hi mabrad, welcome to NBR. Sorry to hear about the those problems.

It sounds like you already checked relevant threads here in the Samsung forum. Otherwise (and for the benefit of others who might see this) are the following your best threads for possibly solutions:

Fitztorious' unbricking thread specifically addresses how to clear NVRAM in bricked-but-not-quite-dead cases like yours. It requires booting some form of Windows, WinPE or Windows Setup -- anything that can run the flash utility needed to clear the NVRAM. This is discussed at great length in the thread. There is a summary in post #7, but much useful information and many cases have been added since.

TANWare's accumulated unbricking solutions thread which is stickied on top of the Samsung forum. This contains cases of complete bricking (dead laptop).

In your case the challenge (as you realized) is to be able to boot something. Here is what I would suggest:

1) Definitely disconnect the HDD as you already did, since this forces the BIOS to look for an external boot device (when it cannot boot from the default HDD).

2) Try different ways of formatting the USB stick. Since your CMOS reset may or may not have succeeded, we don't know for sure whether it is attempting an UEFI boot (requiring a GPT/FAT32 layout) or legacy BIOS boot (requiring an MBR/NTFS or MBR/FAT32 layout). Try any layout combinations supported by Rufus as well as anything offered by Microsoft's tools.

3) Try booting a DVD instead: WinPE or Windows Setup (Win7 and newer). Some members have found that F9 at boot would force the optical drive as boot device. Older Windows discs do not boot in UEFI mode while newer ones do.

4) Try creating a new Windows UEFI installation on the HDD using a different computer, but DON'T complete the installation: When Windows Setup is ready to boot for the first time, turn it off and connect the HDD to the Sammy instead (powered off, of course). With some luck it might boot and finish that new installation. Don't worry about activation or drivers or anything; the only purpose of this installation (and any of the above steps) is to be able to run the flash command to clear NVRAM -- as described in Fitztorious' unbricking thread.

If all fails, you may have to find a repair center who can re-flash the physical BIOS chip. This is also discussed in the two threads mentioned above.

Please keep us posted with your results (positive or negative) as they will help our collective knowledge about Samsung UEFI brickings.

 

@Dannemand thanks a lot for your answer. I will follow your advices as sonar I have 2 spare hours. I cross my fingers. by the way, that is really ridiculous.

Martino