Samsung NP530U4C boot loop

Hi! I have an all too common problem of Samsung boot looping. Samsung logo flashes for 2 seconds, loading bar fills on the bottom and then it repeats. I can't get into BIOS, the only button that works is F10 there is an "Ubuntu" option and it does nothing.

What OS I have used through the years of owning this PC (this is likely not important):
It went like this W7 Home => Pirated W7 Pro => Ubuntu (this went without anything breaking) => W7 (this one too) => Elementary (something went very wrong and I fixed it, however I have no recollection of the events as they have happened 3 years ago) => Ubuntu (this is what bricked it)

How the bricking happened:
I've installed Ubuntu from a USB stick and it seems to me that I've broken GRUB. Prior to the installation I've formatted all partitions (even EFI), in retrospective it was a bad decision. Couldn't boot and I have used boot-repair. It said that the problem was fixed and now I'm stuck with "soft-bricked" laptop.

What I have attempted:
Author of this thread owns the same model as I do and he was pointed to this thread which lead to successfully rescuing his laptop. Like in the latter thread I think that HDD was close to death as Elementary asked to check it and tried to fix it every boot. However, everything worked just fine. I have this HDD on hands in addition to the one my friend gave me. There is a Windows 8.1 installed there.
In the latter thread that I've linked people describe that laptop responds to sticking a USB stick with WinPE on it, however I am stuck on step 3 from post #7. Nothing happens when I stick a USB stick in it. HDD is disconnected. I have found only Gandalf's Win10PE x64 TH2 from 12-29-2015, flashed it with Rufus on 2 different sticks and laptop responds to neither of them. I've tried both GPT/FAT32 and MBR/NTFS.

What my next step should be? Should I proceed to #54 reply in the latter thread? Thank you taking your time to read this!

 

Hey @MM263, welcome to NBR. Sorry to hear about your soft-bricked Samsung.

This will be a brief response, as I am heading out for 4th of July engagements. I hope to follow up with more details later.

First I'll say it is great that you have done so much homework. That means you are well prepared. Of course it also means you know that this is a tricky problem, with no guarantee of a fix.

1) As you already know, you need to be able to boot some form of Windows in order to run the BIOS flashing utility with the sflash64 /cvar /patch parameters, which will clear the corrupted NVRAM. It can be any Windows version (including WinPE) and from anything that can boot (HDD, USB flash drive, DVD). Making that happen is the difficult part.

2) Try the CMOS reset procedure described in the posts here and here and/or try disconnecting the coin battery and main battery, then hold the power button for a few seconds. This won't clear NVRAM, but it may reset BIOS settings to default. You said that your PC came with Win7, and therefore it would have UEFI disabled from factory. So if we can reset BIOS settings to default, we'll know to focus on good old MBR boot devices, not on GPT.

3) With BIOS settings (hopefully) reset, try again booting WinPE (or any Windows) from either HDD, USB or DVD -- again, now focusing on MBR drives only. BIOS Fast BIOS/Boot is probable enabled by default, so that means the laptop will only boot from USB or DVD if the HDD is disconnected.

If you succeed in booting something, proceed with the next steps in that guide in post #7 ( here).

The nuclear option is to have a qualified computer repair store pull out (de-solder) the BIOS chip and re-flash it with BIOS files downloaded using isosunrise's BIOS rollback guide ( here). That too will cause the NVRAM to clear on next power-on.

Keep us posted on your progress. I'll check back tomorrow (Wed) or Thu.

 

Dannemand, thank you for taking your time to instruct me!
Here is a small update:

I've done CMOS reset and the only result of it is that when I boot now and press F10 there is no "Ubuntu" option to choose from (not that it was useful in the first place). So I've tried MBR/NTFS USB sticks written with Rufus 2.11. Images I've tried are StrelecPE 10-8 and previously mentioned Gandalf's WinPE.

Now I am going to head to a friends place to write a DVD with WinPE.

 

Thank you for that update!

A couple suggestions I forgot in my last post:

A) When trying to boot from USB, make sure you try from USB2 ports as well as USB3 (blue ones). USB2 is more likely to be bootable.

B) If you have access to another computer (such as your friend's) you can try putting WinPE on your HDD, then try booting that with your laptop. Now that BIOS settings (presumably) have been reset and UEFI disabled, BIOS should look for an MBR disk with a good old boot record as its first boot choice. You can use any 2.5mm HDD or SSD that you know is working; but you're already just one misstep from a dead laptop, so don't take any chances on a disk that may have problems.

C) As an alternative to WinPE, you can install regular Windows (preferably Win7) on that HDD using another computer. If you do this, make sure that other computer is running in legacy BIOS mode (CSM), not in UEFI mode. This is important! Then DON'T complete the Windows installation, only run the first part of Windows Setup until it wants to boot. At this point turn off everything, then connect the disk to your laptop and see if it might boot it and continue installation from there. You don't have to Activate this Windows or install Samsung drivers: As soon as you have a running Windows, proceed to clear NVRAM.

Those are just a couple more things to try. Fingers crossed for you. Happy thoughts

 

Okay, I did it. Can use F2 now.

My course of action:
0) Cut a wire with a screw when assembling laptop and buy a used one on ebay for 5$. (Don't do this)
1) Unplug HDD. Disconnect coin battery and main battery.
2) Hold power button for a long time.
3) Plug the batteries back in.
4) Write Gandalf's_Win10PE_x64_TH2-12-29-2015 on a DVD disk with this tool.
5) Put this disk in and press F3 on boot.
6) When loaded put a USB stick with BIOS in. Extraction of necessary files is described here in post #7, step #2. Open a command line in a folder with these files and run sflash64 /cvar /patch.

Done.

Dannemand, thank you for all your work. You put such an amazing effort into this forum, and you've helped so many people. You are doing god's work. Thank you again.

 

I'll also post an update on trying to install Ubuntu.

 

I guess this will be my last update and I wanted to thank Dannemand once again.

I made a Kubuntu USB stick with Rufus, installation went smoothly, rebooted thrice to check if it boots properly. To be frank I gave up on this laptop and I've already started looking for a new one. This is a miracle!

 

Fantastic! Very well done salvaging your laptop!

And thank you for posting the result and your steps here. Every time a member does that, it helps others find it through Google and gives them a chance to do the same.