Samsung Np700Z5C brick

I am posting here as a last straw type thing.

I bought the Samsung np700Z5c in the Semptember of 2012. I expected it to last me for a while, but i had no idea about the UEFI bug. I am a computer science student, and one of the requirements for computer science is linux.

The laptop originally came with Windows 7. I wiped and installed windows 8 then upgraded to 8.1. Everything was working fine, i could even access the bios and everything.

So i went right ahead an installed Ubuntu and grub, like i would on any other PC. After installing i noticed i couldn't access the bios anymore, i just thought it was a windows 8 fastboot thing or the fastboot option. Then the school year was starting again and i decided to do a clean install. But when i tried to access the BIOS, i couldn't. I didnt think too much of this. Pulled out the SSD and formatted and put in again.

I made a live USB with linux, and plugged it in the laptop. Now the USB has to be booted through BIOS, which i couldnt since i could never get to the BIOS. After trying a bunch of stuff, i concluded the BIOS had somehow been messed up. I started looking this online, and all i got was multiple articles talking about a UEFI brick.

I couldn't really do much, since everytime i called samsung i was put on the line with retards, and my warranty had ran out. I had to buy another laptop cause i needed one for university, not the greatest one but gets the job done.

I decided to google the problem again and a lot of answers on this forum kept popping up. But i never really found a fix.
I had tried to reset the CMOS, dont seem like it worked unless i did it wrong.

I cant access BIOS, the laptop dosen't recognize a live USB or an HDD, or anything. Brightness controls work... keyboard works.
Its just a paper weight now.

When i power it on, this is all it shows after the samsung logo.

 

Did you work through this thread, which is our latest discussion of the problem and reached a successful conclusion?

John

 

Sorry to bring back an old thread, i have out of school now and have time to maybe look back.

The difference with those threads and my laptop is that there is no BIOS, i can press the button to access bios, in fast it says please wait, then just reboot and goes to the screen posted in my previous post.

I say it has no bios because it does not recgonize any sort of media, Live boot USB, or anything else, including the hard drive.

Once again i have tried to reset the CMOS and that didnt do anything.

Anything else i can try?

What i was trying to do was maybe find the BIOS chip that is soddered on to the board and physically replace it. Other than that this laptop works fine.

 

Hi McLaren, welcome back.

Those are EXACTLY the symptoms being addressed in the thread John linked in his last post. We've come a long way since the days of that simple CMOS reset procedure you may have used -- and which only worked in a few cases.

You want to study that thread carefully. There is a summary in post #7, but I recommend you read the entire thread, so you understand what's going on. Also more info was added after that summary was posted.

We have cases of semi-bricked laptops now, often several a week. That thread is our main resource for them.