Samsung series 5 bricked bios from windows 10

Hi all, I got here while searching for bricked samsung UEFI articles.

Heres what happened, my laptop had windows 7 but refuse to boot, I decided to reinstall windows 7, however I couldn't get it to pass the (windows extracting files part...) always at 0% and eventually throw an error. So I decided to played with Bios a bit, and turned on UEFI and still didn't work. (now regret doing this...)

So I tried to install windows 10, installation got stuck at updating system part, I had to do a hard shutdown. Now BIOS F2 doesn't work on start up, I tried many times with fast presses...basically bios was bricked by windows 10 install. can't get back to BIOS.

A few things I have tried:

• - using a windows 10 dvd to get to advance setup options and get to UEFI firm ware settings, its not there...
• - disconnect main battery, disconnect CMOS battery, wait 10 min, power on, BIOS still not accessible.

Things I could do at the moment:

• - boot from USB, boot with Gpart to do changes partition tables and format drives
• - I manage to install windows 7 on the iSSD(talk about irony), expresscache given it is 16G, it barely fits, but I could run samsung BIOS update, but refuse to update as it is already latest BIOS. the way to boot it up after installation is to stick in a USB win7 , when it ask to press any key to boot from USB/DVD, skip this step, the next boot will come from iSSD.
• - I could use f10 to got into boot menu, doesn't do much there dvd booting and a apps menu but it is empty, I suspect if windows 10 was installed correctly the apps menu will let me get to UEFI firmware settings, or the bios settings.
• - I tried to format the HDD and install the windows 7 via USB, the USB stick worked for the iSSD Drive but didn't work for the HDD, strange...I suspect the HDD is now faulty.

Any comments as to what I could do to get BIOS restored? or install windows 7 on the HDD?

system spec:
samsung series 5, model:NP5304B-S01CN
iSSD 16G, HDD 500G

 

By the order of things it seems without UEFI the boot disk was not booting to begin with. By enabling UEFI with a non working defective disk you are compounding your problems. While there is no guaranty at this point the best path is forward and with a new good working hard disk try and install W10 again.

 

@yinako: What has happened is that switching to UEFI and attempting Windows installation caused the NVRAM used by your BIOS to become corrupted. Clearing it will let you get back into BIOS, and most likely solve any boot problems so you can start over.

You can clear the NVRAM either by (A) updating your BIOS to a newer version (except you're already on the latest) or (B) by extracting the BIOS flashing utility from a BIOS update file for your model (any BIOS version will do) and running it with the /cvar /patch parameters.

Both of these require running some form of Windows (any version). You are very fortunate that you able to boot Windows: Many users in this situation are unable to boot anything, effectively making their laptops bricked. Be very careful now not to lose this advantage.

(BTW good job shoehorning Windows onto your iSSD.)

Follow the steps described in this post, except you can skip the WinPE step because you are able to boot Windows. That entire thread covers your situation, with several cases of members saving there laptops. While that is our main thread on this topic, it is also discussed in several other threads, such as here and here.

I recommend you spend some time reading these threads to make sure you understand the problem and the steps required to solve it. Don't play around experimenting too much, since you could easily lose your current ability to boot Windows.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

 

Great! I was able to use the bios from the thread link, and re-flash the bios with winflash.exe to an older version, then upgrade it back to the new version again (using the new bios upgrade file). This enabled the F2 boot, and I returned the bios to default settings.

Still trying to get windows 7 working on the HDD though, I did find now seatools can test the drive after turn AHCI mode to manual in bios.

 

Well done, glad you got that working.

Certainly make sure that the HDD is free of surface errors before trying another Windows installation. But when you get to it, this Win7/8 install guide has much detail specific to samsung laptops, including how to avoid iSSD related boot problems, sequence of drivers to install etc.

Just for the record again, for anybody else in the same situation who might see this: If you're already on the latest BIOS (so you cannot simply run the updater) you don't HAVE to roll back to an earlier BIOS first. Simply running the flashing utility with the /cvar /patch parameters will accomplish the same NVRAM clearing, which solves the inability to enter BIOS settings with F2 and various boot problems.

The BIOS flashing utility can be extracted from the BIOS update file using the advice in @isosunrise's excellent guide. It is not important which version of BIOS update file is used, as long as it is for your model (matching Platform ID).

Note that this only addresses soft bricking caused by corrupted NVRAM. For harder bricking cases, refer to the Samsung accumulated Unbricking solutions thread.

Once again, well done!