I have a HP OMEN 15-dc0850nd that is stuck on black screen when turned on power button light up fan ruining and caps lock blinks 5 times(slow)+3 times(fast) according to HP website "This condition indicates the embedded controller cannot reach the BIOS within the established time limit."
I’m going to flash the bios using an CH341A(waiting for it to arrive) and I have some questions
There is two chip on the motherboard GigaDevice - 25B127DSIG I think this one has the bios since its a 16M size GigaDevice - 25Q80CSIG This one is 8M in size
First question about the bios I downloaded the file from HP its sp127587.exe which create C:\SWSetup\sp127587\BIOS_Update.EXE Running the exe file give option to extract to usb or a directory both result in 2 files 084DA.sig(1 KB) and 084DA.bin(16,384 KB) Do i need to modify the bin file before flashing or just backup the one from the chip and flash?
Second question is about the chip it seem most tools don’t have this chip and clicking on detect will suggest 2 or 3 different chip From the research I did some people had success using W25Q128BV or GD25Q128C is it fine selecting a different chip suggested by the software?
Last question what’s the best tool/version to use AsProgrammer, CH341a Programmer…?
Thanks
PS: The bios on the laptop is the same attached below
You’ll possibly loose som board specific information when flashing stock bios (serial, service tag, maybe Windows activation…) Regarding software- search the forum there are several reports. Normally Asprogrammer should work, flashrom might work, those chips aren’t that different (but check voltage!).
Try to read the content of the old chips, check the dump with UEFIToolNE for structure. Make at least 2 valid dumps- meaning reading the chip at least twice with a 100% identical result and readable structure in UEFIToolNE. That’s a) a good check before writing- if you read only garbage, you’ll probably write garbage, too, and positioning the clamp needs some training.
If the method mentioned by Sweet Kitten doesn’t work- post the dump you have, may be the bricked bios is recoverable, maybe the board specific information can be transfered.
What did make the board brick? Firmware update- settings, like undervolting- trying to mod, …?
Why? Extract BIOS recovery files on USB drive and plug it into your laptop. Isn’t this the best option?
I tried that on some HP laptop you do that while holding win+b or win+v key no luck Also removed the battery, ram, hdd, wifi card and hold power button to discharge didn’t work
8 Mbit = 1 MByte…
You’ll possibly loose som board specific information when flashing stock bios (serial, service tag, maybe Windows activation…) Regarding software- search the forum there are several reports. Normally Asprogrammer should work, flashrom might work, those chips aren’t that different (but check voltage!).
Try to read the content of the old chips, check the dump with UEFIToolNE for structure. Make at least 2 valid dumps- meaning reading the chip at least twice with a 100% identical result and readable structure in UEFIToolNE. That’s a) a good check before writing- if you read only garbage, you’ll probably write garbage, too, and positioning the clamp needs some training.
If the method mentioned by Sweet Kitten doesn’t work- post the dump you have, may be the bricked bios is recoverable, maybe the board specific information can be transfered.
What did make the board brick? Firmware update- settings, like undervolting- trying to mod, …?
Here is the info from the datasheet GD25Q80C -8M-bit Serial Flash -1024K-byte -256 bytes GD25B127D -128M-bit Serial Flash -16384K-byte -256 bytes
I was going to make 3 dump and just check the md5 hash now I will check with UEFIToolNE too
Bricked while trying to fix the headphone jack I removed the nvm to remove the fan and take the mini board with the headphone jack but forget to remove the battery After putting everything back the first boot said something about hard drive error and sent me to diagnosis page I selected exit and the laptop rebooted and toke time to post so I pressed the power button to rebooted big mistake This laptop take time to post the first boot after removing any components it did happen in the past when I clean it/repasted cpu and gpu So advice if you unplug anything inside the first boot after will take some times be patient
I will post the dump as soon as I get it and thank you both for the help
That’s just since the worst possible read (16MByte FF) still will give you a valid looking hash and it will of course be the same for all 3 dumps…
Update I did read the bios from the chip and save it After that I compare it to the one from HP using UEFITool its the same I also compare it using a hexeditor there is a few differences
After flashing the bios from HP with AsProgrammer now the laptop power button is flashing every 5 sec and no fan spin
Reading the flashed bios from the chip and comparing it to the one from HP its the same
Like I said before this chip doesn’t exist so I used GD25Q128C since someone on reddit had success flashing 25B127DSIG using GD25Q128C
Idk if I should try GD25Q128B or W25Q128BV or a different program/version I have AsProgrammer 1.4.1/2.0.3a/2.1.0.13 NeoProgrammer 2.2.0.10/2.2.0.7 and CH341A 2.2.1.1/2.1.0.13/1.43/1.18/1.29/1.30
IDK what’s going on anymore please help! The attached files are the dump of the original bios that was blinking capslock/fan spin
Well, differences are expected from used firmware to stock firmware in ME, NVRAM and possibly padding if the manufacturer stores settings or machine specific data there. You got 3 completely identical dumps, they’re fine! Static bios parts were a 100% identical to stock bios as expected. These are good reads, bios region is so large that we would’ve seen any systematic error (like ever nth block not read for example).
Does that mean you did read the newly flashed stock HP bios back again from the chip and compared it to the original file to make sure the flash was good? Or did I misunderstand that?
If you can read the SPI chip and is has updated content identical to what you flashed, there’s no reason that the flash process wasn’t properly done and no need to flash it again.
Did you reset the CMOS (possibly removing all batteries or main battery and pressing power for some seconds- check manual)?
Otherwise check the hardware again, reseat all connectore, reseat RAM, check all cables…
Does that mean you did read the newly flashed stock HP bios back again from the chip and compared it to the original file to make sure the flash was good? Or did I misunderstand that?
If you can read the SPI chip and is has updated content identical to what you flashed, there’s no reason that the flash process wasn’t properly done and no need to flash it again.
Did you reset the CMOS (possibly removing all batteries or main battery and pressing power for some seconds- check manual)?
Otherwise check the hardware again, reseat all connectore, reseat RAM, check all cables…
I read/save the bios(source HP website) from the chip to see if the same as the bios(source HP website) I flashed
I tried with and without the battery no success Everything’s seem fine didn’t touch any connector and I did try RAM reseat/different slot
A few more try with no success same result power button blinking every 5 sec/no fan spin CH341A 1.18 with W25Q128BV NeoProgrammer 2.2.0.10 with GD25B127 NeoProgrammer 2.2.0.7 with GD25Q127C
I did flash the bricked bios back but same result power button blinking every 5 sec/no fan spin
I will flash the bricked bios one more using a different program after that I will try other chip variant/program Since GigaDevice GD25B127D is compatible with GD25B128C, GD25R128C, GD25B127D, GD25R127C, GD25Q127C, GD25Q128C
And lastly I will flash an older bios version F06 that was the one I had when I bought this laptop
If you dump the chip content after flashing and the content is identical to what you flashed into the chip earlier, then the chip is programmed properly. It won’t get any better if you do it several times and the PC would definitely work with the HP stock bios if the problem was firmware…
Here is how I bricked the first time the laptop did boot and displayed a msg error about the hard drive then sent me to the diagnosis page to check the hdd, ram… I clicked exit instead so if there was a problem with the board it will not boot also the power button is on a small board that have an usb port and headphone/mic jack and I didn’t touch anything else on the motherboard I just removed the ribbon to the small board cleaned the board and put it back
The mistake I made was after I clicked exit it rebooted and toke some time to poste and I forced another reboot by holding the power button Since this laptop will always take time the first boot after removing the battery, ram or any components I forgot this since it happen in the paste when I clean it
Now what’s puzzling me is after flashing the bios from HP or the one recovered from the chip the laptop is doing something different i.e no fan spin or capslock blinking
Now its kinda dead the only thing I see is a white light next to the charger plug that blink with the power button every 5 second and no fan spin If I have the battery installed the light next to the plug turn orange
The original blinking indicate "This condition indicates the embedded controller cannot reach the BIOS within the established time limit." this from HP website so now I’m suspecting the other chip since it most likely is the EC
After multiple flash using different tool/chip model/bios old new stock removing the motherboard to inspect it nothing change still blinking power button
Doing more research on "This condition indicates the embedded controller cannot reach the BIOS within the established time limit." The embedded controller is an EC “IT8987E” located on the back of the motherboard according to a Russian forum its self programable meaning it read from the bios chip even a new soldered chips should do the same only an EC from another laptop will need erase/program
Now I’m going to take the laptop to a shop to check the motherboard and that EC maybe there is a fault
As written, reflashing the spi with these symptoms won’t take you any further. Second chip you read dosn’t contain anything I can recognize, just leave it as it is.
EC firmware is for almost all notebooks part of bios region- first padding:
This firmware should be read therefrom by the EC and it should update itself automatically, but can be updated separately, too. I doubt that an empty chip will update itself, hardware programming is afaik done via keyboard port and quite expensive programmers, there’s a reason that people will buy pre-programmed chips like these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/114238368605
Good luck, please report back when you find out what the reason was.
I toke the laptop to a shop and left it there since I’m out of town and busy I will pick it up as soon I’m back
They said there nothing wrong with the motherboard and they suspect the chipset but I doubt its the chipset I’m 99% is the EC since that was the initial issue with the error code
I will look my self with a multimeter when I get the laptop back to see if all voltage are present on the board and the EC If that the case I will try to find someone who program EC or Will order a preprogramed one
I have a question could the programmer 5v killed the EC somehow since the bios chip is 3v? I saw on a blog that the programmer can be modified to supply only 3v Because after flashing with the the programmer it got worse no fan spin
if you still need help I can help, so the programmer is 3.3 volts, not 5 volts, anyways you need to erease the ic first and then upload the original bios file from the oem website and flash it with the verify option enabled
