Broken Clevo P751TM

[Maks0098]

When the charger is turned on, the indicators light up yellow. When the power button is pressed, the power indicator flashes green twice and that's it. I tried to reflash the main BIOS chip, I took out the CMOS battery, after that the laptop when I pressed the power button - the keyboard backlight started to light up, the fans started in turn, and then the backlight turned off and the fans rotated at 100% and the power indicator blinked orange. I also tried to reflash the EC, nothing helps. I also changed the video card to a known working one. First after power failure and first start - the above happens, and subsequent starts only the green power indicator blinks twice and that's it. Could the problem be in the video card power cable? Or is the problem somewhere in the motherboard or matrix?

[Maks0098]

I reflashed it using ch341a with a clip, just in case

[Maks0098]

and the BIOS that I flashed was from Dsanke. Maybe I flashed the wrong BIOS, because I have an i7-8086K and GTX 1080? Maybe I should try to buy a new i5-7400 or something similar to check if the processor might be the issue? and does this laptop support i3-7100, i3-6100? so that I don't spend money on i5 which is more expensive and I won't use it later

[harkaz]

Most likely a motherboard issue. EC appears to be working fine. Use Clevo BIOS with your i7-8086K processor from https://repo.palkeo.com/

In any case the device should be professionally tested with proper equipment (i.e. microscope, multimeter, oscilloscope) to understand the root cause.

[runix18]

How did you tried to flash the EC?

[Maks0098]

7 hours ago, runix18 said:

How did you tried to flash the EC?

I flashed it using a programmer. Or what do you mean?

[Maks0098]

14 hours ago, harkaz said:

Most likely a motherboard issue. EC appears to be working fine. Use Clevo BIOS with your i7-8086K processor from https://repo.palkeo.com/

In any case the device should be professionally tested with proper equipment (i.e. microscope, multimeter, oscilloscope) to understand the root cause.

it's just that I've seen other people have this problem when they had the wrong BIOS. but maybe that's not the issue. for now I want to be sure that I have the right BIOS and EC flashed, and then I'll look for another reason. Which BIOS should I flash from this site and should I flash the EC again with some other firmware?

 

and the battery charges and then the indicator lights up green, by the way

[runix18]

3 hours ago, Maks0098 said:

I flashed it using a programmer. Or what do you mean?

What chip did you flash? Wich one?

[Maks0098]

2 hours ago, runix18 said:

What chip did you flash? Wich one?

I can't find a photo to show. But I still have the marking: mx25l6473f

I'll be taking the laptop apart again later - I can take a photo

[runix18]

9 hours ago, Maks0098 said:

I can't find a photo to show. But I still have the marking: mx25l6473f

I'll be taking the laptop apart again later - I can take a photo

I was curious because that chip you flashed is not the EC. EC chips are those 2 big ones from ITE.

[Maks0098]

9 hours ago, runix18 said:

I was curious because that chip you flashed is not the EC. EC chips are those 2 big ones from ITE.

The EC chip has the marking 25q80dvsig

I read it, saved what was on it and wrote a new firmware

[runix18]

3 hours ago, Maks0098 said:

The EC chip has the marking 25q80dvsig

I read it, saved what was on it and wrote a new firmware

I dunno where you got the info, but in the service manual the EC and Second EC are marked IT8587.

So that beeing said I have no ideea what you flashed but it was not the EC.

[Maks0098]

1 hour ago, runix18 said:

I dunno where you got the info, but in the service manual the EC and Second EC are marked IT8587.

So that beeing said I have no ideea what you flashed but it was not the EC.

on the right you can see the file that I read from that chip. And on the left is the EC firmware, which I found specifically for P7**TM version 1.07.16

the files are the same, one might say (I didn’t review them completely, because I still understood that the one I took could have been broken) and the same size

[Maks0098]

This is not the first time I have flashed BIOS and EC chips, so I recognize them simply by their location on the board.)

[runix18]

10 hours ago, Maks0098 said:

on the right you can see the file that I read from that chip. And on the left is the EC firmware, which I found specifically for P7**TM version 1.07.16

the files are the same, one might say (I didn’t review them completely, because I still understood that the one I took could have been broken) and the same size

From the looks of it, they seem the same but they are not, as a few missing added or different bits can mean a completly different thing for the BIOS init PXE driver.

Nevertheless I susspect that your problem is not firmware but a hardware problem. You better of have the mobo diagnosed.

[harkaz]

On 11/6/2024 at 4:32 PM, Maks0098 said:

it's just that I've seen other people have this problem when they had the wrong BIOS. but maybe that's not the issue. for now I want to be sure that I have the right BIOS and EC flashed, and then I'll look for another reason. Which BIOS should I flash from this site and should I flash the EC again with some other firmware?

 

and the battery charges and then the indicator lights up green, by the way

If your model is P751TM (not P751TM1): https://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/P7xxTMxG/P7xxTM(G)_B10729.zip

If your model is P751TM1: https://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/P7xxTMxG/P7xxTM1(G)_B10729.zip

 

EC seems ok. There are 2 EC chips, as a matter of fact. If EC did not function at all, keyboard lights would not come up at all. You can also test the Fn+1 key combination - as long as EC is functional it should make fans spin at 100% even without a CPU!

From posts online, I suspect the PCH is malfunctioning (probably after thermal damage). This is a guess.

Not the most likely explanation if this happened after power failure.

 

NOTE: The SPI flash you refer to is used for automatic flashing of the EC. However, if EC is malfunctioning, low-level programming tools have to be used (i.e. https://ioprogrammer.com/).