Hardware damaged?

[mark]

Hi,

I wanted to flash coreboot onto my VIE Epia-M; this is what I did:
1) bought an identical Bios chip to have a working copy of the old bios
2) checked out coreboot, filo, flashrom
3) dumped the bios with flashrom into a file and wrote that file onto the new 
chip with flashrom, after hotswapping the chip. I verified each step with 
flashrom, no problems here.
Now the board booted with both chips, everything was fine.

Then I dumped the video-bios, compiled filo and compiled coreboot after 
configuring it.
It compiled successfully and I wrote the rom-file onto the new chip and 
rebooted.
The computer started and printed some random, weird, colorful blocks all 
around the screen, nothing else happened.
So I removed the new chip and inserted the old chip, which still contained the 
working, official bios.
But after starting up the computer, the screen remained black and nothing 
happend, except that the harddrive spinned up; no beep, nothing.
Changed back to the new, not working chip (which at least showed some color), 
but same effect here.

Did I brick the board somehow, or is it possible that coreboot bricked it 
somehow? I don't understand, what part of the board could have been damaged 
here. Short circuit?

Greetings,

Mark

[Rudolf Marek]

Hi,

Please try to unplug the board completely from the power outlet and retry. Also 
dont forget to clear the CMOS. Then re-try with orig bios.

Rudolf

[mark]

Hi,
> Please try to unplug the board completely from the power outlet and retry.
> Also dont forget to clear the CMOS. Then re-try with orig bios.

I unplugged the power, set the clear cmos jumper, waited some time and even 
removed the battery, but this doesn't help, still the same symptoms after 
powering on again.

Mark

[Rudolf Marek]

Hi,

Hm no idea what went wrong. Do you see something on serial with the coreboot? 
Most likely 115200 bauds...

Rudolf

[Myles Watson]

On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 8:49 AM, mark  wrote:
> Hi,
> > Please try to unplug the board completely from the power outlet and retry.
> > Also dont forget to clear the CMOS. Then re-try with orig bios.
>
> I unplugged the power, set the clear cmos jumper, waited some time and even
> removed the battery, but this doesn't help, still the same symptoms after
> powering on again.

Is there any output on the serial console with Coreboot?  There should
have been a lot of it the first time when you got to VGA init.

Thanks,
Myles

[mark]

> Is there any output on the serial console with Coreboot?  There should
> have been a lot of it the first time when you got to VGA init.

The problem is, not even the monitor turns on, which indicates that there is 
no VGA init or VGA signal, using both chips.
I'll check with a multimeter if there is any current on the pins.
> has a pin of the socket or the flash been bent?

some pins of the original chip have been slightly bent, but I fixed them with a 
pliers before inserting. Unfortunately my plcc32 extractor is too big for that 
board, so the first time I used a screwdriver to extract the chip and after 
that I used some filament underneath the chip to plug it out.

I did not check the serial output yet; the only lifesign is the onboard 
network chip which establishes a link to my switch. But my guess is, that 
board is beyond repair, as the original bios doesn't work anymore, there is no 
beep signal, and no VGA signal.
If there is anything new, I'll let you know. Thanks for your help so far.

Mark

[Peter Stuge]

mark wrote:
> the first time I used a screwdriver to extract the chip and after
> that I used some filament underneath the chip to plug it out.

How thick? Are you 100% sure that the chip actually has good contact
in the socket? Maybe try the factory BIOS without that filament once.
> the only lifesign is the onboard network chip which establishes a
> link to my switch.

That's completely independent of coreboot or BIOS.

//Peter

[Myles Watson]

On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 1:02 AM, mark  wrote:
> > Is there any output on the serial console with Coreboot?  There should
> > have been a lot of it the first time when you got to VGA init.
>
> The problem is, not even the monitor turns on, which indicates that there is
> no VGA init or VGA signal, using both chips.

That's not surprising.  VGA init is pretty late in the process.
> I'll check with a multimeter if there is any current on the pins.
> > has a pin of the socket or the flash been bent?
>
> some pins of the original chip have been slightly bent, but I fixed them with a
> pliers before inserting. Unfortunately my plcc32 extractor is too big for that
> board, so the first time I used a screwdriver to extract the chip and after
> that I used some filament underneath the chip to plug it out.

I like the pushpin method.  Cheap, easy, reversible.

http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools#Chip_removal_tools

Thanks,
Myles

[Frieder Ferlemann]

Am 04.05.2010 16:49, schrieb mark:
> I unplugged the power, set the clear cmos jumper, waited some time and even 
> removed the battery, but this doesn't help, still the same symptoms after 
> powering on again.

has a pin of the socket or the flash been bent?

Greetings,
Frieder

[Peter Stuge]

mark wrote:
> Did I brick the board somehow, or is it possible that coreboot
> bricked it somehow? I don't understand, what part of the board
> could have been damaged here. Short circuit?

There could have been a short when you inserted the new flash chip
with coreboot, but then you would not have gotten the one start with
the colorful display.

You could check the capacitors on the board for leaks - several on my
EPIA-M board have leaked and the board doesn't start, but that's not
likely because of coreboot, rather because of bad capacitors.

//Peter