P170HM bios recovery help

[ajbutch123]

I posted over on notebook review, and want to post here too. I would love it if Prema could weigh in on this as he knows much more about bios stuff then I do.

 

I have a sager np8170 with a bricked bios. I just need advice on how to proceed with fixing it. I can order a new bios chip and solder it onto the board. If that will work, I might just do that.

If there is a way to recover without swapping the chip, I want to try that first. Both the lights on the front bezel (amber and green) light up, as well as the power button and ST wireless light. I don't mind using the clevo bios, as long as it works. Oh, and I do have a Radeon card in it at the moment if that makes a difference.


If I can't fix it without a new motherboard, then you all will see a lot of p170HM parts on ebay as I don't have $300 to throw at a 5yr old pc. I have both 120hz UDP and 60hz gloss displays/bezels, as well as a few other extra parts and a couple gpu heatsinks that are hard to get now. Ill probably put the stuff I can't use up for sale when I get it fixed anyway... so keep an eye out if you are looking for that kind of stuff.

[robinlecouteur]

Don't know if you still have it, but you can flash the chip directly with a Raspberry Pi using flashrom, https://www.flashrom.org/RaspberryPi. I fixed my completely bricked P170SM-A using this method. 

[Gounette]

Wow didn't know we could do this, i have an old one , in case i brick it i will give it a try thanks ^^

[kirbdogg231]

didnt know that you could use the raspberry pie!