Sager NP9377 Bios mishappenings

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

Hi all,

I've been readings these forums for months. The info I found here led me to purchase the Sager NP9377/Clevo P377SM-A. Absolutely love the machine.

Today I managed to create a problem for myself: I was looking for a good way to lower CPU temps for daily use and generally fiddle a bit with the bios. After much reading I flashed Prema's Bios for my model following the directions explicitly. Machine worked great. Then, I lowered the voltage too far, and it wouldn't post. Ok so I unbat and unplug and then pull the cmos battery cable ... waited 10 minutes reversed the process and nothing. I tried waiting longer up to 30 minutes each try. Now it is plugged in AC and continues to try booting only to have the fans rev a little and then shut off and repeat.

So, any advice? Saw a method for Bios recovery but don't want to grab the wrong file or name it wrong and brick the thing (If not already there).

Thanks so much in advance,

ZZ

[Guest]

Try FN+B with this:

https://mega.co.nz/#!SFUjFLJD!MrQwK0W9IjvvLW9u3ADd639uPo-NPL1TAKBNmAwBbJk

If it doesn't work, try renaming it to:

"P377SM-A.ROM"

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

Prema, thank you for the file and advice. I tried Fn+B with both file names and now the power indicator is flashing rapidly, and the fans are pulsing. Is there another step that I am missing?

ZZ

[Guest]

It does that during the re-flashing...that's normal.

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

I see, how long should that take? I really only gave it about 15 minutes. Thanks again so much for your help!

ZZ

[Guest]

flash-time is under a minute, after that you can reboot it manually.

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

Starting to feel really dumb. So, when lights are flashing and fans are pulsing, I should _____________. Thank you again

ZZ

[Guest]

wait for a minute then switch it off

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

The only way I have found to switch it off is to pull the AC. Holding the power button has no effect. So, I remove the flash drive and pull the AC, then it resumes looping through the same cycle. Green indicator for less than 2 minutes and shut down and repeat.

Have I royally effed this poor machine? Willing to work through whatever to avoid an RMA for multiple reasons.

[Guest]

Does it do the indicator & FAN thingy with both recovery names?

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

Yes it does.

[Guest]

Try the same with this file:

https://mega.co.nz/#!fANyGLpL!mlioL9JjQV219uYG500-jrbKvxKh3ML95F2v1J6Y-ZQ

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

I get the same result as before. Unresponsive after flashing indicator and fan pulse. Pulling the AC results in the same loop.

Regardless of the outcome, what is the price of a nice meal in your part of the world? I want to donate to your biosmods site!

ZZ

[Guest]

The system, maybe blind in recovery menu...I'll check later what you would have to press in that case to get it to flash...

As for donation: THX, whatever your own heart tells you man...

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

Thanks again, donation sent.

ZZ

[Guest]

THX!

OK, to flash the system blind in FN-B recovery:

- keep FN+B pressed for about 30s

- Press these keys:

↓

↓

Enter

- Now wait for about a minute, then press Enter again and wait for another 30s

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

Ugh, well Fn+B only takes about 40 seconds from the time the power button is pressed to restart and light/fan pulse.

I did try Down Down Enter, then waiting about 20 seconds and Enter again, with same pulsing result.

What I noticed during FN+B: After 8 Seconds Flash Drive indicator at slow flash

After 15 total Seconds there is a rapid flash and HDD activity light briefly

After 30 total Seconds there is another rapid flash and HDD activity for about 5-10 Seconds

After 40 total Seconds it powers off and starts back up with pulsing light/fan

During the pulsing light/fan, there is no keyboard backlight, power button is dim, only the amber AC indicator light. It will continue to flash/pulse until it loses power or the FN button is pressed.

When the FN button is pressed during pulse, machine restarts in the same short loop as before.

ZZ

[Guest]

Let's first find out if the system reads the BIOS file at all.

Do the indicator lights and FAN behavior also happen by only using FN+B and without the presence of the BIOS file on the USB?

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

Brilliant question, it does respond the same with a blank bootable flash drive.

I have also found that holding only the FN button at boot immediately sends it into the pulsing mode.

[Guest]

Do you have any other CPU that you could use for a system reset?

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

I'm not sure that I know what you are asking. I do not have another mobile cpu to install into the system. I have a desktop and an ultrabook currently working.

- - - Updated - - -

No, I do not.

If we are looking for a system reset, could i remove the current cpu, then attempt a boot without. Then Re-Seating the same CPU?

[Guest]

Your system is unable to enter recovery mode...

Trying to boot with another CPU model may overwrite the messed up CPU values.

EDIT: The system can not boot without CPU, but yes it may reset the BIOS values for the next boot, try it.

At this point you could try to remove everything (SSD, wifi, one GPU) and only leave the CPU, one RAM stick and one GPU in there.

Remove the AC power, main Battery and BIOS battery and let it drain over night.

If that doesn't change its FN+B behavior then you need to de-solder the BIOS chip and send it for re-programming (I may be able to help you with that).

[ZZ--__--ZZ]

Wow, all of this for an attempted undervolt ... I will have to consider.

Thanks again,

ZZ

[uanan4]

Hi ZZ--__--ZZ. What happened at last? I also bricked same machine. What is your recommendation? Thank you in advance.

[jshackley]

Your system is unable to enter recovery mode...

Trying to boot with another CPU model may overwrite the messed up CPU values.

EDIT: The system can not boot without CPU, but yes it may reset the BIOS values for the next boot, try it.

At this point you could try to remove everything (SSD, wifi, one GPU) and only leave the CPU, one RAM stick and one GPU in there.

Remove the AC power, main Battery and BIOS battery and let it drain over night.

If that doesn't change its FN+B behavior then you need to de-solder the BIOS chip and send it for re-programming (I may be able to help you with that).

This thread can claim another victim. Oddly enough, everything was smooth and had the v2 of Prema's P377SM-A image running for over a week before I reboot Windows (correctly) only to be met with these exact symptoms (they are to the T).

I've done all of the troubleshooting I could possibly think of including a multitude of BIOS images for the P377SM-A and renaming then every convention I could possibly think of. I'm at a total loss of even how to debug this issue as the BIOS is corrupt, but I have no video when booting (GTX 970M), but can get the backlight to light on the LCD if I pull the 970M and put a 675M in it's place.

I confirmed that the issue isn't my GPU as it will push a splash screen on a P170HMx (it won't go further than that).

I also get the pulsing of the fans as well as the power LED light (there's a pattern to the LED blinking. 4 short one long). Oddly, I also get the LED indicator for the trackpad lighting up at times when it's in it's "recovery flashing" state. Another thing of interest is my back light is no longer the soft white it was when the machine could boot. I have the left portion of the keyboard as purple and the middle and right as the soft white.

I'm kind of at a loss. I couldn't find any kind of debug or serial connection that I could solder to the board for target debugging to force flash, so if I'm to understand correctly, I'm left with two choices:

1.) Desolder the BIOS from the mainboard, utilize an EEPROM programmer to flash the boot block back to a working state, and resolder the chip back on (I supposed I could just buy a pre flash chip, but it's the same concept). I'm wary of this route due to the obvious high chance to cause more damage than harm. Besides that, I couldn't seem to find the location of the BIOS on the motherboard of the P377SM-A to save my life. I also don't get along with surface mount soldering.

2.) submit for an RMA through my reseller. I am still covered under warranty (bought the machine 2/2015), but my concern is the amount of time they would spend repairing the unit and getting it back out to me (I've had extremely poor post support from my reseller to the tune of an ongoing ticket that I've followed up with their support departments about for 6 months to keep getting told they will respond to me via email and don't. It's literally the worst support I've ever received from any business in any industry), and the fact that I use the machine quite a bit for work and is essential to the tasks I am assigned to makes the repair/RMA extremely time sensitive (I get the feeling that I would absolutely get the backburner because, hey, I already bought the thing, now I'm just being a post sales user and can be ignored).

Has anyone else had this issue? More importantly, has anyone been able to correct this issue without having to resort to RMA/removal reprogram of the physical chip? What is the cause of this (I swear I wasn't poking around or anything), how can I avoid it in the future, and in the event something like this happens, could I prepare myself for a higher chance at recovering (via software or even hardware modifications)?

Anyone happen to have a picture/location of the BIOS on the P377SM-A mainboard? Would it be better to just pick up a brand new pre flashed BIOS or would it behoove to flash the original chip? Where would one send it for reprogramming and what would be the pricing cost and turn around time?

I'll continue to mess around with it over the weekend and if I find anything earth shattering I'll make sure to report. Any insight and/or assistance is humbly welcome.

Thanks!