I Bricked My Cube i9 :( !!!!!!! Don't look in the Bios / flashing menu!

[Chris G]

Okay so I found on the cube forms an updated bios bin for the i9. I was hoping to flash it and see if it fixed my microsd card issue (No 64GB+ cards could be read)

I moved the bios bin file to a USB bootable fat32 pen drive and thought maybe it’s flashed by the bios as I remember seeing a flashing option in the bios. I assumed there would be a reboot to a UEFI bios flashing menu. But no, selecting the flashing option just proceeded to WIPE my bios and FLASH nothing. End result is I have a 500 euro paper weight. BRICKED! I’m so pissed off right now…

Yes my fault, but hell, no warning, no prompt first nothing. Just proceeded to wipe the bios. Zero fail safes. I’m an idoit. So no Cube I9 review unless I can finish it with my notes and videos I took.

The bios chip is solder in, in such a way my 3 clips will not contact with it and my solder iron skills will not allow me to be able to remove it safely to flash on the programmer pcb itself. End result is I have no way to recover this 🙁

I have internal shots and how to open videos coming. And my copper heatsink mod that is very simple but worked very sell. Reducing temps by 20 degrees+ with only a 20 x 20mm copper shim and a new thermal pad.

Chris | Admin
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[Bonnom]

Not you’re fault. Being able to erase the bios is plain stupid and retarded.
You should contact the cube engineers and ask what you can do.

Sometimes laptops have crisis bios recovery mode. It is a long shot but worth a try.

http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-2242592/bios-recover-crisis-mode-bios-problem-acer-5942g.html
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Boot-and-Lockup/Fixing-A-laptop-which-had-had-a-bad-BIOS-upgrade/td-p/225042

Also some people tried this.
With the battery. You need to remove the normal battery and the special battery for the bios.

http://ccm.net/forum/affich-73142-laptop-won-t-boot-after-bios-upgrade

[Lars Johnsen]

Have you considered using a (variable temperature / air speed) heat gun instead of a soldering iron?

[Jonathan]

Please don’t try using a heat gun, the chances are good that you’ll melt the solder on other components too and blow them off the board. Alternatively you’ll scorch the PCB.

What kind of package is the chip? It’s probably a lot easier to use a soldering iron on it than you’d think, the solder mask tends to prevent bridges even if the soldering iron tip is larger than the pitch of the pins.

[Yaakov]

What about going in to bios to overclock is that safer

[Viktor]

It should be this one: https://i.imgsafe.org/44252db.jpg

Can you make a higher resolution screenshot of those components?

[Anonymous]

Bloody hell, sorry to hear that 🙁

Hope you manage to get it going again, and thank you for the (regrettably sacrificial) warning – we’ll stay the hell away from that!

[scott]

I have a working I9, is there a bios dump/ system dump I can do to image across to him?

Just let meet know what needs to be done and I can do it. im sure there is a techie our there that can help

[Viktor]

Those looks like the debug ports for the bios chip.

You need to inspect which port connects to which pin and then solder small wires to the chip programmer.

[Jonathan]

Out of interest does anyone know if it’s safe to program the flash chip in-circuit? I mean really safe, not “yeah I tried it once and it worked” kind of safe but knowing for a fact there’s circuitry onboard to prevent damage to the SoC when it’s I/O pins are driven while it’s not powered etc.

Please at the very least check the voltage of your programmer against the recommended operating range of the flash chip, it was a good call by Laura here.

 

[Jonathan]

Yaakov wrote:

What about going in to bios to overclock is that safer

I don’t think you’d gain anything by changing the settings there and you could be risking a lot.

[Keshon83]

Whoa! Sorry to hear this :((( Ignore my YouTube comment then which I left couple of minutes ago after watching the internals review.

I think it worth a try to contact to So Cube store and ask for their help – maybe there is a solution without soldering?

I also found this engineer guru “PowerElectronicsBlog” in YouTube who has i7 stylus: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6s6hzKdt0KnxyECKV0TiCw and he surely does look pro and enthusiastic  at this stuff. Would contact him if I were you.

TechTablets community is with you (I hope).

[Yaakov]

Jonathan wrote:

Yaakov wrote:

What about going in to bios to overclock is that safer

I don’t think you’d gain anything by changing the settings there and you could be risking a lot.

ok  thanks

[Diego Marzorati]

Sorry to hear that Chris, my english is not good enough to understood what happened in the video, but now it’s clear. You should get another unit from Cube from free after all your informative work, letting the world know about these products. If you start something in Cube’s page, we’ll support you.e

[Viktor]

For reference:

Bios pin layout

[Author]

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