[elloco]

Hey guys,

Sorry to bother you with another brick thread. Just wanted to know your opinion on what has happened to my machine, may be even from people who successfully recovered their BIOS after a brick.

Had some battery issues (batt wasn't identified by the system) and read that a BIOS update might be able to fix that. Didn't want to risk a crashing windows while flashing so I used a USB stick with FreeDOS and started the phlash utility from it. Seemed to work well at first but then it started to produce some random beeps and finally stopped with a power off. I waited for another 10 minutes to be sure that it wasn't running anymore only to find out afterwards that I wouldn't be able to turn the machine on again.

When I plug in the charger, lights of the USB devices that are connected with the mini flash for a few milisecs so the motherboard seems to get electricity but when I press the power button, there's no reaction at all: no LCD backlight, no POST, no beeps and even no flashing of the power LED! It's literally dead. I already tried (like a thousand times) the Fn+End recovery procedure together with a recovery USB stick that I made with WinCris: no success

I still have a bit of hope that the whole thing is just a fixable BIOS issue and haven't tried a recovery using a FDD yet. But since not even the power LED goes on, I'm afraid that the board is actually physically broken and that any more energy or money that I put into this thing would be a waste of time...

My question is: does this really seem like a brick to you or more like a broken mainboard? Has anyone experienced something similar or revived his mini with a recovery USB/floppy when not even the power LED would turn on?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Cheers
nico

[dashvandel]

I am half tempted to find a way to JTAG this thing I have tried the software to USB fixes I have seen a combination of keys to press and blinking lights

#1 I have tried a USB stick with the BIOS fix on it in every USB port
I have tried every key combination Fn & B, Fn & S, Fn & Esc, Fn & End. I get no beeps no blinking lights no nothing...

#2 when I power up the laptop the power light comes on, the hard drive spins, the screen is black, there is no sound.

when I plug the power cable into the device no lights turn on, only when I press the power button does lights come on and this being the power light.

does anyone know of a serial connection on the motherboard I did see a plug that isnt beings used. does anyone have the specs on the motherboard or any serial pin outs? I want to JTAG it now because none of the fixes I have found work.

[infinite]

did you find a solution for this? bummed, exact same situation as you. tried all of your solutions (well not the usb bios yet). toasted mobo?
thanks for any advice!

[dashvandel]

I purchased a USB FDD and tyied all key combos nothing.

I went through hassel purchaseing BIOS replacement chips from EBAY I specified the excat model number, service tag etc etc the vender sent the wrong chip twice. I have no way of identifying the chip or chips

I cannot find a serial port to the board or and documents starting to get a little peaved here...

the threat about the "bricked mini 10" nothing worked, Im not giving up with out a fight I will continue to post my methods and results.

so far nothing yet