Issue with BIOS on Lenovo L480
Issue with BIOS on Lenovo L480
Hello everyone
I was a bit too careless and broke my laptop, so here’s what happened.
I had a Lenovo L480 with a forgotten power-on password. I tried to use an auto patch to fix it, but didn’t have a CH341A flasher. I bought one on AliExpress and wanted it quickly, so I used it with an Arduino.
Now here’s the issue:
I built the flasher myself, but it didn’t work. I thought maybe I needed to remove the BIOS chip. Unfortunately, while trying to do that, I accidentally took out another SMD component. When I tried to flash a BIOS chip from a dump, it broke and erased my chip. Eventually, I ended up using a CH341A locally for a bit more money. I searched various dumps, but none worked—my laptop only powered on for a split second before everything lit up. There’s a 1 MB chip file in some dumps, but I’m not sure if I need to flash that too.
Impatience frequently opens the door to greater complications than solutions. Right now, I believe your problem isn't related to the BIOS chip; it could be that you damaged the SMD component. I'm guessing here because you've only shared details of your situation. If you hadn't controlled the voltage with your Arduino, then yes, you likely destroyed the BIOS chip as well.
I will send you shametics that you found the board view and all the photos I have from that, and I can confirm that the bios chip is in the right place.
Edit: You are correct, next time I will make sure I have all the right tools and not just DIY something that is cheap but useful.
Here is a photo
Edit: I checked that section with a multimeter and it is connected to the SCP selector pin now. If I looked at it in schematic, it seems this part is connected to something on the board with a 0 ohm resistor. Don’t worry if it looks wrong.